We recently took a look at the options to be presented to President Barack Obama by the Human Space Flight Committee.You can check out a chart comparing the cost, destinations and economic impact of the current program, a budget-crunched version of the current program and three alternate options that the committee has said it will present to the president.
Click here to open a PDF of the full-page graphic from today's newspaper. You can also click the image of the chart above.
You can also read the accompanying story here.
And, as always, we'd love to know what you think. Click comment below to weigh in with your own opinion.
4 comments:
Scenario 4 is the way to go. Keep the shuttles flying until 2015, save more jobs, and keep Americans flying on American vehicles. Dumping the ISS in 2016, after spending so much time building it, is ridiculous. We could take that time to think of a launch vehicle worthy of our technology and inginuty...not Apollo on Steriods.
I agree with you, Mark. I just amazes me that in all the talk about funding our space program, no one ever bothers to bring up an important fact - if Obama can have a porkulous spending program that funds pig odor and fish genome research, why is it so hard to find money to save existing jobs and keep our country on the leading edge of space exploration?
The Aries program is also a good idea because we do need to think about an eventual replacement for the shuttle. And, as I said, if there's money for the Democrat's garbage, there's money for both programs to run at the same time.
Ok mark you go away and design a better pysical shape for an entry capule than the orion!.The laws of physics must be obeyed,and thats the best shape the apollo engineers could ever concieve of, no one can better it .
None of these options are worth doodly-squat. The panel, unfortunately, got hung up in this multi-billion-dollar battle for the golden goose(s): the next-generation U.S. launch vehicle(s).
My two cents: Pick a plan. Stick with it. And above all, fund it.
We should have never, ever given up the propulsive capability to launch astronauts beyond Earth orbit, and we're still paying all these years later for the short-sighted decision to kill the Saturn V rocket.
Pick a plan. Stick with it. And above all else, fund it.
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