This just in from our reporter Bart Jansen in Washington.
Sen. Bill Nelson urged President Barack Obama and NASA to set a goal of getting to Mars as senators lashed the agency chief Wednesday for proposing to end the Constellation rocket program that aimed to return to the moon and to Mars.
NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. said told a Senate Science subcommittee that he and the White House agreed with the goal of reaching Mars is “the ultimate destination.” But Bolden said he couldn’t set a date for that goal because research funded in the budget needs to find better propulsion and research longer-term space travel on people.
"We want to go to Mars," Bolden said. "We can't get there because we don’t have the technology."
The clash occurred at the first hearing on Obama's NASA budget released Feb. 1. The budget canceled the Constellation program, which NASA officials say those plans were unrealistic after being underfunded for years.
"We were living a hallucination," said Bolden, who said "vision without resources is a hallucination."
Obama proposed $6 billion more for NASA over the next five years, for a total of $100 billion. But Obama would spend $6 billion over that period to encourage commercial spaceflight. Obama also would boost research at the International Space Station, which he proposed to extend from 2015 to 2020.
Nelson, D-Fla., who has flown on the shuttle, said the budget "gave the perception the president was killing the manned space program" and that the administration needs to better explain its goals. He questioned how the budget could spend $7.8 billion over five years on developing technology and only $3.1 billion on developing a heavy-lift rocket.
"The goal is to get to Mars," said Nelson, who has flown on the shuttle. "The question is how do you do it?"
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., was much harsher. He criticized Deputy Administrator Lori Garver as the architect of the “radical” plan to abandon Constellation.
"We just fall off a cliff," Vitter said of the workforce dependent on Constellation. "I will fight this budget with every ounce of energy that I have."
Bolden defended Garver as a capable deputy who was misrepresented. Bolden and said budget decisions were made by him, Garver, the White House Office of Science and Techology Policy and the Office and Management and Budget.
Bolden said research in the budget would support robots that would test human trips to the moon and Mars. Research could also produce propulsion to cut the estimated eight-month travel time to Mars and reveal ways to deal with bone and muscle loss from long-term space travel, Bolden said.
"Mars is the ultimate destination for human exploration in our solar system," Bolden said.
But when Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla., asked who recommended canceling Constellation, Bolden said he couldn’t reveal that sort of discussion.
"I’m not at liberty to share with anybody," Bolden said.
LeMieux asked about extending the shuttle beyond its retirement later this year. But Bolden said he wouldn’t recommend it because of the cost and safety concerns.
"That is something I would not recommend to the president," Bolden said. "There is little value in trying to stretch the shuttle until we have the commercial capability to get to low-earth orbit."
LeMieux said providing the agency’s proposed funding without a plan concerned him. Bolden replied that a plan for travel to the moon, asteroids and Mars would be developed within months rather than years.
"We’ll develop a plan over the coming months,” Bolden said. “I’m not capable of giving you a complete plan on how we get deeper into the solar system."
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
6 comments:
When I first heard Bolden was chosen to run NASA, I was very excited. Having a person who has flown on the shuttle and knows NASA from the inside was a great thing. Now, I wish we had Goldin back, believe it or not. Bolden has no vision. He wants to kill the shuttle and kill Constellation, but has nothing beyond that except double-talk rhetoric. There is no vision. There is no plan. To think things will just fall into place to go to Mars is ridiculous. Obama and Bolden are in kahoots to kill the American manned space program. They want to blame other people and get a thrill out of wiping the slate clean and put their own ideas forward. The problem is, these ideas couldn't hold a drop of water.
I have absolutely no confidence in this administration or commissioner.
Mark Lopa wrote:
"Bolden has no vision. He wants to kill the shuttle and kill Constellation, but has nothing beyond that except double-talk rhetoric. There is no vision. There is no plan. To think things will just fall into place to go to Mars is ridiculous."
Boy, did you get things wrong.
Bolden did not kill Shuttle. President Bush did, in January 2004. That was over six years ago. Did you complain about it any time before now?
As for Constellation, the non-partisan Augustine Report found that Constellation was over budget, behind schedule and badly managed. It wasn't going to launch a lunar mission until at least 2028, if ever. Constellation was a jobs program, nothing more.
You're also wrong when you claim there's no vision or plan. It's right on NASA's web site at:
www.nasa.gov/news/budget/
As Bolden said, it's great to go to Mars but we don't have the technology to do it. That's why Obama increased the NASA budget by $6 billion over the next five years, to jump-start the technology necessary to go to Mars rather than trying to recycle obsolete technology which is what Constellation was.
Bolden is merely a puppet for Obama. I only see Engineers shaking their heads when his name is mentioned. Obama lied to us all about his intentions regarding the space program and our area.
The poor planning is incomprehensible. Let's kill our manned programs and cede leadership to the Russians and Chinese. The big new plan with no destination.
How many of you would sell your house and move out without having another home to move into? Would you have an organ transplant and not have a replacement lined up? Why then would we not transition into another launch vehicle?
Very sorry I voted for O'bummer.
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of developing a powerful new hydrocarbon rocket engine"
Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?
It's no way to run a space program. Obama has dithered for a year to come up with this, and Congress will be fighting it for months at least. Three years from now. there may well be a different President with different ideas. It takes longer than a four year term to do anything meaningful in space.
WordsmithFL, Bush proposed killing the shuttle and yes, I complained about it then. Obama could have saved it and isn't. In essence, Bush put a hit on the shuttle program, and Obama is carrying it out. Make sense?
Also, if NASA put on its website that Earth was the center of the universe, would you believe it? Just because NASA says something, doesn't mean it's true. Do you really think they would say, "we have no vision?" You need to take the blinders off, my friend.
bolden is a puppet to obama this is clear obamas only thought is health care thanks to all you who voted him in office now you see what change your getting
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