Funds for President George W. Bush’s plan to use the moon as a base for possible manned missions to Mars were cut by more than half next year in a bill approved by a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration would get $15.1 billion under the bill, which cuts $538 million from Bush’s plan to spend $910 million on the Mars proposal in the 2005 fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2004.
May 9th, 2004
NASA plans contests for space feats
What happens when worlds collide? NASA will find out next month
April 27th, 2004
Moon-Mars cost estimate is too high Florida Today
Mistaken as gospel and spread around the country by countless news outlets outside of Brevard County, an oft-quoted but flawed trillion-dollar cost estimate is coloring public opinion on President Bush’s plan to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020, and it’s swaying election-year political debates. A more realistic estimate: $229 billion over the next 16 years.
April 6th, 2004
Analysis: Congress warms to new space plan
In the 1983 movie, “The Right Stuff,” astronaut Gordo Cooper points toward a space capsule and asks a NASA scientist, “Do you know what makes this bird go up?” Cooper answers his own question: “Funding makes this bird go up!” At which point, astronaut Gus Grissom chimes in: “No bucks? No ‘Buck Rogers!'” That alleged conversation took place more than four decades ago, during the height of the space race with the Soviet Union. Today, the same refrain applies. Without funding from Congress, no U.S. spaceship will blast off for anywhere.
March 22nd, 2004
Op/Ed: In space, no one can hear you explain The Space Review
Overall, this should be a relatively good time for NASA. While the agency is still recovering from the Columbia accident last year and its aftermath, NASA has had its share of good news. Spirit and Opportunity, the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, are an unquestioned success, providing scientists with the strongest evidence to date that Mars once had liquid water, an essential condition for supporting life.
March 17th, 2004
Congress Not Ready to Jump on Mars Bandwagon Newhouse News Service
The prospect of sending astronauts to Mars poses scientific challenges, but just as daunting are the political and economic obstacles to fulfilling the dream of interplanetary travel. Two months after President Bush revealed his initiative to return to the moon and eventually travel to Mars, the idea is still floating in space, apparently lacking the political gravity to attract much congressional support.
March 11th, 2004
Op/Ed: Rocks in space or better schools? The Modesto Bee
I am amazed at how much money we are spending to send machines to space such as the Mars rovers. Scientists are studying a rock to see if there was once water on the planet at a cost of $820 million.
March 11th, 2004
Legislators debate merits of Mars mission The Daily Press
Some key lawmakers expressed reservations Wednesday about President Bush’s new space mission, questioning the cost and benefits of manned travel to the moon and Mars. Leaders of the House Science Committee said they were not yet prepared to endorse a plan when there are so many unanswered questions about its price tag, affordability and impact on NASA science and aeronautics programs.
March 10th, 2004
Mars mission draws budget fire EE Times
President George Bush’s ambitious space exploration initiative is getting mixed reviews in Congress as lawmakers sifting through details of a NASA spending plan question how to pay for a program that could cost between $30 million and $55 billion in its initial phase.
March 10th, 2004
Bush push to Mars may be slowed The Huntsville Times
Plans to return man to the moon, build advanced spacecraft and eventually land on Mars may be in trouble before the first spaceship blueprints are drafted, a top NASA official said during a meeting in Huntsville on Tuesday. Domestic needs and wartime spending might force Congress to delay funding for President Bush’s plan to return to the moon, NASA Comptroller Steve Isakowitz told members of the NASA Advisory Council, gathered at Marshall Space Flight Center for their quarterly meeting.