The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : NASA cash problem for Moon mission

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Monday, Aug 17, 2009
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NASA cash problem for Moon mission

Richard Luscombe

MIAMI: NASA's plans to land astronauts back on the Moon by 2020 are about to disappear into a giant black hole, according to a panel of space experts appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama.

Less than a month after the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's first lunar landing, the group told White House advisers on Friday that the space agency simply did not have enough money to do it again.

Without a significant increase in funding - unlikely with the federal deficit approaching $1.3 trillion - NASA will almost certainly have to scrap the next-generation Ares I rocket that has already cost more than $9 billion to develop.

The longer-term part of the agency's $81-billion Constellation project - to land humans on Mars by the middle of the century, touted by George Bush in his 2004 vision for space exploration - will remain in the realms of science fiction, at least for now. ``This is a big surprise,'' said Edward Ellegood, a space policy analyst at Florida's Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University. ``Up until this point NASA, privately at least, was confident that Constellation was a little behind schedule but on track. Now this changes everything. That it no longer fits within the budget is disturbing.''

The pessimistic outlook for comes from a panel of experts and former astronauts led by the retired Lockheed Martin chairman Norman Augustine and appointed by Mr. Obama to analyse NASA's spending and operations.

- c Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009

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