President Bush’s proposed budget for NASA for 2009 would increase funding to the agency by 1.7% to $17.614 billion. That’s a lot of money. The percentage increase would be less than the expected inflationary rate of 2.3%. I think the rate of inflation for research institutes will be larger than that, but we’ll see how it turns out. This budget keeps the Orion spacecraft and Ares 1 rocket programs more or less on track for their March 2015 debut flight. I love progress in the sciences and space development, but I still doubt the flight will occur then.
Interestingly, the Earth Science budget would increase to $1.37 billion. That should allow NASA to begin two new Earth science missions out of five they want to launch. This is where NASA needs to be focused. My opinion of LEO missions has shifted: I think it should be left to private industry to continue development in this region. NASA should really refocus its efforts to ensure exploration of Mars and the Moon occurs. The planned Mars Sample Return mission is scheduled for a 2020 launch, which is a joke. Unfortunately, the remainder of the Earth’s space-faring countries focus on the Moon is affecting Mars plans. I believe Mars has more to offer us in the long term than the Moon, especially from a taxpayer funded point of view. Push the envelope. Assist in Moon exploration and development, but don’t let it be the stumbling block I can see it becoming.
The space shuttle Atlantis successfully launched yesterday, carrying the European built lab Columbus to the International Space Station. Seven years ago, Atlantis also launched the U.S. science lab Destiny to the ISS. NASA has five more shuttle launches tentatively scheduled this year. Atlantis is slated for a Hubble service mission this summer, and then should be retired from service after 30 flights. We’re just over 2.5 years away from absolute shuttle retirement. I’m wondering if that will actually occur. As I mentioned above, the next spacecraft being developed won’t fly for the first time until 2015. Five years of no flights by U.S. spacecraft might not work out so well. With our current administration’s bellicose attitude toward the rest of the world, it will take some work by the next president to improve relations so that the ISS is fully utilized.
NASA’s Deep Impact Mission is now looking at 5 nearby exoplanet solar systems for Earth-sized planets. Here is a cool resource to examine all the currently known exoplanets: New Worlds Atlas. The most recently found planet was on January 8th. Pretty freaking cool.
