back to article US gov cash slash threatens manned trips to asteroids and Mars

NASA overcame the glitches that plagued the SpaceX Dragon's most recent berthing with the International Space Station - but it still has other worries, according to the space agency's administrator Charles Bolden. Artist's impression of a manned mission to Mars Plenty of sun, sea and sulphur here on Mars Bolden has said …

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  1. Thomas 4
    FAIL

    Bah

    We've got no money to send rockets to other worlds but we've still got plenty of cash to send them slamming into other countries.

    1. Anonymous Custard

      Re: Bah

      You have to wonder if things may have been a bit different if the recent Chelyabinsk meteorite had air-bursted over the US rather than over Russia.

      Or is that still too subtle a wake-up call that the Solar System is still a shooting gallery at times whilst we're orbitting around in it?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bah@Thomas 4

      "no money to send rockets to other worlds but we've still got plenty of cash to send them slamming into other countries"

      Maybe. But the US defence budget will take a $46bn cut from the sequestration compared to $1.5bn cut from NASA's budgets. In proportionate terms the cuts are about the same.

      1. Thomas 4

        Re: Bah@Thomas 4

        True but just imagine how much more *useful* it would be to take that $46bn cut from the military and give it to Nasa.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Bah@Thomas 4

          "imagine how much more *useful* it would be to take that $46bn cut from the military and give it to Nasa"

          Useful? Only in the longest term definition of useful. If NASA sent a mission to Mars, or even the next nearest star, how much use would you or I get from that? Obviously if the human race wants to get off this rock before we get fried then we need to start somewhere, but in terms of both theoretical and applied research, I'd guess that you get rather more benefit from military R&D than from NASA's paltry budget. In fact DoD R&D spending is reported at around $73bn a year, so already more than three times the entire NASA budget.

          There's an argument that cutting $46bn on defence might stop US presidents from conducting wars on poor foreigners, but that rather overlooks the fact that the DoD still have a $650bn budget after sequestration, in order of magnitude similr to the entire GDP of Turkey, Switzerland or Saudi Arabia.

          1. Crisp

            Re: how much use would you or I get from that?

            Probably about the same amount of use as the Apollo program. In other words... A lot.

          2. MD Rackham

            Re: how much use would you or I get from that?

            Because what you or I get out of it is the sole measure of anything's usefulness.

            Let me guess, you consider yourself a libertarian, right?

            1. Anonymous Coward
              FAIL

              Re: how much use @MD Rackham

              "Let me guess, you consider yourself a libertarian, right?"

              No, but what I consider myself has little to do with the debate. You could try sticking on topic, and contributing, instead of attempting some irrelevant labelling, that I presume you consider some form of insult?

          3. Grave

            Re: Bah@Thomas 4

            nsol probes to closest star system, contact with more advanced civilizations:

            best case scenario - our technology jumps several orders of magnitude if they are peaceful and benevolent

            worst case scenrario - we get wiped out or enslaved if they are malevolent

    3. asdf
      Coat

      Re: Bah

      George Carlin: This country is only two hundred years old, and already we've had ten major wars. We average a major war every twenty years in this country. So we're good at it!

      George Carlin: And it's a good thing we are. Can't build a decent car, can't build a TV or a VCR worth a fuck. Got no steel industry left, can't educate our young people, can't get health care to our old people. But we can bomb the shit out of your country, all right!

      George Carlin: We can bomb the shit out of your country, all right! Especially if your country is full of brown people. That's what we're good at, bombing brown people. Can you remember the last white people we bombed? Can you remember *any* white people we've ever bombed? The Germans! Those are the only ones, and that's only because they were trying to cut in on our action. They wanted to dominate the world. Bullshit, that's *our* fucking job!

      George Carlin: That's our fucking job!

      George Carlin: Jammin' in New York (1992) - still largely applicable today.

      1. Anonymous Custard

        Re: Bah

        George Carlin: And it's a good thing we are. Can't build a decent car, can't build a TV or a VCR worth a fuck. Got no steel industry left, can't educate our young people, can't get health care to our old people. But we can bomb the shit out of your country, all right!

        He could almost have been talking about the UK as well, except we've not even been able to do the last bit for the last 70-odd years or so.

  2. Pen-y-gors

    One does begin to wonder

    whether the politicians in the US Congress are perhaps a bit of a waste of oxygen?

    and to be fair, and not at all biased, possibly the same could be said of the politicians in Britain, Italy, Greece, Spain, Ireland and [insert country of choice]...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: One does begin to wonder

      "and [insert country of choice]..."

      Wales?

  3. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Facepalm

    World + Dog complains: I need more greenbacks

    > $85bn worth of cuts that would be painful to both sides

    HAHAHA ... SNORT!!

  4. Evil Auditor Silver badge

    Re manned mission to an asteroid

    "...plans to send people to an asteroid by 2025..."

    Just wondering, is it also part of this plan to have drilling experts among the crew?

  5. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    A note on the NASA budget. It's c 0.5% of the US GDP & < 1/2 the DoD aircon bill.

    You have to wonder is it worth cutting?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A note on the NASA budget. It's c 0.5% of the US GDP & < 1/2 the DoD aircon bill.

      Your statement suggests that the DoD aircon budget exceeds 1% of US GDP.

      How do you work that out, given that the entire manpower, fuel, equipment and ordinance budget is only 5% of GDP?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bull

    Those trips were only announced to score political points anyways. Anybody that believed it was a fool.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "NASA overcame the glitches that plagued the SpaceX Dragon's most recent berthing with the International Space Station"

    Didn't SpaceX overcome the glitches?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Cuts have to start somewhere.....

    Sad, but the fact is that the feds have to get spending under control, and NASA will have to do its share in that effort. I am not a Republican, but the federal government can't go on spending $1 for every 60-70 cents it takes in. Sequestration is a bad way to do these cuts, but the lack of mutual trust between the two parties in DC means that they can't reach a more rational and considered agreement--so across-the-board cuts are the game for now.

    1. Rattus Rattus

      Re: Cuts have to start somewhere.....

      Or maybe the solution is not to cut spending but increase revenue by tightening up the laws that allow the wealthy and large corporations to avoid paying 99.9% of the tax they should be paying?

  9. Steve Knox
    FAIL

    So you've never played chicken, then.

    But stubborn Congress members won the game of "deficit chicken" when it kicked in on Friday.

    No, everyone lost. You only win in chicken when someone finally moves. When nobody moves, nobody wins.

    1. asdf

      Re: So you've never played chicken, then.

      >When nobody moves, nobody wins.

      And worst yet considering it was usually two cars coming at each other another loser is the cops cleaning up the scene with bleach praying the nightmares don't come.

      1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
        Meh

        Re: So you've never played chicken, then.

        "And worst yet considering it was usually two cars coming at each other another loser is the cops cleaning up the scene with bleach praying the nightmares don't come."

        OTOH

        Were these to be pairs of Congresspeople the result would be across the board openings for new blood as they mass auto Darwinate.

        Hopefully they would be a bit more amenable to negotiation.

    2. Bounty

      Re: So you've never played chicken, then.

      It actually depends on why you're playing chicken and what your risk is. Not all games of chicken are "fair." Are you driving the expensive sports car, or the beat up older family sedan with full insurance?

  10. Mikel
    Unhappy

    Drama queens, the lot of them

    They want to appear important so they have to have these big dramatic budget blowups over trillions of dollars happen several times a year. Every year it has to get worse so they can go back to their constituents and say "we're fighting harder for you than ever before!" Then both sides point to the utter unreasonableness of the other side - when this deadlock is a deliberate part of the plan of both sides to increase dramatic tension. It's utter nonsense.

    They're like five year olds.

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