NASA Has Begun To Pivot From The Moon (Back) To Mars
At Users Advisory Group meeting today Marshall Smith Acting Dep Assoc Administrator @NASA Human Lunar Exploration Programs told participants that #NASA is going to "turn and burn" from the Moon to Mars. So much for going back to the Moon to stay – "sustainably" #Artemis #Moon2024 pic.twitter.com/unNvw0lGaU
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) July 24, 2019
Somebody hasn’t gotten the memo…
Unless NASAWatch is not giving an accurate summary of the comments, I guess people at NASA are just idiots.
Do we want to go to the Moon? Yes
Do we want to go to Mars? Yes
These are not mutually exclusive questions. Going to Mars does not require NASA to cease going to the Moon.
And how are they going to pay for any of this? Bake sale? Or maybe you are happy with any Mars work just coming up with great PowerPoint charts?
The problem is not the cost of going to the Moon and Mars. The problem is the cost of going to either one. Who is paying for the ticket? How will it provide practical value commensurate with the cost? The market for human spaceflight is very elastic with respect to price. We might be better off investing the money in developing new technology, particularly for launch, i.e. the Starship and similar efforts from Blue Origin which have the potential to reduce the cost of sending people into space.
There is an unhappy tendency in our market-crazy society to assess the desirability of any course of action with dollars.
Recently, for instance, and increasingly, we see various fields of study at higher levels assessed solely in terms of future earning power, leaving aside the happiness derived from a full education.
HSF is intrinsically desirable. And while cost is an important part of the mix, allowing a veto is foolish.
I think the idea is to keep moving the target so nothing is ever accomplished. They think they can play this shell game in perpetuity. This may have been true 30 years ago, but now that taxpayers are seeing private industry out accelerating NASA they are asking “why are we paying for this?”
I was going to say much the same thing; to keep sucking on the teat of Federal funding for years to come. Hi-tech jobs where very little is actually produced…
Well that would make sense since this guy came from SLS which is over budget and behind schedule. Shuffling the same thinking to a new target.
I would say that it is the fickle nature of leadership most responsible for the current debacle.
Here we go again….
‘Acting Deputy Associate Administrator’? Does this guy report to the janitor or something?
No, he’s much higher up on the org chart. On the other hand, when it comes to actual power to make someone’s life miserable, the janitor might have more. Air conditioning going out in the middle of summer, unfortunate delays repairing it, etc. Sometimes staying on the janitor’s good side is more important than what the Acting Deputy Associate Administrator thinks of you…
Some people at NASA and the Beltway need a reality check, for Heaven’s darn sake! NASA – and Elon Musk – are FAR from ready to go to Mars yet. Mars is a bridge too far at this point. America still hasn’t flown ‘Commercial Crew’ or a single complete Orion/SLS system yet – and yet they want to waffle on about Mars. And on a budget that wont get them NEAR the Red Planet at this point!! It’s almost as if failure IS an option, that it was being designed to be that way… Sigh 🙁
Different week, different leadership, different direction. At this rate NASA will go nowhere fast. Makes no sense moving someone from SLS which is over budget and behind schedule to lead the agency’s new high priority programs. The agency needs to fill these acting positions with some solid permanent leadership with a history of success and that are all on the same page as the Administrator as to the destination and timeline. If they don’t do it quickly before the “actors” mess up the progress already made, NASA will end up with another SLS or James Webb scenario anchoring them down along with confusing the people actually doing the work on the programs.
This should serve as a wake-up call to everyone who thought the Trump administration had a rational, coherent space policy.
I’d wait fifteen minutes or a few days for the next clarification from someone else. If NASA was going to do another pivot, wouldn’t it be at least at Bridenstine’s level to announce it?
Actually, it would have to be a decision by Mr. Pence or Mr. Trump. Going to the Moon, and going to the Moon by 2024, are presidential directives and/or orders from the National Space Council. Mr. Bridenstine can’t change that decision on his own hook. Of course, it’s possible Mr. Pence or Mr. Trump have made such a decision and not announced it yet. But then a Acting Deputy Associate Administrator could get in real trouble leaking the decision on his twitter account. (Yes, or someone could have told him to, as a trial balloon. But those are usually leaked with a little bit more anonymity.)
Here’s my open letter to NASA managers who can’t talk about going to the moon without saying “Mars” in the same breath: https://homerhickamblog.blo…
In their heart of hearts, I don’t think any NASA managers seriously believe we’re going to Mars anytime soon (well, except maybe the ones who only have business degrees). They’re just saying that out loud to placate Trump and keep their jobs.
They’d better placate the Vice President. Mr. Trump isn’t in charge of the space program. Mr. Pence is.
Pence is just another one of those individuals trying to placate Trump. He doesn’t have any real authority to make sweeping changes to the space program without the backing of Trump.
I agree 100% with everything you’ve said here. I think most everybody who watched or read The Martian has this Mars is easy fantasy in their minds. The Moon, as you point out, has enough unknowns about it to keep exploration parties busy for years.
In addition, exploring and exploiting the moon will give valuable lessons on how to solve the problems of long term living on Mars. You are correct I think that this will take decades to accomplish. This means we have to stop this get there in 5 years idea. Let’s figure out how to really explore space and develop the hardware and techniques for sustained operations.
Your points regarding the Herculean pre-Mars tasks that remain undefined and unsolved come to mind when I hear SX talking about Mars as well. We’ve heard next to nothing about how they are approaching those challenges.
A few hours ago I was at the EAA AirVenture listening to Mike Collins. He said that at the White House on the 20th when Trump asked him what NASA should be doing. He said Direct to Mars bypassing the Moon. You have to wonder if conflicting advice from people like Mike Collins helps trigger these schizophrenic messages that seem to change direction frequently.
It absolutely triggers mixed messages. Trump jumps on whatever he has heard most recently, especially from Apollo astronauts.
I haven’t seen much of anything about this on any other sites I visit. I’m going to assume there isn’t much to this story until I hear otherwise.