In 2004 NASA Was Told To Have People On The Moon By 2015
Findings from the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group Final, 19 December 2019
“At the 6th meeting of the National Space Council, the following recommendation was adopted: “Within 60 days, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator will designate an office and submit a plan to the Chairman of the National Space Council for sustainable lunar surface exploration and development, including necessary technologies and capabilities, to enable initial human missions to Mars.”
– Where Is NASA’s Plan For Sustainable Moon/Mars Exploration? (Update), earlier post
“I asked Jim Bridenstine today if this report has been delivered. He replied that it has not.”
President Bush Offers New Vision For NASA, 14 January 2004
“Our third goal,” Bush said, “is to return to the moon by 2020, as the launching point for missions beyond.” He proposed sending robotic probes to the lunar surface by 2008, with a human mission as early as 2015, “with the goal of living and working there for increasingly extended periods of time.” Bush said lunar exploration could lead to new technologies or the harvesting of raw materials that might be turned into rocket fuel or breathable air.”
Keith’s note: 16 years ago this month NASA was directed by a President to have Americans back on the Moon by 2015. It is now 2020 – and we’re not there yet. NASA has now been tasked by another President to move up plans for a 2028 human landing to 2024. After 16 years we are still going to be 9 (13) years late. Are we actually making progress? At this rate …
– GAO: NASA Will Have Problems Explaining Its Moon Plans, earlier post
– NASA Really Really Needs An Artemis Plan – Soon, earlier post
It makes sense that they failed to reach it, though. Plan or no plan, there just wasn’t really much money for any human spaceflight program as long as ISS was active.
No bucks…no bases.
As usual, the old “No Bucks, no Buck Rogers” trope gets trotted out. After nearly 40 years working for NASA I’ve come to the conclusion that NASA is simply not up to the task, and it’s not because Congress won’t give them enough money. How many times now has NASA received marching orders to go back to the Moon? I’ve lost count. At what point does it cease to be the fault of the politicians when NASA keeps failing to bring these projects to fruition? An even mildly creative management should’ve been able to put something together within the budgets we did have. I led a couple of conceptual design studies that showed this to be the case. Sorry, but NASA itself is largely to blame for this sorry track record. For God’s sake, look what Elon Musk is doing with Starship, and he’s not even violating the laws of physics in the process.
It may be a “trope”, but sufficient funds were never authorized back then to pay for concurrent ISS ops and a manned lunar program. The political will at the legislative level just wasn’t there.
I am no fan of NASA management and agree that they were and are their own worst enemy.
Personally, I believe that Musk and co. are indeed the future; however this does not preclude my previous observation.
How can you blame NASA for a program like Constellation getting cancelled by a new presidential administration just a few years after it started?
The US Space Command thought my tweet with a link to this post was worth retweeting. Hmm … https://twitter.com/US_Spac…
The major problem was picking a NASA Administrator who insisted on using recycled Shuttle technology to build new rockets instead of using the existing ones and focusing on developing payloads for them.
I do not like the 47 year gap in US manned Moon missions.
But place the blame where the blame needs to be placed.
As Alan Shepard put it so well, Without the Bucks, there is no Buck Rogers. The blame is with Congress, and its lack of funding the US return to the Moon.
2024 is not possible with NASA’s current funding, period. Yes NASA has the Block 1 SLS, and Orion; a combination that can just barely get Orion in orbit around the Moon. NASA today lacks a Lunar Lander and a Lunar Habitat. But also NASA lacks the Block 2 SLS that has the required lift capacity to do a Moon mission that lasts two weeks at a time. Block 1B will only be capable or repeating Apollo style 72 hour max visits.
But we all know, US Astronauts will not be going to the Moon via SLS, because at 3 billion plus per flight, NASA can not afford it.
Yep. And Nope.
$20 Billion a year is a sufficient amount to implement a cohesive space policy.
Looking to Congress for policy leadership is what created the STS + SLS extravaganza; all it does is strengthen fiefdoms created by a policy vacuum*. And that vacuum was created in the West Wing.
The budget is too small to really matter in the Scheme of Things; but it is plenty big when throwing around pork and making deals.
Any questions?
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* “policy vacuum” : can a person actually create a vacuum? LOL.