Keith’s note: NASA announced a new Mars nuclear rocket ship thing today. Note that neither the symbol “$” or the abbreviation “FY” appear anywhere. Apparently this has to do with sending humans to Mars without SLS which Bill Nelson now says won’t happen until the late 2030s. I guess the NASA PAO art department will now need to come up with yet another infographic on how/when we’ll send people to Mars – with the dates all pushed to the right of course. Ask yourself this – if NASA took more than a decade and billions in cost overruns just to use existing stuff to make SLS how confident are we that they can create something wholly new like a nuclear propulsion system on time and under budget? They say: “NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced Tuesday a collaboration to demonstrate a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space, an enabling capability for NASA crewed missions to Mars. NASA and DARPA will partner on the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO, program. The non-reimbursable agreement designed to benefit both agencies, outlines roles, responsibilities, and processes aimed at speeding up development efforts.” more

Keith’s 1 July update: According to NASA SMD: this is what SMD paid for the reception: “Planetary Program costs: $37.5K, which included the NASM facility rental, rental for chairs/stage/tables/etc, a/v, music, lighting and rigging, delivery, taxes.” That’s $37,500 that could have been spent on science. Instead, Ed Weiler spends it on a party. Keith’s 30 June update: According to the AAS: “AAS handled the reception, the costs of which were […]