Is TrumpSpace Just Another Journey To Nowhere?
Will Trump get a man to Mars?, Politico
“Even Trump’s space policy adviser for his campaign and transition says getting a man or woman on the face of Mars by 2024 is virtually impossible. “I don’t think you’ll get there [to Mars],” former Pennsylvania Rep. Bob Walker said in an interview about the possibilities under the Trump White House. “I do think that we will probably have a flight to the moon, an Apollo 8-type flight where you go up and go around the moon in a fairly short period of time.” A NASA official who served under former President Barack Obama shared Walker’s prediction. “I think things could go very well for going to the moon, which I think is more likely to be a Trump agenda,” said Lori Garver, Obama’s deputy NASA administrator. During his first six months in office, Trump has laid out an ambitious — if non-specific — space agenda.”
How Jonathan Dimock Auditioned To Be NASA White House Liaison, earlier post
“National Aeronautic Space Administration (NASA or Deep Space Exploration Administration or DSEA) -Aside from the fact this is based very heavily in science, there is also a large cry to reduce their $105.5b budget and even movements to roll our space program into DSEA. With the help of, and to the credit of, the administration there can be drastic cost cuttings for big wins for the administration.”
Lori Garver remains the most consistently astute observer of the space program in Washington. It’s unfortunate she did not get the chance to manage it. As to Priebus’ statement that we would put American boots on Mars, that can easily be accomplished, as long as it is just the boots we are concerned with.
My assessment of Ms. Garver matches your, but in this particular case she’s stating what everyone already knows.
Excepting, of course, that part of the population that has only recently learned, for instance, that France was America’s first international friend, or that being leader of the free world is quite more difficult than leasing your name.
(Sorry. I can’t help myself).
I’d be expecting as much success as anything else he’s been involved in.
I think it is. There is no interest in space (or any other) policy that I can see coming from the White House, it is all about image. And, any new NASA image that is not already there is way down the road. So, it is totally up to Congress, and they will no doubt keep the status quo, although within this President’s term there will likely be major realignments in “private space’s” accomplishments and potential accomplishments. If there is a push from the White House regarding space, it will only be the result of efforts from maybe Mike Pence, to see if they can drum up some support for the next elections. But really, I see no interest at all.
I’m sure the White House has great interest in taking credit for space-related successes. If “new” or “private” space is a success, I’m sure we’ll see a tweet about how this is just the sort of thing the President has been pushing to “make America great again.” Of course, I also remember a newspaper in New York describing itself as “the only good thing in the city [the mayor] hasn’t taken credit for.”
The best that the last administration could be credited with for a NASA policy was “benign neglect”. They left policy direction to Congress and things drifted for 8 years.
True, which is why the General gets so much criticism; constrained in certain areas, true, but he could have accomplished much.
I think the last administration was much worse than “benign neglect”! By cancelling Constellation and embracing the “flexible path”, they were then able to drift along with “neglect” for the remaining 7.5 years. Obama stated that the moon was too expensive (and anyway, been there done that!), then NASA immediately started talking about their “journey to mars”! Which never made any sense at all – if we can’t afford to go the moon, how can we expect to afford to go to mars?
“Is TrumpSpace Just Another Journey To Nowhere?”
No
“Will Trump get a man to Mars?”
Yes before 2024. Probably before 2021. Wait and see……
You have a bet.
I assume “before 2021” would mean before Mr. Trump leaves office (assuming he isn’t reelected.) So that would be on or before January 20, 2021. Curtesy of a nice NASA/Ames web page, it looks like that means a launch no later than August 19, 2020. So we’d have to be at L-1115 days.
Seriously, that’s the same launch window the Mars 2020 rover is going to use. NASA started working on that in 2013, and it’s based on the same basic design as Curiosity. A manned mission, even a flyby, with a 2020 launch date is as realistic and well-considered as, well, some of Mr. Trump’s tweets. Never mind. Forget I said anything…
Is there a technical term for a person who is never embarrassed?
Unshamable narcissist.
Sociopath.
Good choice. I just finished reading (hearing) a book on the subject, and the shoe fits.
Um, no. They ditched it because they were never given the money to do the job in the first place and it was poorly managed, over budget and behind schedule during one of the worst economic crises our country had seen in a generation. There is plenty of blame to go around on both sides of the aisle in politics, but to claim that Constellation lunar return was canceled “just because it was a Bush admin goal” is preposterous.
sighs … trump was right .. I am getting tired of all the “winning” …. lol
>The infamous “We’ve been there before” speech also speaks volumes.
I remember Obama said about adding additional $3B to NASA budget, do five year studies for a heavy lift launch vehicle and then decide proper course of action (I should find and watch ***entire*** speech before writing this). However, that phrase is what stuck in everyone’s mind and it has blocked out all other topics. Reminds me a management class gave example where company president said all kinds of stuff, but just one off-the-wall statement wiped out everything else.
Looking back the architecture chosen in 2005 had many issues and I still think reason nobody talks about the Moon except Spudis and Wingo is that means have to come up with money right now for a transit vehicle and lander right now. Mars can always defer 20 years into the future. Then there’s the $3 billion dollar meme (it’s always 20 years from now and value chosen for whatever NASA needs is $3B).
But then I really like to know the people that make the real decisions of what they really think.
Obama quickly realized that the 40 year old technology of Constellation/SLS would be unsustainable regardless of its claimed goal, rather like trying to fight WWII with the Wright Flyer. He cancelled Constellation, not least because the Orion had grown to heavy to actually be launched by the Ares I, and put the money into new programs in space technology and commercial crew. Congress overruled him and ordered NASA to, essentially, restart Constellation although, as before, they neglected to provide the funding needed for an actual Moon (or Mars) landing. Congress also strangled Commercial Crew until they realized it was the only program that was going somewhere, then they immediately took credit for it.
I want to make it clear that I do not “hate SLS”. I would love to see it fly. But too may unsustainable cost drivers have been frozen into the design. It’s time to face facts.