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According to a Time article, Obama's latest budget proposal would provide over $100 billion in funding to NASA, but does not allocate any of it to continue the Ares rocket testing through the Constellation-project which was geared toward a 21st century lunar landing and eventually Mars. Projects the $100 billion would be allocated for include extending the life of the ISS (International Space Station), better robotics, new flight techniques, and unmanned spacecraft. I'm curious what our readers think about the NASA funding issues raised. Think the priorities are rightly allocated? Should NASA depend on Russia or the private sector to get astronauts to the ISS for the foreseeable future? An was the Constellation-project going to be worth it anyways?

The initiative, for now at least, is more about what NASA plans to cancel than what it plans to pursue. The six-year-old Constellation program, which had been focused on developing new boosters, Apollo-like orbiters and a 21st century lunar lander, all with the goal of making long-term stays on the moon possible, will be scrapped, after $9 billion and a single flight of the Ares 1 booster last October. The longer-term goal of venturing out to Mars is being tabled along with it.

Time.com

I hope this is wrong... We can't lose the lead in space!

I have mixed feelings on this. While I would love to see space colonization a reality, I doubt I'll see it in my lifetime anyway. They're switching to more practical technologies that have a higher chance of returning a profit, at least in a more timely manner.

hark wrote:I have mixed feelings on this. While I would love to see space colonization a reality, I doubt I'll see it in my lifetime anyway. They're switching to more practical technologies that have a higher chance of returning a profit, at least in a more timely manner.

Those are my thoughts exactly... while it would be awesome to have a moon base, is it really feasible with current technology? I just don't think we're there yet. Give it another 30-40 years and we should be closer.

CNN's article on the matter provides both sides of the situation in a more well-rounded article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/space/02/0 ... tml?hpt=C2