Adam Lawson

Constellation Nixed

Apparently confused by what exactly the words Aeronautics and Space mean, Obama wants to push to have NASA study climate change and forget all that astronaut nonsense:

When the White House releases his budget proposal Monday, there will be no money for the Constellation program that was supposed to return humans to the moon by 2020. The troubled and expensive Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with money for its bigger brother, the Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and supplies needed to take humans back to the moon.

There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases, no Constellation program at all.

…

In the meantime, the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on Earth-science projects — principally, researching and monitoring climate change — and on a new technology research and development program that will one day make human exploration of asteroids and the inner solar system possible.

One administration goon said “We certainly don’t need to go back to the moon,” later in the article.

I don’t know how to put this any clearer for all of you anti-space travel fuckers, but this is our future. We have to keep going. There is no alternative. We have to reach higher, go further, get out there. No one is going hungry because of space spending, no one is going uneducated because of it, no one is losing their job because we’re spending money on this. The amount of money given to NASA every year is a pittance.

But hey, at least the guy is finally keeping to a campaign promise.

He’s still not perfect, BUT…

I can dig this.  I always thought one of Bush’s greatest failings was that he never took up this banner.

Yes, it’s an increase in government spending.  But while we don’t know if stem cells will ever do us any good, and we know foreign aid money is doing zero good, we do know that one day the sun will die and so will anything still stuck on Earth.  Mars isn’t a cure for that, but it’s a step.  We have untold generations to take that step the sooner the better.   It’s been far too long since we’ve accomplished anything great in space — a cruddy space station that holds a few astronauts and has a broke toilet obviously isn’t inspiring anyone.

I want my moon base, too.

Godspeed Discovery.

And good luck.

I will be very sad when they retire the Space Shuttle in a few years.  Seeing that white bird on the launch pad, in the sun, is one of the most beautiful sights — and it fills me with patriotism and hope for the future.

Dear Sweet Crude…

For a long time now, a lot of us space geek have been frustrated with the lack of motivation our government has shown in getting us off this rock. Well, this ought to motivate some people. It certainly makes me want to go to the stars:

Saturn’s moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to a team of Johns Hopkins University scientists, adding to evidence that oil is not biological in origin.

That is a lot of energy. And there is no wildlife on Titan to protect. It’s just a great big oil find waiting on us to get the hell out there.