It’s a good start, but will Obama come out and say he will continue the billion dollar increases for the next 2 years? And make good on the funding Bush did not… I would like to hear something that also speaks of the future funding and not just this years.

$1 billion is $400 million more than what NASA’s budget would need to meet the Augustine Committee goal of a $3 billion increase by the end of the budget runout.

Adding more than the Augustine Committee target is hardly “token”.

“The Europe+Canada+Japan involvement in a lunar lander + modules goes against Augustine’s recommendationt to scrap Lunar exploraton.”

There is no such recommendation in the final report of the Augustine Committee. The report includes Moon First options, as well as Flexible Path options that incorporate lunar landings.

Read the sources. Don’t make stuff up and spread lies.

Lawdy…

The Europe+Canada+Japan involvement in a lunar lander + modules goes against Augustine’s recommendationt to scrap Lunar exploraton.
At least that is promising. The E+C+J moon HW proposal would also work for Ares 1+V.

I would like to give Obama the benifit of the doubt, although he has been so slow at making decisions, that it is becoming a fairly painful process.

I was around when JFK made his moon speech and remember what the times were like. The mood was worse than now, partly because of the nuclear war threats. Those of you not alive during that era have no idea how deep the fear was. And we are all in much better shape than back then.

Prepare to be surprised

Seriously

Hopefully, he’ll make the right decision and return us to the Moon with the fastest and cheapest architecture to develop– the Sidemount Shuttle.

Robert,
Could it be that if Obama does go Kennedy-esk on us, say to, God forbid, I can’t believe I’m typing this, Mars….that it would act as a diversion from his other troubles?..

no. or “Nah” as you say! (grin)

Someone who is unemployed, who is having trouble finding work because there are fewer and fewer jobs that pay a middle class or someone who is worried that the next paycheck is their last one…or someone who is having trouble with health care is going to say “Wow Obama cant fix that but he is going to crank up billions to go to Mars or go back to the Moon or do (insert something) so my life is OK?”

not to you, but anyone who thinks that in this day and age is not following events out in, what my friend Brian calls “the colonies”.

The reason Obama’s numbers are sinking if you look very carefully at the polls cross tabs is that the American people are growing afraid that he is not up to the job. Going to Mars is not going to prove he is.

Robert g. Oler

Well, it seems that the lesson of the last five years was that a single major several month study wasn’t enough. With an agency leader who likely seeded that study to grow an architecture that he wanted, and commissioned an implementation study (Aldridge report) that he ended up ignoring, we ended up with a plan that is technically viable (as per Augustine committee) but also unexecutable with the real dollar investments that come to bear.

If I were Obama, I’d be VERY careful, and I’m gratified that he seems to want to be careful.

The Augustine committee properly provided options, not recommendations. ESAS provided only the latter. When you’ve got options, you have something to sink your teeth into, and you do that tooth sinking before you start cutting metal. So given that we’re not going anywhere for a decade, I’d be happy to see some more careful investment of thought in what to do with my dollars. I’m not too happy with where my dollars have gone thus far. Let the tooth sinking begin.

If China ends up beating us to take the first digital pictures of the footprints we left on the Moon forty years ago, and mining the first scoop of presently unusable He3, so be it. A vial of He3 is going to be fairly unimpressive in a museum, though. You know, it would be one of those look, but can’t touch deals.

The idea of using the human space flight program as a distraction for the American public is indeed an interesting one. I suspect that Obama won’t be able to pull that off, though. The idea of a measured but ambitious space policy, with no stupid arbitrary deadlines, is what is needed to assure the most important ingredient of a successful space program — sustainability. I suspect he is capable of making that happen.

Nah. He wants to be as informed as possible before making a decision. Not very presidential, but very bookish and nerdy.