A sobering planetary exploration plan

March 8, 2011 at 7:42 am · Filed under NASA

The good news: planetary scientists have come up with a fascinating list of missions they have identified as their top priorities for the coming decade. The bad news: there may not be any money for the most ambitious of those proposed missions.

Late Monday the National Research Council released the Planetary Science Decadal Survey, a study identifying the highest priority missions for the study of the solar system during the 2013-2022. The missions are divided into various classes based on their cost, with flagship missions as the most expensive. The survey picked the Mars Astrobiology Explorer Cacher (MAX-C), a rover designed to collect samples for return to Earth on a later mission, as the top priority flagship mission. It was closely followed by the Jupiter Europa Orbiter (JEO), a mission to study the icy Jovian moon Europa. Following JEO is a Uranus Orbiter and Probe mission, and then concepts for a Venus Climate Mission and an orbiter to Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

Those recommendations, though, are not without significant caveats. Noting the cost growth experienced by many NASA missions in past years, this survey tapped the Aerospace Corporation to perform independent cost analyses. Thus, its recommendation for MAX-C is only valid if the mission is “dramatically descoped,” in the words of Steve Squyres, chair of the survey committee, during a presentation Monday night at the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference in Houston. The survey recommends MAX-C only if $1 billion can be cut from the independent estimate of $3.5 billion. Likewise, JEO is recommended only if it is “substantially descoped”, according to Squyres, as its cost estimate is $4.7 billion.

Exacerbating the problem is the projected NASA budget for planetary science. When the survey was putting together its plan over the last year, it was working off budget projections from the FY2011 NASA budget proposal, which showed modest growth for planetary science programs through 2015: from $1.49 billion in the FY11 proposal to $1.65 billion by FY15. The FY12 proposal, though, is very different: while the outyears projections are “notional”, they show declining budgets: from $1.54 billion in FY12 to less than $1.26 billion by FY16.

“If that budget were actually implemented,” Squyres said of the FY12 proposal, “it would mean the end of flagship-class science at NASA in the planetary program.” Squyres had previously explained that the committee had put in “decision rules” into their report if funding fell below their earlier projections, with flagship missions the first to be cut in order to protect smaller, more frequent missions under the Discovery and New Frontiers programs. “If we get into a program where the only missions we are flying are flagships that return data in 10 years or 15 years, or get samples back in 20 years, that leads to an unacceptable stagnation of our program,” he explained. “We must preserve Discovery, we must preserve New Frontiers, so the first thing to go after are the flagships.”

Squyres, though, was unwilling to concede the loss of those flagship missions, calling on planetary scientists and other advocates to contact their members of Congress. “Those of us who care about planetary exploration have not just the right but I believe the obligation to speak to our congressional representatives about the planetary budget and to make it very clear what program we would like to see,” he said. He added he briefed staffers on the House and Senate appropriations committees last week about the survey. “One message that I got from them loud and clear is that they do support planetary exploration and see this as one of the great things this nation can do… But the question that they asked me is, ‘where is your community?’”

“That has to change,” Squyres said.

Comments (56)

More details about Senate’s proposed FY11 CR for NASA

March 8, 2011 at 6:42 am · Filed under Congress, NASA

The Senate Appropriations Committee has released the full text of its proposed full-year continuing resolution (CR) for 2011, one that funds NASA at just over $18.5 billion. The table below compares the Senate’s proposal with what the House passed last month (amounts in millions of dollars, subject to rounding and other errors):

The Senate CR explicitly states that in the Exploration account, $1.2 billion will go to the “Orion multipurpose crew vehicle”, while $1.8 billion would go to the heavy-lift launch vehicle, specifying a minimum payload capability of 130 tons. The Senate CR also includes language rescinding the prohibition on terminating any elements of Constellation.

Comments (20)

Senate proposes $18.5B CR for NASA, takes aim at space technology

March 5, 2011 at 9:34 am · Filed under Congress, NASA

The Senate Appropriations Committee released on Friday highlights of its proposed continuing resolution (CR) for the remainder of FY2011, a response to the House version, HR 1, that passed last month. Under the Senate bill NASA would get $18.539 billion, $461 million less than the $19 billion requested by the administration over a year ago and later authorized by Congress in the NASA authorization act. That amount, though, is $412 million more than what the House provided for NASA in HR 1, the release notes ($298 million of the difference is the amendment approved by the House to transfer money from NASA’s Cross Agency Support account to a community policing program within the Justice Department.)

Breakdowns by account are not included in the release, although it appears that space technology will bear the brunt of the Senate’s proposed cut. “At this level, NASA will not be provided any funds for requested but new long-range space technology research activities that have the potential to lead to new discoveries and new technologies that could improve life on Earth,” the committee release notes. A separate release by the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) subcommittee also states that the proposed CR “Does not provide for requested, but new, long-range space technology research activities.” The administration had requested $572.2 million for Space Technology in its original FY11 budget request and the authorization act approved $350 million for Space Technology.

Other key NASA programs would not be as adversely affected by the Senate’s proposal. The CJS subcommittee release states that the budget “Preserves NASA portfolio balanced among science, aeronautics, technology and human space flight investments, holding NASA’s feet to the fire to build the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle and the heavy lift Space Launch System.” And the full committee release, apparently referring to funding for Cross Agency Support, notes that it avoids cuts “that would disrupt ongoing science missions and cause layoffs of 4,500 middle class contractors who provide landscaping, IT, janitorial, and other services for NASA centers.” Janitors, yes; gamechanging technology, not so much.

Comments (97)

More questions about NASA priorities

March 4, 2011 at 11:00 am · Filed under Congress, NASA

For the second day in a row, NASA administrator Charles Bolden made the trip to Capitol Hill to discuss the agency’s FY2012 budget request, this time to members of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. During the lengthy hearing (nearly three and a half hours, without breaks) members again quizzed Bolden on the agency’s priorities in an era when the agency’s fiscal resources may be mismatched to its plans.

“Last year at this time we were in the early stages of what turned out to be a very lengthy, contentious debate about the future direction of NASA’s human spaceflight program,” subcommittee chairman Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) said in his opening statement. The passage of the NASA authorization act last year was supposed to end that debate, but now, he said, the question is whether NASA can implement the act. “No amount of authorizing language can hold NASA to a particular goal or commitment if that language isn’t backed up by the budget.” He added that the funding levels in the FY12 budget for the Space Launch System (SLS) and Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) “virtually guarantee that NASA won’t have core launch and crew capabilities in place by 2016,” the deadline in the authorization act.

Bolden repeated previous statements that NASA was funding all the programs included in the authorization act, but that the agency had to make “some difficult choices” because of the current fiscal environment. “Reductions were necessary in some areas so that we can invest in the future while living within our means.” He reiterated this during questioning by Wolf, saying that when the agency’s FY11 budget proposal was submitted just 13 months ago “the world was different, and our fiscal situation was really different.” Bolden said NASA put its highest priority on spending on safely flying out the shuttle, followed by providing safe access to the ISS over the next decade through commercial cargo and crew programs. “If we lose the International Space Station, we’re dead in the water” in therms of future human space exploration plans, he said later in the hearing.

Nonetheless, committee members sought to find ways to adjust those choices in spending priorities. Several asked about potential duplication of Earth sciences work between NASA other agencies, such as NOAA and USGS; Bolden said that there was no evidence of such duplication, citing a October 2009 GAO report that found no evidence of duplication of NASA programs with those of other agencies. Later, asked about any excess or underutilized properties that NASA could sell to raise money, Bolden said that a facilities master plan is being updated to identify such properties.

Committee members did promise some relief in one area, though: the 2010 appropriations language that prevents NASA from terminating any element of Constellation, even those not aligned with the new direction given in the authorization act. “One thing I hope we can do is to, in one of the short-term CRs we’re dealing with, is get you some immediate clarification on that,” Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) said.

Bolden tried to walk a fine line in regards to current spending tied to Constellation programs, as members of Congress cited a report from NASA’s Inspector General (IG) earlier this year warning of wasted spending. “I disagree that we are wasting money,” he said, saying that they have tried to focus spending on those programs on efforts that could be applicable to future efforts, but made it clear he wants the language removed. “I do agree with the IG that [with] the soon-as-possible relief from the restriction of terminating the Constellation programs, the better off we’d be.”

Wolf also said he would work to preserve a provision in the HR 1 spending bill for FY11 the House passed last month that would prevent NASA and OSTP from spending any money on cooperation with China. Later in the hearing Wolf spoke for several minutes about Chinese human rights abuses, and went so far as to predict that the Chinese government would fall in a democratic uprising like those taking place in the Middle East. “I will fight to the death for this language,” he said.

Late in the hearing, Culberson asked about the planetary sciences Decadal Survey, scheduled for release late Monday, and whether NASA had funding to support top missions identified in the survey. He was making a push in particular for a Europa Orbiter mission, a mission identified in the last survey and, he believes, will be a top priority in the new survey. Bolden said they agency will look at the missions identified in the survey and see how they match up with projected funding. (A Space News article published after the hearing, though, suggests funding for a Europa mission will be hard to come by given current budget projections.)

One minor bit of news that Bolden made at the hearing regarded the disposition of the shuttle orbiters once the fleet is retired. Asked about this by Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA), the ranking member of the full committee, Bolden said NASA was planning to make an announcement on April 12, the 30th anniversary of the launch of STS-1. (Dicks also used his question to play up the bid by Seattle’s Museum of Flight; another subcommittee member, Rep. Steve Austria (R-OH), made a pitch for the Museum of the Air Force in Dayton.)

Comments (58)

A question of priorities

March 3, 2011 at 7:25 am · Filed under Congress, NASA

NASA administrator Charles Bolden made his first visit to Capitol Hill Wednesday to defend the FY2012 budget request, encountering criticism of the proposal from some members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. Members such as committee chairman Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) criticized a budget proposal that did not align with the authorization act, with more funding than expected for commercial crew development but less for other human spaceflight accounts, in particular the new heavy-lift launcher and crew capsule. From the committee’s press release about the hearing:

Chairman Hall has long supported the development of commercial capabilities as a worthy goal, but not at the expense of ensuring a safe reliable system to get American astronauts into space. Discussing the NASA Authorization Act, Hall said, “Commercial crew was not ignored, but to be perfectly clear, it was not – and is not – Congress’ first priority. Yet the Administration’s FY2012 budget proposal completely flips the priorities of the Act, significantly increasing Commercial Crew funding while making deep cuts to the Human Exploration Capabilities accounts which Congress clearly intended to serve as our assured access to space.”

The committee’s ranking member, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), was also critical of elements of the budget request: “I had thought that the Administration agreed with the compromise that was enacted into law, but I am afraid that I do not see it reflected in the proposed NASA budget request. The request cuts NASA’s overall budget plan and its human exploration budget even further than before, delays the development of the next generation vehicles, and eliminates any concrete destinations or milestones beyond the International Space Station.”

Bolden defended the emphasis on commercial crew in the budget request. “I am certain that commercial entities can deliver,” he said, as reported by AFP, adding that we must “become unafraid of risks.”

In her release, Rep. Johnson said that “the most constructive approach for all of us here is to consider the budget request that you will present today as the beginning of the discussion, not the end.” But then, a budget request is rarely accepted without debate.

Comments (122)

Shutdown averted, but…

March 2, 2011 at 7:36 am · Filed under Congress, NASA

Yesterday the House passed another continuing resolution (CR), providing another two weeks of funding to keep the government operating. With the Senate willing to support this CR, the threat of a government shutdown at the end of this week has been eliminated (or, more accurately, pushed back for two weeks.)

The CR has a mix of good and bad news for NASA. The good news is that agency is not included in the $4 billion in spending cuts the House put into the CR. However, the CR does not appear to contain any additional provisions beyond those cuts, which means that a provision dating back to the FY10 appropriations bill preventing NASA from terminating any Constellation programs, even those not continued under the new authorization act, remains in force. (Language removing that provision was included in the full-year CR, HR 1, passed by the House last month, but this CR extends previous ones and does not refer to HR 1, which the Senate has not taken up yet.)

Comments (54)

Space leaders call for commercial crew funding

March 2, 2011 at 7:19 am · Filed under Congress, Lobbying, NASA

In a letter released Tuesday, a group of 56 “space leaders”, ranging from former astronauts and NASA officials to industry executives, called on Congress to fully fund NASA’s commercial crew development program, claiming it is “critical to the health of the Nation’s human spaceflight efforts.” Funding for that program is 2011 is still pending a final appropriations bill, and the 2012 budget debate kicks into gear this week with hearings on the NASA budget today in the House Science Committee and tomorrow in a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.

In the letter, the authors argue that funding commercial crew can reduce the agency’s costs and thus free up funding to carry out other elements of the agency’s plans as specified in the 2010 authorization act. “Funding NASA’s Commercial Crew program would lower the cost of access to low Earth orbit, thus enabling more of NASA’s budget to be applied to its focus on exploration beyond low Earth orbit, and better enabling the kind of program laid out in NASA’s authorization bill,” the letter states, underlined for emphasis. It adds that commercial crew “represents one of the best means to prevent damage to NASA’s human spaceflight capabilities in the face of across the board spending cuts being discussed by Congress.”

Comments (75)

Briefs: another CR, NASA budget hearings, India’s budget

March 1, 2011 at 6:11 am · Filed under Congress, NASA, Other

The House is expected to take up today a short-term continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government operating for two more weeks and thus avoiding a government shutdown at the end of the week. The House CR would include $4 billion in cuts, although none of them would appear to directly affect NASA or other space activities. The White House and Senate leadership would prefer a month-long CR to allow more time to work out a final FY11 spending bill, although House Speaker John Boehner prefers the two-week version, POLITICO reports.

Another stopgap funding bill isn’t the only thing on appropriators’ minds in the House. On Thursday morning NASA administrator Charles Bolden will appear before the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee to discuss the administration’s FY12 budget request. That will be just a day after Bolden testifies on the same topic before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

As Congress weighs NASA’s future funding, the space agency’s Indian counterpart is getting some good budgetary news. India’s 2011 budget includes a 35-percent increase for the Indian Space Research Organisation: 66.26 billion rupees (US$1.47 billion) for 2011-12 versus 48.8 billion rupees ($1.08 billion) in 2010-11, according to Indian government budget documents. Some of that additional funding will go towards India’s nascent human spaceflight plans as well as its Chandrayaan-2 robotic lunar mission.

Comments (27)