Форум Новости Космонавтики

Прогнозированное в НК №1, 2012, дальнейшее снижение бюджета NASA от нынешнего уровня 17.8 млрд $ начинает обретать реальные черты.

ЦитироватьПо предварительным оценкам Бюджетного управления Конгресса, в результате секвестра уже в 2013 ф.г. расходы, связанные с безопасностью, придется сократить на 10%, а не связанные – на 7.8%. В предвидении такого развития событий еще 17 августа Джейкоб Лью разослал по министерствам и ведомствам инструкцию, предписывающую запрашивать на 2013 ф.г. не более 95% суммы, утвержденной в бюджете на 2011 ф.г., и предусмотреть возможность дополнительного снижения финансирования еще на 5%.

Таким образом, NASA в предстоящем 2013 финансовом году может рассчитывать на сумму в пределах от 17.526 млрд (если дело ограничится сокращением на 5%) до 16.603 млрд $ (в случае потери 10%). И уже сейчас сторонники независимого доступа США в космос опасаются, что в первую очередь будут срезаться средства на создание коммерческих космических кораблей.

Проект бюджета NASA на 2013 ф.г., который представят общественности 13 февраля, обещает много неприятных сюрпризов.

Для начала планетарную программу режут с 1500 до 1200 млн $, в том числе более 200 млн срезают с Марса. И -- дальнейшее сокращение вплоть до горизонта планирования в 2017.

http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-nasa-cutting-missions-mars-230009593.html

ЦитироватьWASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists say NASA is about to propose major cuts in its exploration of other planets, especially Mars. And NASA's former science chief is calling it irrational...

Two scientists who were briefed on the 2013 NASA budget that will be released next week said the space agency is eliminating two proposed joint missions with Europeans to explore Mars in 2016 and 2018. NASA had agreed to pay $1.4 billion for those missions. Some Mars missions will continue, but the fate of future flights is unclear, including the much-sought flight to return rocks from the red planet.

The two scientists, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the budget, said the cuts to the Mars missions are part of a proposed reduction of about $300 million in NASA's $1.5 billion planetary science budget. More than $200 million in those cuts are in the Mars program, they said. The current Mars budget is $581.7 million.

"To me, it's totally irrational and unjustified," said Edward Weiler, who until September was NASA's associate administrator for science. "We are the only country on this planet that has the demonstrated ability to land on another planet, namely Mars. It is a national prestige issue."

Weiler said he quit last year because he was tired of fighting to save Mars from the budget knife. He said he fought successfully to keep major cuts from Mars in the current budget but has no firsthand knowledge of the 2013 budget proposal.

Затем NASA отказывается от выдачи своим контрагентам по Commercial Crew Development Program твердых контрактов и вместо этого предлагает соглашения о совместной разработке в размере от 300 до 500 млн на одного участника за два года (август 2012 - май 2014). Впрочем, судя по урезанию программы с 850 до 406 млн в текущем 2012 г., у агентства может не найтись по 400 млн каждому участнику.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1202/07commercialcrew/

ЦитироватьNASA poised to make further commercial crew investment
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: February 7, 2012

NASA officials said Tuesday they intend to award multiple companies up to $500 million each over the next two years to maintain private sector competition in the agency's commercial crew program and keep the effort on schedule to enable the resumption of U.S. human spaceflight by 2017...

Ed Mango, manager of NASA's commercial crew program, said the space agency plans to award Space Act Agreements, or SAAs, to multiple contractors by August. The agreements will each be worth between $300 million and $500 million, and NASA will make payments as the companies accomplish predetermined milestones.

Brent Jett, NASA's deputy commercial crew program manager, said he is confident the agency will be able to award at least two companies agreements of that value.

NASA planned to issue a commercial crew solicitation in December for fixed-price contracts, but the agency's fiscal year 2012 budget provided for $406 million for the commercial crew program, less than half the funding level requested by the White House.

The smaller budget, coupled with uncertain funding in future years, compelled NASA officials to revert to Space Act Agreements, which have been used in the first two phases of the commercial crew program.

NASA now has funded Space Act Agreements with Boeing Co., SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Blue Origin worth a combined $316 million. Each company is working on a commercial crew spacecraft, and the agreements run through May.

The Space Act Agreements will run at least 21 months from August 2012 until May 2014, roughly the same period the contracts would have covered...

NASA is requesting companies provide lists of optional milestones extending beyond May 2014, both at a fixed funding profile of $400 million per year and an optimum, more costly, profile with an accelerated schedule to begin commercial crew service by the middle of the decade.

"We think the most we might be able to give [the commercial partners] is about $400 million a year [each]," Mango said.

Такие дела...

NASA's Chief Scientist and Chief Technologist Answer Your Budget Questions

ЦитироватьOn Feb. 16, NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati and NASA Chief Technologist Mason Peck will answer your questions about the agency's direction as we reach higher during the coming years.

Joining the chat is easy. Simply visit this page on Feb. 16 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. EST. The chat window will open at the bottom of this page starting at 8:30 a.m. EST. You can log in and be ready to ask questions at 9 a.m.

http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/peck_abdalati_chat.html

Из свежеурезанного - GALEX
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=888686#888686

Если верить - http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/awx/2012/02/10/awx_02_10_2012_p0-423848.xml&headline=NASA%20Wants%20A%20Flat%20Budget%20For%20Fiscal%202013&channel=space -
то всего запланировано $17.711 млрд. Из них:
 - CCDev - $830 млн.
 - SLS - $1.8 млрд.
 - Орион - $1 млрд.
 - ISS - $3 млрд
 - новые техн. - $699 млн.
 - аэронавт. - $500 млн.

Т.е. пилотируемая космонавтика жрет почти 40% бюджета агентства?  :wink:

Гы, точно! Еще небось и отрасль у них переразмерена :lol:

Для начала планетарную программу режут с 1500 до 1200 млн $,
_________________________________________

вообще охренели? самую интересную область сокращают аж на 20% при том что всё НАСА потеряет максимум 10%. здравствуй, 80 е.


ПК должна умереть!

самое интересное, приреализации констеласиона обокрали космическую науку, констеласион закрыли, а науку по прежнему сокращают...

Эд Вейлер, заместитель администратора NASA по космической науке, ушедший в отставку с 30 сентября, рассказал, что принял это решение после долгого и тяжелого торга с Бюджетным управлением Белого дома, где судьбы научных проектов "решают люди на три или четыре уровня ниже меня и без всякого технического опыта".

По проникшим в прессу данным, планетную программу режут с 1500 до 1200 млн в 2013 ф.г. и до 1000 млн в 2017 ф.г.

Множество печальных деталей тут:

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/02/ed-weiler-says-he-quit-nasa-over.html?rss=1

ЦитироватьWeiler's resignation in September caught the space science community by surprise. But he says it was the culmination of a soul-sapping and ultimately unsuccessful battle with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on how to accommodate the rising cost of the James Webb Space Telescope within an overall agency budget being squeezed by efforts to reduce federal spending and shrink the deficit. "It all left a very bad taste," Weiler told ScienceInsider this morning from his house in Vero Beach, Florida...

Last summer, as NASA went back and forth with OMB officials in a preliminary draft of a 2013 budget, Weiler says it became evident that the budget for the Science Mission Directorate would be smaller than its current level of $5 billion. (Planetary science programs now receive $1.5 billion. The president's 2013 request would reduce that to $1.2 billion, and to $1 billion by 2017.) The agency also had to accommodate the increased cost of the James Webb Space Telescope. Rather than targeting any one program, Weiler says he proposed a 3% across-the-board cut that would meet the new bottom line.

But OMB officials insisted that ExoMars be singled out for a significant reduction. After five consecutive successful NASA missions to Mars, Weiler says, this decision struck him as bizarre. Weiler says the program had also been targeted by OMB in December 2010. "But I and [NASA Administrator] Charlie [Bolden] fought back on that and eventually won."

Even so, the fight was so debilitating that Weiler says he made up his mind to leave NASA. His earlier stints at the agency included fights over finding money to fix the Hubble Space Telescope and restructure the Mars program, and he says he wasn't ready for yet another one. "I was dealing with officials in OMB who were three, four grade levels below me who did not have any technical background," he says...

ЦитироватьI was dealing with officials in OMB who were three, four grade levels below me who did not have any technical background[/size]

Как это всё знакомо...

А вот придёт к власти новая администрация и может всё переиграть иначе,  как было в случае с программой Constellation.

ЦитироватьА вот придёт к власти новая администрация и может всё переиграть иначе,  как было в случае с программой Constellation.

Не придет.  :?

Цитировать

ЦитироватьА вот придёт к власти новая администрация и может всё переиграть иначе,  как было в случае с программой Constellation.

Не придет.  :?

Придёт, но урежет и всё оставшееся, % на 10-15... На оборонку... :evil:

да уж. республиканцы обожают воевать и снижать налоги а демократы - кормить негров и тратить миллиарды на охрану среды. так и не угадаешь кто для космонавтики менее вреден...

С Обамой все давно ясно. Он будет регулярно пытаться отпилить от бюджета НАСА сколько сможет.

Касаемо возможных кандидатов от республиканцев:
Гингрич - строим постоянную базу на Луне. Санторум и Ромни дураки.
Санторум - Гингрич рехнулся с этой базой. Денег нет и не будет. А Ромни дурак.
Ромни - Гингрич рехнулся с этой базой. Денег нет и не будет. А Санторум дурак.
Все хором - Обама дурак

ЗЫ: Короче, я за Гингрича.

ЦитироватьГингрич - строим постоянную базу на Луне. Санторум и Ромни дураки.
Санторум - Гингрич рехнулся с этой базой. Денег нет и не будет. А Ромни дурак.
Ромни - Гингрич рехнулся с этой базой. Денег нет и не будет. А Санторум дурак.
Все хором - Обама дурак

:mrgreen:  :mrgreen:  :mrgreen:

базы не будет однозначно? какая нах база? скоро мкс содержать не смогут.
жвлко 300 млн на планетарную науку. америку они не спасут зато пяток проектов будет зарезано(

http://www.utro.ru/articles/2012/02/10/1028019.shtml

ЦитироватьС Обамой все давно ясно. Он будет регулярно пытаться отпилить от бюджета НАСА сколько сможет.

Касаемо возможных кандидатов от республиканцев:
Гингрич - строим постоянную базу на Луне. Санторум и Ромни дураки.
Санторум - Гингрич рехнулся с этой базой. Денег нет и не будет. А Ромни дурак.
Ромни - Гингрич рехнулся с этой базой. Денег нет и не будет. А Санторум дурак.
Все хором - Обама дурак

ЗЫ: Короче, я за Гингрича.

Тем не менее "тихой сапой" в лидеры лезет Санторум...
А Обаме он проиграет... 8)

ЦитироватьЗЫ: Короче, я за Гингрича.

НАМ тут уже маловато просто голосовать или говорить "я за", а нужно сделать некий мессадж остальной публике - хорошенечько подумать, и расписать, как хорошо сделать лунную базу и как плохо лунную базу НЕ делать :wink:

лунную базу НЕ делать хорошо. плохо сокращать науку.

ЦитироватьТем не менее "тихой сапой" в лидеры лезет Санторум...
А Обаме он проиграет... 8)

Тихая сапа в любой момент может стать крутым пике. Американские праймериз не зря называют американскими горками
(http://s006.radikal.ru/i214/1202/00/1be56812d82d.jpg)

Касаемо Обамы - практически все недавние выборы президентов дают ~50 на 50. Прогнозы в такой ситуции ничего не стоят.

лишь бы не рон пол. этот птушник вообще грозился разогнать наса.

Цитировать...нужно сделать некий мессадж остальной публике - хорошенечько подумать, и расписать, как хорошо сделать лунную базу и как плохо лунную базу НЕ делать :wink:

И принимают подобные "мессаджи" тут: http://www.mk.ru/science/article/2012/02/09/670064-soobscheniya-rossiyan-peredadut-inoplanetyanam.html  :D

Цитироватьлишь бы не рон пол. этот птушник вообще грозился разогнать наса.

Имхо, он еще слишком радикален на вкус избирателя. Обаме нада еще один срок порулить чтоб народ по настоящему ужаснулся и выбрал либертарианца
Но по большому счету он может и прав - НАСА пора так кардинально менять, что непонятно как быстрее и дешевле получится - реорганизовать или разогнать и создать нечто новое.

ну создадут нечтоо новое и назовут хуяса. что изменится? всё  равно дядя сэм должен давать деньги ибо искать жизнь в европе или землеподобные экзопланеты бизнесу неинтересно.

Цитировать

ЦитироватьТем не менее "тихой сапой" в лидеры лезет Санторум...
А Обаме он проиграет... 8)

Тихая сапа в любой момент может стать крутым пике. Американские праймериз не зря называют американскими горками
(http://s006.radikal.ru/i214/1202/00/1be56812d82d.jpg)

Касаемо Обамы - практически все недавние выборы президентов дают ~50 на 50. Прогнозы в такой ситуции ничего не стоят.

(офтоп: вот же есть у людей графики! реальная, блин, демократия... :oops: )
А из графика я вижу 8) , ИМХО, что от "слонов" будет таки Ромни...
А у него против Обамы шансы есть... ;)
П.С. он сократит "космос" меньше... % 5-10... ИМХО... :oops:

Цитироватьну создадут нечтоо новое и назовут хуяса. что изменится? всё  равно дядя сэм должен давать деньги ибо искать жизнь в европе или землеподобные экзопланеты бизнесу неинтересно.

НАСА первые лет 10  были образцовым примером эффективности и результативности. Потом помалу забюрократизировались в болото. Это судьба всех гос агенств.

чем наса неэффективно? предыдущая авария амс датируется 2002 м годом - контур. нам бы такую эффективность. за эти десять лет запущено ок 10 амс все из которых выполнили задачи, и почти все работают по сей день. другое дело что наса дают денег всё меньше и меньше. например нынешний бюджет 17,8 млрд это всего лишь 9,4 в ценах 1993 г например. а аполлон который приводят в пример как показатель эффективности стоил 25 млрд в ценах конца 60-х. вот где показатель эффективности - деньги. дай наса 300 млрд и через 10 лет америкосы будут на марсе)

Цитировать(офтоп: вот же есть у людей графики! реальная, блин, демократия... :oops: )
А из графика я вижу 8) , ИМХО, что от "слонов" будет таки Ромни...
А у него против Обамы шансы есть... ;)
П.С. он сократит "космос" меньше... % 5-10... ИМХО... :oops:

Раеспубликанцы - они разные. Ромни - правый левый , Пол - правый ультраправый. Все остальные - правые консерваторы.
То есть Гингрич и Санторум делят консервативный электорат между собой. Еще часть Пол отгызает. В совокупности это больше всего что может получить Ромни. То есть если он останется сам на сам с Гриндичем или Санторумом - то пролетает.

Короче - на текущем этапе невозможно предсказать кто будет единым кандидатом. После супервторника (одновременный праймериз в 10 штатх 6 марта) может станет яснее. А может и нет

Цитироватьчем наса неэффективно? предыдущая авария амс датируется 2002 м годом - контур. нам бы такую эффективность. за эти десять лет запущено ок 10 амс все из которых выполнили задачи, и почти все работают по сей день. другое дело что наса дают денег всё меньше и меньше. например нынешний бюджет 17,8 млрд это всего лишь 9,4 в ценах 1993 г например. а аполлон который приводят в пример как показатель эффективности стоил 25 млрд в ценах конца 60-х. вот где показатель эффективности - деньги. дай наса 300 млрд и через 10 лет америкосы будут на марсе)

Сколько денег НАСА не давай - меньше чем за 10 лет даже ракету не построят. Весть процесс расписан в миллионе инструкций и простое следование им занимает годы и годы. Эта бюрократия просто убивает любое начинание.

всё правильно. всё делается чтобы иселючить человеческие жертвы. гриссома, уфйта и чаффи помните? вот чего стоит цейтнот.

Цитироватьвсё правильно. всё делается чтобы иселючить человеческие жертвы. гриссома, уфйта и чаффи помните? вот чего стоит цейтнот.

Все делается чтоб чиновники могли прикрыть себе задницу на случай человеческих жертв.

Если не считать планетных исследований, NASA вырулило почти невредимым:

(http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/nk/forum-pic/Budget/NASA-2013P.png)

Все детали на http://www.nasa.gov/news/budget/index.html

ЦитироватьЕсли не считать планетных исследований, NASA вырулило почти невредимым:

Ладно хоть до 1 млрд их не зарубили.

А по хорошему, надо убивать ПК и делать парочку флагманских АМС и десяток поменьше. Еще и на ДЗЗ останется :)

Еще три фрагмента общей раскладки:

(http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/nk/forum-pic/Budget/2013ISS.png)

(http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/nk/forum-pic/Budget/2013CommCrew.png)

(http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/nk/forum-pic/Budget/2013Exploration.png)

Ну и марсианская программа с объяснениями.

(http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/nk/forum-pic/Budget/2013Mars.png)

ЦитироватьAfter 2013 MAVEN, the Mars Exploration program is working towards defining future missions that will build upon scientific discoveries from past missions and incorporate the lessons learned from previous mission successes and failures. NASA is terminating further activity on the formulation activity for the NASA/ ESA ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter 2016 (EMTGO) mission and planning for the previous NASA/ESA Mars 2018 mission concept. NASA remains committed to an ongoing Mars Exploration program of robotic exploration missions in support of an integrated strategy of scientific and human exploration, and intends to work with the science community and our international partners in the formulation of a restructured mission.

В переводе на русский это означает, что ничто американское не улетит к Марсу ни в 2016, ни в 2018 г., и MAVEN рискует остаться последней АМС к Красной планете на многие годы.

ЦитироватьВ переводе на русский это означает, что ничто американское не улетит к Марсу ни в 2016, ни в 2018 г., и MAVEN рискует остаться последней АМС к Красной планете на многие годы.

http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12533

http://www.spacenews.com/policy/120113-nasa-defers-large-scale-missions.html

Mon, 13 February, 2012
NASA Request Defers Large-scale Mars, Astronomy Missions

 WASHINGTON — Big-ticket missions to collect martian soil samples and study the expansion of the universe are two early casualties of U.S. President Barack Obama's proposal to cut NASA's 2013 budget by 0.3 percent next year, according to White House budget documents released Feb. 13.

The request represents only the fourth time since 1999 that a president has proposed reducing NASA's budget. In each of the previous three instances, Congress wound up appropriating slight increases for the space agency.

Under the $17.7 billion NASA budget request the White House is sending to Congress, spending on robotic Mars exploration would drop from $587 million this year to $361 million next year, a 38.5 percent reduction. NASA last year launched its most ambitious Mars mission to date, the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory rover, and plans to launch a martian orbiter next year.

NASA's broader Science Mission Directorate budget, which includes planetary exploration, astronomy and Earth environment monitoring, would also be cut next year, but not by nearly as much. Instead of the $5.07 billion it received this year, the directorate would get $4.911 billion next year.

A significant fraction of that amount would go toward the $8.5 billion James Webb Space Telescope. Its proposed successor, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, would be deferred, according to the White House summary of the president's NASA budget.

Among the other highlights in the White House summary:

Spending on Earth observation satellites would be maintained at $1.8 billion next year.
The Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket and Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Exploration Vehicle would be funded as a combined level of "almost $3 billion."
The Space Technology program would get $699 million, up from the $569 million Congress approved for 2012.
NASA's Education and Aeronautics budget, among the agency's smaller accounts in the first place, would both be cut by several tens of millions of dollars.
The White House summary is vague about how NASA's Commercial Crew Program fared in the request. While it makes reference to leveraging an $830 million federal investment, it does not specify whether that includes the $406 million Congress appropriated for the effort in 2012.

Meanwhile, future-year budget projections released by the White House indicate that the president's budget planners apparently view cutting NASA's budget as a one-time necessity. The 10-year run-out shows steady annual increases for NASA through 2022, with the agency's budget returning to the enacted 2011 level of $18.4 billion by 2015.

Гм...
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1202/13nasabudget/

ЦитироватьSome $830 million is budgeted for the administration's ongoing drive to develop private-sector spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the space station and to end the agency's post-shuttle reliance on the Russians. That is roughy what the administration requested in fiscal 2012, but Congress cut that figure in half, to $406 million, during budget negotiations. How the commercial space initiative will fare this time around remains to be seen.

http://www.spacenews.com/military/120213-mil-space-spending-decline.html

Mon, 13 February, 2012
U.S. Military Space Spending To Decline 22 Percent in 2013

By Titus Ledbetter III
 
WASHINGTON — Funding for unclassified U.S. military space programs and activity would decline by 22 percent, to $8 billion, under the 2013 Pentagon spending request released by the White House Feb. 13.

The Pentagon attributed the proposed funding decline to reduced procurement plans for satellites and launch vehicles, along with the cancellation of the Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS), which was done at the behest of Congress. The U.S. Air Force halted work on DWSS program Jan. 17.

Noticeably absent from the 2013 request is funding for a DWSS follow-on system, for which Congress appropriated $125 million in 2012. Also absent from budget documents released Feb. 13 is a funding line for a second Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite, designed to keep tabs on activity in Earth orbit.

Maj. Gen. Edward Bolton, deputy assistant secretary for budget at the Air Force, said the 2013 request includes funding to refurbish two legacy Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) weather satellites that have been in storage for several years. He declined to say whether the request includes funding to design a follow-on system.

According to budget documents, the Air Force plans to launch the first of the two remaining DMSP satellites as early as fiscal year 2014, with the second to launch based on need. "Continuing DMSP allows the Air Force to redefine the space-based weather requirements and capabilities required by the [Defense Department] to deliver a follow-on system to the warfighter in the most cost effective manner," budget documents said.

The biggest single line item in the Pentagon's space budget request is the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, used to launch most of the Pentagon's operational satellites. The service is requesting $1.68 billion for the program next year, a sum that covers the procurement of four new rockets and associated services and activities but does not include launches to be procured on behalf of the U.S. Navy or National Reconnaissance Office, budget documents said.

In a bid to curb its rising launch costs, the Air Force is pursuing a block buy strategy under which it intends to procure six to 10 rockets annually from contractor United Launch Alliance over a period of three to five years. That plan has been criticized by the U.S. Government Accountability Office and has detractors in Congress as well.

The Pentagon also announced plans in the budget request to close the Operationally Responsive Space program office at Kirtland Air Force Base, Calif., and transfer those activities and experience to the service's Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles. Operationally Responsive Space refers to space capabilities that can be developed and deployed rapidly in response to emerging military needs.

Other space-related highlights of the 2013 Pentagon budget request include:

$1.27 billion for the GPS 3 satellite navigation system, a sum that includes the cost of procuring two new satellites in 2013.
$950 million for the Space Based Infrared System missile warning program, which would allow Air Force to procure two more satellites.
$786 million for the Air Force's Advanced Extremely High Frequency secure satellite communications system. The Air Force intends to order two more of those spacecraft later this year.
$36.8 million for the 10 satellite Wideband Global Satcom communications system. The Air Force recently ordered the ninth satellite in that series and plans to order the 10th later this year.
$167 million for the Navy's Mobile User Objective System of narrowband communications satellites. That sum funds on-orbit testing of the recently launched first satellite and preparations to launch the second, among other activities.

http://ria.ru/science/20120214/565309767.html

НАСА в 2013 году получит на 20% меньше на исследования планет
00:59 14/02/2012

МОСКВА, 14 фев - РИА Новости. Американское аэрокосмическое агентство НАСА в 2013 финансовом году получит значительно меньше средств на исследования планет Солнечной системы, в то время как траты на пилотируемый космос и новые технологические разработки планируется значительно увеличить, говорится в проекте бюджета, который администрация президента Барака Обамы внесла в конгресс в понедельник.

В соответствии с документом, НАСА в 2013 финансовом году, который начинается 1 октября, получит 17,711 миллиарда долларов (в 2012 году бюджет составил 17,77 миллиарда долларов), что не превышает 0,5% общего объема бюджета, который составляет 3,8 триллиона долларов.

Существенное сокращение - на 20% - претерпели расходы на исследования планет Солнечной системы. В 2013 году по этой статье планируется выделить 1,192 миллиарда долларов, при том, что в 2012 году на эти проекты было выделено 1,501 миллиарда долларов.

Эксперты ранее заявляли, что это сокращение, возможно, заставило НАСА выйти из совместного с Европейским космическим агентством проекта "ЭкзоМарс". В результате европейцы обратились за помощью к Роскосмосу и сейчас ведут переговоры о форме участия российских ученых в проекте.

В то же время расходы на пилотируемые проекты в 2013 году планируется увеличить на 6% - с 3,712 миллиарда долларов до 3,932 миллиарда долларов, а расходы на создание новых космических технологий вырастут на 22% - с 573,7 миллиона долларов до 699 миллионов долларов.

Более чем вдвое увеличатся расходы на создание пилотируемых и грузовых космических кораблей силами коммерческих фирм, в числе которых, в частности, программа корабля Dragon - с 406 миллионов долларов до 829,7 миллиона долларов. После завершения полетов шаттлов американские астронавты могут добираться до МКС только на российских "Союзах". К 2017 году, как ожидается, частные фирмы создадут корабли, способные доставлять на станцию грузы и астронавтов.

На работу в рамках МКС НАСА сможет потратить 3 миллиарда долларов (в 2012 году расходы по этой статье составили 2,83 миллиарда долларов).

Значительно вырастут траты на создание "наследника" "Хаббла" - космического телескопа "Джеймс Вебб", на который предполагается потратить 627,6 миллиона долларов (расходы на него в 2012 году составили 518,6 миллиона долларов). Вырастут расходы на программы дистанционного зондирования Земли - с 1,76 миллиарда долларов до 1,784 миллиарда долларов.

Наука на краю пропасти

Сокращение расходов на исследование планет Солнечной системы, в частности, Марса, вызвало резкую реакцию у многих ученых.

"Бюджет на 2013 финансовый год... заставит НАСА отказаться от планируемых миссий к Марсу, задержит на десятилетия крупные миссии к внешним планетам, и радикально замедлит темпы научных исследований, включая поиски жизни на других планетах", - говорится в заявлении для прессы Планетологического общества (Planetary Society), авторитетной неправительственной организации, которая занимается пропагандой космических исследований.

В документе подчеркивается, что постепенное сокращение расходов на планетные исследования планируется продолжать в течение следующих пяти лет, что нанесет удар в самое сердце наиболее продуктивной и успешной области в научной работе НАСА.

"Любой человек на Земле хочет знать, есть ли жизнь в других мирах. Когда вы сокращаете бюджет НАСА таким образом, вы теряете из виду главную задачу, ради которой мы исследуем космос", - говорит исполнительный директор общества Билл Най (Bill Nye).

По мнению общества, необходимо увеличить финансирование на 30%, восстановить марсианские миссии, а также продолжить работу над будущими крупными проектами, такими как проект доставки грунта с Марса и миссия к Европе, где по мнению многих ученых может существовать жизнь.

NASA Budget Pushes Science to the Brink
Feb. 13, 2012 | 12:16 PST | 20:16 UTC

By Bill Nye

ЦитироватьToday, NASA announced its budget for its fiscal year 2013. As you might imagine, there are large budget cuts. But, the planetary science program has been cut disproportionately. NASA's allocations are out of balance.

With this budget, there will be no more flagship missions, no more fantastic voyages of discovery in deep space. Deep space exploration is not a faucet that can be turned on and off. If NASA loses its expertise in interplanetary missions, the world loses it. We are on the verge of finding evidence of life elsewhere in the Solar System. With these cuts to NASA science, humankind loses.

There's going to be a fight. The Planetary Society is already swinging into action on this issue. Stay tuned. We must maintain the momentum needed to investigate humankind's deepest questions about ourselves and life itself.

See our full statement below.



PRESS STATEMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 13, 2012

Science Pushed to the Brink
Proposed FY 2013 Budget Would Devastate Planetary Science in NASA

The Planetary Society's Statement
On the Administration's Proposal for the Science Mission Directorate

The U.S. Administration is proposing a budget for Fiscal Year 2013 that would force NASA to walk away from planned missions to Mars, delay for decades any flagship missions to the outer planets, and radically slow the pace of scientific discovery, including the search for life on other worlds.

NASA's planetary science program is being singled out for drastic cuts, with its budget dropping by 20 percent, from $1.5 billion this year to $1.2 billion next year. The steep reductions will continue for at least the next five years -- if the Administration's proposal is not changed. This would strike at the heart of one of NASA's most productive and successful programs over the past decade.

"The priorities reflected in this budget would take us down the wrong path," said Bill Nye, CEO of the Planetary Society. "Science is the part of NASA that's actually conducting interesting and scientifically important missions. Spacecraft sent to Mars, Saturn, Mercury, the Moon, comets, and asteroids have been making incredible discoveries, with more to come from recent launches to Jupiter, the Moon, and Mars. The country needs more of these robotic space exploration missions, not less."

Fallout from the threatened budget cuts is forcing NASA to back out of international agreements with the European Space Agency (ESA) to partner in the Mars Trace Gas Orbiter, planned to launch in 2016, and threatens the ExoMars rover, set to launch in 2018. Without NASA to provide launches and critical equipment, Europe has turned to Russia to keep the missions alive by becoming its partner in the missions.

If Congress enacts the proposed budget, there will be no "flagship" missions of any kind, killing the tradition of great missions of exploration, such as Voyager and Cassini to the outer planets. NASA's storied Mars program will be cut drastically, falling from $587 million for FY 2012 to $360 in FY 2013, and forcing missions to be cancelled. The search for life on other potentially habitable worlds -- such as Mars, Europa, Enceladus, or Titan -- will be effectively abandoned.

"People know that Mars and Europa are the two most important places to search in our solar system for evidence of other past or present life forms, said Jim Bell, Planetary Society President, "Why, then, are missions to do those searches being cut in this proposed budget? If enacted, this would represent a major backwards step in the exploration of our solar system."

"I encourage whoever made this decision to ask around; everyone on Earth wants to know if there is life on other worlds," Bill Nye, CEO of The Planetary Society, said. "When you cut NASA's budget in this way, you're losing sight of why we explore space in the first place."

"There is no other country or agency that can do what NASA does—fly extraordinary flagship missions in deep space and land spacecraft on Mars." Bill Nye said. "If this budget is allowed to stand, the United States will walk away from decades of greatness in space science and exploration. But it will lose more than that. The U.S. will lose expertise, capability, and talent. The nation will lose the ability to compete in one of the few areas in which it is still the undisputed number one."

To solve the problem and put science back on track, The Planetary Society recommends that the budget be rebalanced among NASA's directorates to reflect value to the nation, and that the share of NASA's budget devoted to the Science Mission Directorate be increased to a minimum of 30 percent. This percentage would keep on track NASA's world-class science with rigorously selected missions with clearly defined goals and carefully crafted plans that are ready to proceed.

NASA's proposed top-line budget for FY 2013 is $17.7 billion, with Science at $4.9 billion (or about 27.5 percent). Increasing that share up to 30 percent would provide enough funding to keep scientific exploration healthy. Mars missions could be restored to the agency's plans, and work on future flagship missions, such as Mars Sample Return or a Europa Orbiter, could move forward.

"How many government programs can you think of that consistently fill people with pride, awe, and wonder? NASA's planetary exploration program is one of the few, and so it seems particularly ironic and puzzling that it has been so specifically targeted for such drastic budget cuts," Jim Bell commented.

"Now that the budget is out, The Planetary Society will mobilize its tens of thousands of members and supporters in the fight to restore science in NASA to its rightful place," Jim Bell said. "We will work with Congress to advocate a balanced program of solar system exploration with exciting and compelling missions that are supported by the public—who ultimately are the ones paying for everything NASA does."

# # #

About the Planetary Society

The Planetary Society has inspired millions of people to explore other worlds and seek other life. Today, its international membership makes the non-governmental Planetary Society the largest space interest group in the world. Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman founded the Planetary Society in 1980. Bill Nye, a long time member of the Planetary Society's Board of Directors, is now the CEO.

Planetary Society
85 South Grand
Pasadena, CA 91105 USA
Web: www.planetary.org
Voice: (626) 793-5100
Fax: (626) 793-5528
Email: tps@planetary.org

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003373/

Хоть это и моветон, но:
http://cybersecurity.ru/space/144109.html

SFN: NASA's 2013 budget boosts manned space, reduces Mars[/size] (http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1202/13nasabudget/)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/science/2012/02/120214_nasa_slash_martian_funds.shtml

Обама сокращает расходы на марсианскую программу НАСА
вторник, 14 февраля 2012 г., 12:39 GMT 16:39 MCK

При всех предлагаемых сокращениях НАСА не отказывается от программы под названием "Марсианская научная лаборатория"

Президент США Барак Обама запросил у американского конгресса 17,7 млрд долларов на финансирование НАСА в 2013-м финансовом году. Новый бюджет американского космического агентства предполагает сокращение расходов на исследование Марса и увеличение расходов на полеты людей в космос.

Эти цифры, которые являются частью проекта бюджета на 2013-й финансовый год, означают, что США отменяют планы по организации совместных с европейцами полетов к Марсу.

Если американский конгресс одобрит новый бюджет НАСА, то это приведет к сокращению средств, выделяемых на изучение планет, почти на 21%.

Но при этом расходы на освоение человеком космоса и на космические технологии вырастут на 6% и 22% соответственно.

"Нет сомнений, что нам всем предстоит принять трудные решения", - заявил руководитель НАСА Чарльз Болден на пресс-конференции в Вашингтоне.

При этом он отметил, что "это стабильный бюджет, который позволит нам поддерживать диверсифицированную программу исследований".

Помните о марсоходе

В общей сложности в 2013 году НАСА получит около 17,7 млрд долларов, при так называемом "плоском" бюджете, распланированном на ближайшие несколько лет.

При этом американское космическое агентство должно будет расходовать больше средств на миссию космического телескопа "Джеймс Вебб", бюджет которой, по прогнозам, возрастет с 476,8 млн долларов в 2011 году до 659 млн долларов в 2014-м.

НАСА также имеет обязательства по продолжению финансирования работ по созданию новой ракеты и космического аппарата, которые позволят астронавтам выходить за пределы околоземной орбиты и путешествовать к Луне и астероидам.

Самые большие потери из-за урезания бюджета НАСА понесет программа по изучению планет и, в частности, исследования Марса, на которые будет выделено 360,8 млн долларов, что почти на 40% ниже по сравнению с оценкой за 2012 финансовый год.

В результате, по словам Болдена, НАСА планирует выйти из намеченных на 2016-й и 2018 годы совместных с Европейским космическим агентством миссий ExoMars.

Программа ExoMars предусматривала отправку космических аппаратов к Марсу и возвращение на Землю образцов марсианской почвы. Единственным партнером Европы в проекте по дальнейшему исследованию Красной планеты остается Россия.

При этом глава НАСА наполнил о программе американского космического агентства под названием "Марсианская научная лаборатория", в рамках которой в этом году на Красную планету должен высадиться марсоход.

Зависимость от России

Старение флота космических челноков США означает, что большую часть этого десятилетия американские астронавты будут зависеть от полетов российских космических кораблей "Союз" к Международной космической станции.

Но НАСА ранее заявило, что работает над тем, чтобы покончить с зависимостью от России как можно скорее.

В настоящее время полеты на российских космических кораблях обходятся США в 56 млн долларов за место, а с 2014 года будут стоить 62,7 млн долларов.

По словам Болдена, первый пилотируемый полет нового космического корабля "Орион", предназначенного для перевозки людей за пределами околоземной орбиты, скорее всего, будет осуществлен не ранее 2021 года.

Однако предложения Обамы по сокращению бюджета вряд ли будут одобрены конгрессом США без каких-либо изменений, так что окончательные цифры затрат на космическую отрасль, скорее всего, будут несколько иными

Сегодня в новостях читал, один F-35С стоит 260 млн.долларов. Итого:
 - CCDev - $830 млн. - 3.2 истребителя
 - SLS - $1.8 млрд. - 6.9 истребителя
 - Орион - $1 млрд. - 3.8 истребителя
 - ISS - $3 млрд - 11.5  истребителя
В сумме 25.5 истребителя. А их собираются построить, ЕМНИП, две с половиной тыщи в разных вариантах - в сто раз больше.
Смерть пилотируемой космонавтике, ага!

ЦитироватьВ сумме 25.5 истребителя. А их собираются построить, ЕМНИП, две с половиной тыщи в разных вариантах - в сто раз больше.
Смерть пилотируемой космонавтике, ага!

Кто-то предлагал замочить ПК в пользу 25-ти лишних истребителей? Покажите этого подонка! ;)

Это все в год. И на 10-20 лет вперед. В общем тоже не мало.

Budget Video 2013
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=132377741

 :D  :D http://www.nasa.gov/news/budget/budget_gallery_solar_flare.html - в бюджетную фотогалерею НАСА затесалась фотка, сделанная японской солнечной обсерваторией Hinode

ЦитироватьNASA's Chief Scientist and Chief Technologist Answer Your Budget Questions

ЦитироватьOn Feb. 16, NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati and NASA Chief Technologist Mason Peck will answer your questions about the agency's direction as we reach higher during the coming years.

Joining the chat is easy. Simply visit this page on Feb. 16 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. EST. The chat window will open at the bottom of this page starting at 8:30 a.m. EST. You can log in and be ready to ask questions at 9 a.m.

http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/peck_abdalati_chat.html

Transcript of the Feb. 16, 2012 chat (48 KB PDF)
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/623687main_abdalati_peck_xscript_120216.pdf

http://www.spacenews.com/policy/120217-shrinking-nasa-budget-tradeoffs.html

Fri, 17 February, 2012
Shrinking NASABudget Forces Tough Trade-offs
By Brian Berger and Dan Leone

 WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama's proposal to roll back NASA spending to its lowest level since 2008 puts the squeeze on planetary science and other agency activities in order to accommodate a massively overbudget space telescope and a congressionally mandated heavy-lift rocket while doubling funding for a controversial commercial crew initiative.

 Obama submitted the final spending proposal of his current four-year term Feb. 13 to a deeply divided Congress unlikely to pass a 2013 budget before a November election shaping up as referendum on taxes and spending. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden was among the senior government executives called upon Feb. 13 to extol the virtues of their respective portions of a $3.8 trillion budget proposal the White House says holds total discretionary spending to its lowest level in 10 years. NASA's proposed $17.71 billion share, down 5.4 percent from the high-water mark set in 2010, represents only the fourth time since 1999 that a president has called for reducing NASA's budget.

 "There's no doubt tough decisions had to be made, here at NASA and all across government," Bolden told reporters during a televised budget rollout at agency headquarters here. "However, ours is a stable budget that allows us to support a diverse portfolio of human exploration, technology development, science, aeronautics, and education work."

 Among the priorities supported in the NASA budget proposal now before Congress:

 Nearly $3 billion for the congressionally mandated Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket, Orion deep-space capsule and related ground systems and infrastructure. NASA has yet to define a mission for these vehicles.
 Almost $830 million for the Commercial Crew Program, which NASA is counting on to restore independent U.S. access to the international space station.
 Some $700 million for the Space Technology program, $125 million more than last year.
 Roughly $630 million for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which Congress threatened to terminate last year due to huge cost overruns. The $109 million increase was needed to keep the now $8.8 billion astronomy flagship mission on track for 2018.

 Accommodating these priorities forced NASA to accept cuts elsewhere.

Science

 Hardest hit was the Science Mission Directorate's Planetary Science Division, a $1.5 billion portfolio that drops below $1.2 billion next year in the president's plan and keeps falling until 2017. There are no guaranteed new starts in that time frame; planning for a flagship-class mission to Europa or some other outer-planet destination is tabled indefinitely, and a lunar science campaign initiated when NASA still planned to return astronauts to the Moon goes away.

 More controversially, spending on robotic Mars exploration would drop nearly 40 percent next year, with further big reductions planned for 2014 and 2015.

 The shrinking Mars exploration budget reflects a pullback from plans to partner with Europe on a pair of missions that would launch in 2016 and 2018 to set the stage for retrieving samples from the red planet.

 With NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory rover set to land in August, the $600 million Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter launching late next year and another Mars mission in the running for the Discovery 12 flight opportunity, Bolden said NASA will take a timeout to devise a new Mars exploration strategy that melds science and human spaceflight goals with an eye toward cobbling together cheaper missions for 2018 and 2020.

 A significant share of NASA's downsized planetary science budget would fund continued development of four U.S.-led space missions. Two of those — MAVEN and the Moon-bound Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) — are slated to launch in 2013. The other two — the $900 million Osiris-Rex asteroid sample-return mission and a Discovery 12 mission that will be selected this summer — would launch in 2016.

 The 2013 budget also establishes a $10 million-a-year Joint Robotics Program for Exploration that NASA says would "develop instruments relevant to human exploration beyond low Earth orbit."

 LADEE will cap the short-lived Lunar Quest program. The $175 million spacecraft is scheduled for a six-month mission whose original objectives included gathering data engineers would use to design lunar outposts and robots suitable for the Moon's dusty environment.

 NASA's Astrophysics Division, meanwhile, would see its budget reduced slightly, to $660 million. That figure that does not include the $628 million sought for the JWST program, which now reports directly to NASA Associate Administrator Chris Scolese, the agency's third in command.

 The Astrophysics Division budget is largely focused on operating roughly a dozen missions, including the recently refurbished Hubble Space Telescope and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy — a telescope-equipped 747 jetliner that continues to undergo development even as science flights begin.

 Planning for the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, the astrophysics community's top-priority large-scale mission after JWST, has been shelved after garnering $3 million in 2011 to get going.

 Projects still on the books include the $170 million NuSTAR telescope launching this spring, another Small Explorer-class mission called Gravity and Extreme Magnetism launching in late 2014, and completion of an instrument NASA is building for Japan's Astro-H spacecraft.

 NASA's Earth science and heliophysics activities fare better than astrophysics and robotic planetary exploration in the 2013 proposal. Both climate-centric pursuits would see modest funding increases.

 The Earth Science Division would continue to grow through 2015, as the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, Global Precipitation Measurement satellite, Soil Moisture Active-Passive mission and IceSat-2 proceed toward launch.

 Work on the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), a copy of a satellite lost in 2009 in the first of back-to-back Taurus XL rocket failures, is expected to conclude in time for a 2013 launch. But NASA says the switch to a different rocket for OCO-2 could delay launch until 2015, adding considerable expense.

 NASA also expects to pick a Venture Class small satellite Earth science mission later this year that would launch in 2017. Selection of the Venture Class program's first mission-of-opportunity instrument — so called because it would hitch a ride on non-NASA spacecraft — is slated for 2013.

 A number of the bigger proposed missions in NASA's Earth science queue, including Ascends, Clarreo, Desdyni and the GRACE Follow-On, face additional budget-driven delays of one to two years or more.

 Heliophysics is something of a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy science budget. The $1.4 billion Solar Probe Plus mission stands to find its footing, as NASA seeks to double its budget to $112 million in 2013 and keep it tracking toward a late-2018 launch.

 Likewise, NASA still plans to join the European Space Agency on the Solar Orbiter Collaboration. NASA's share of that 2017 mission, which includes providing the launch and two instruments, is expected to top $400 million.

 Spending on the $860 million Magnetospheric Multiscale mission is also slated to rise in 2013, although not as much as previously projected, as NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center works to complete development of the four identical spacecraft in time for a 2015 launch.

 NASA also plans to launch the $680 million Radiation Storm Belt Probes mission in September followed by the $170 million Iris satellite in mid-2013. The agency also plans to select and begin development on the next Heliospheric Explorer mission next year.

 Overall, the heliophysics budget would rise to $647 million — a 4 percent increase — and remain at about that level for several years.

Human Spaceflight

 William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said his nearly $8 billion portion of the agency's budget includes more money for international space station operations, space communications networks upgrades and the purchase of a third Tracking and Data Relay Satellite from Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems.

 Nearly half of Gerstenmaier's 2013 budget is set aside for the SLS, Orion and the Commercial Crew Program, which is soliciting proposals for a 21-month effort aimed at keeping at least two competing spacecraft on track to enter service in 2017.

 Of the $3 billion requested for SLS and Orion, roughly 10 percent would be spent on related ground systems, infrastructure and other activities. As a result, the funding directly available for SLS and Orion vehicle development would be down about $325 million from the level Congress approved for 2012. Gerstenmaier said the budget is sufficient to keep both on track for a 2017 unmanned test launch.

 The Commercial Crew Program budget, meanwhile, would rise by more than $420 million, approaching the level NASA requested for the program last year without success.

 Phil McAlister, NASA's director of commercial spaceflight development, said if Congress halves the commercial crew request, as it did last year, the program may not be worth pursuing since the vehicles might not be ready in time to support the space station. "I would say it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to do this program," McAlister told reporters Feb. 14 in Cocoa Beach, Fla. "Just one test flight is going to be a couple hundred million dollars, probably. So that's your whole year's funding, right? So it really doesn't make sense at that kind of funding level. If we felt like that's all we could get, we would definitely need to re-evaluate the program."

 Commercial crew's big increase was not lost on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a strong backer of SLS and Orion. "The Administration remains insistent on cutting SLS and Orion to pay for commercial crew rather than accommodating both," Hutchison said in a Feb. 13 press release.

 Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), a frequent Hutchison ally on NASA matters, cast the administration's request as a "balanced approach" to human spaceflight. He told attendees of the Federal Aviation Administration's Commercial Space Transportation Conference here Feb. 16 he would like to see the Commercial Crew Program funded above the $406 million it received for 2012.

 Nelson said a successful launch of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.'s unmanned Dragon capsule to the space station this spring would help make the case for increased funding. "If that occurs in April, that is going to be right at the right time, because that's about the time that the decisions are starting to be made with regard to appropriations," he said.

 Whether Congress finishes the appropriations process before November's general election is another matter.

 "I think the most likely outcome is no budget and maybe a continuing resolution for all of fiscal 2013, because it's all tied up in election-year politics," said John Logsdon, a space policy expert at the George Washington University here.

 Howard McCurdy, a public policy professor at American University, agreed. "I doubt that any of the controversial bills will be enacted before November," he told Space News.

 If Congress fails, as it has repeatedly in recent years, to enact spending legislation by the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year, NASA and other federal agencies would remain funded at current levels until a reshaped Congress and whoever wins the White House can reach agreement on a new budget.

 McCurdy, for one, doubts that NASA would come out ahead under this scenario.

 "If anything, NASA's budget will head down," he said. "Welcome to the new reality."

Guest Post: Garry Hunt: NASA Budget Cuts Do Not Make Business Sense
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003388/

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1202/23flagships/

Mars, Europa missions battle for scarce NASA funding
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: February 23, 2012

NASA officials admitted Thursday the agency's proposed fiscal 2013 planetary science budget is insufficient to accomplish most of its top objectives in the coming decade, canceling the start of a Mars sample return campaign, deferring flagship probes to the outer planets and delaying the launch of smaller Discovery-class explorer missions.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/81361.jpg)
Artist's concept of NASA and European Mars rover concepts for the now-canceled joint 2018 mission. Europe is continuing the mission without NASA support. Credit: European Space Agency
 
President Barack Obama's budget proposal for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, would drop NASA's planetary budget to less than $1.2 billion, a $309 million cut from the current year.

"This budget does not provide any funds for a flagship-level activity," said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division. "So that would mean we would need a new start. That would mean we would need the approval of the administration. That would mean we would need the approval of Congress. That would mean the economy would have to really rebound."

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, speaking Feb. 13, urged scientists, employees and the public to appreciate two flagship missions yet to accomplish their missions. They are the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory, a nuclear-powered rover now en route to the red planet, and the $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the Hubble observatory due for launch in October 2018.

"Let's be patient," Bolden said. "Let's eat this pie that we have. Let's nibble on the two flagships that we're trying to work before we bite off another one."

NASA's overall budget budget would be $17.7 billion under the Obama administration's spending plan, a slight reduction from 2012 levels. Budget officials restructured NASA's funding to pay for JWST, an infrared telescope designed to resolve the oldest galaxies in the universe, study the life-cycle of stars, and characterize planets outside the solar system.

Green presented the budget to the planetary science subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council on Thursday, the first time the research community has been able to respond directly to the space agency's funding blueprint since it was announced last week.

The budget request, which can be altered by Congress, is forcing NASA to rethink its planetary exploration strategy and compelling a partnership between the agency's scientific and human spaceflight divisions.

NASA is pulling out of a partnership with the European Space Agency on two robotic Mars missions slated to launch in 2016 and 2018. The space agencies were developing a methane-sniffing orbiter and a rover to cache rock samples, which would be retrieved on a later mission and returned to Earth.

The U.S. contribution to the Mars missions, which included instruments, launch vehicles and an entry, descent and landing system, was the top flagship scientific priority in the solar system identified by an independent panel of planetary scientists in 2011.

The planetary decadal survey, sponsored by the National Research Council, convenes every 10 years to rank the value of NASA's solar system missions. The space agency's policy is to follow the decadal survey recommendations when crafting a science program for the next decade.

Last year's decadal survey report covered the years between 2013 and 2022.

Instead of embarking on the joint program with Europe, NASA is mulling a new Mars exploration strategy, soliciting significant inputs for the first time from the agency's human spacefight directorate and technology office. A less costly, narrowly-focused Mars mission may be ready to launch by 2018, according to John Grunsfeld, the chief of NASA's science programs.

[img:bb0f1df7a4]http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1202/23flagships/europa_galileo.jpg[/img:bb0f1df7a4]
NASA's Galileo mission collected data for this color image of Jupiter's moon Europa between 1995 and 1998. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ted Stryk
 
But according to the decadal survey report, if NASA deemed the flagship-class Mars rover unaffordable for launch in 2018, the space agency's next priority is a mission to orbit Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Estimated to cost $4.7 billion, the mission was deemed to expensive for all but the most generous planetary budgets.

NASA's statements about resuming Mars missions later this decade irked some scientists promoting voyages to the outer planets, who said that if the flagship Mars rover was canceled, the decadal survey explicitly prioritized a Europa mission over other, less-ambitious Mars projects.

A mission to closely observe Europa has been on scientists' wish list for more than a decade.

The outer planets community is evaluating three options to "descope" the Europa mission, stripping some of its ambitious science goals to fit in a tighter budget. Study teams are considering a Europa orbiter emphasizing the moon's internal structure and oceans, a Jupiter orbiter programmed to fly by Europa multiple times, and a Europa lander, according to Bob Pappalardo, the Europa study scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The studies, which are due to NASA Headquarters and Congress in May, are trying to diminish the mission's cost to about $2 billion, including the purchase of a launch vehicle, Pappalardo said. Aerospace Corp. is providing an independent cost estimate of each Europa mission scenario.

Pappalardo said the Europa project was close to defining a "sub-flagship" mission to study the moon, which scientists believe harbors a liquid water ocean beneath an icy crust.

"The decadal survey is unambiguous in its Mars recommendations in that if the Mars 2018 [mission] does not go forward, there would be no Mars mission, and that we would move to the No. 2 mission, which is a descoped [Europa mission]," Pappalardo said in Thursday's subcommittee teleconference. "We have been working very hard in the past year to descope [the Europa mission]. We've done so very successfully. We have a multiple flyby mission option, for example, which will come in at the cost target that we've been given by NASA, and I want to understand why NASA is abandoning the decadal recommendation."

Green responded by saying there were simply no funds projected in NASA's budget to pay for any multi-billion-dollar planetary probes.

"Until those [Europa] studies show there is something that can be done with new funds appropriated from Congress, then we cannot announce the next flagship is Europa," Green said. "That's just not possible."

Bill McKinnon, a planetary scientist from Washington University in St. Louis, noted the planned end-of-mission crashes of NASA's Cassini and Juno orbiters into Saturn and Jupiter in 2017 could spell the end of the outer planets program.

"This is a going out of business scenario for the outer planets, and a loss of a great heritage from the Voyagers, Galileo and Cassini, and I hope that this does not come to pass," McKinnon said.

The European Space Agency is considering its own mission to Jupiter. Known by the acronym JUICE, which stands for the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, the project is one of three proposals under consideration by ESA, which plans to select a mission for implementation in April.

Like its competitors, which include an X-ray astrophysics telescope and a gravitational wave observatory, JUICE is cost-capped at about 1 billion euros, or $1.3 billion, for a scheduled liftoff in the early 2020s.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/81362.jpg)
Artist's concept of a NASA probe to study Europa. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
 
Other outer planets flagships on NASA's mission menu include orbiters to Uranus and Saturn's moon Enceladus, but the decadal survey ranked them lower than the Mars sample caching rover and the Europa orbiter.

The fiscal 2013 budget request provides less money for planetary science than even the most pessmistic funding profile considered by last year's decadal survey report. If NASA was presented with a more austere budget, scientists said the agency should preserve its line of smaller Discovery and New Frontiers solar system probes.

"It is also possible that the budget picture could be less favorable than the committee has assumed," the decadal report said. "If cuts to the program are necessary, the first approach should be descoping or delaying flagship missions. Changes to the New Frontiers or Discovery programs should be considered only if adjustments to flagship missions cannot solve the problem."

The Discovery and New Frontiers missions are currently cost-capped at $425 million and $1 billion, exclusive and inclusive of a launch vehicle, respectively. The cost caps are in the process of being raised for new selections.

The decadal survey urged NASA to ensure the selection of new Discovery-class missions every 24 months. Under the current budget request, Green said selection of another Discovery probe will not begin until fiscal year 2015, later than previously announced.

The delay means there will be about 54 months between Discovery mission selections, more than twice the gap recommended.

NASA expects to announce the next Discovery mission this summer, choosing between three finalists, which include a comet-hopping spacecraft, a Mars lander to study the red planet's interior, and a boat to float in a methane-ethane sea on Saturn's moon Titan.

The subsequent Discovery mission will probably launch some time after 2020.

The decadal survey also tasked NASA to select two New Frontiers missions between 2013 and 2022. Green said the agency is on track to pick the fourth New Frontiers probe in 2016 for launch in 2023. The timing of a follow-on New Frontiers project is unclear.

Another high-priority decadal survey recommendation was to maintain research, analysis and technology development programs within NASA's planetary division. The program's overall research budget is up in fiscal 2013, but there are reductions in technology funding.

"Planetary science has a lower priority within NASA than it had in the past," Green said. "Maybe, in a few years, planetary can begin to take advantage of a recovered economy."

Экономический кризис заставил НАСА значительно сократить программу исследований Марса

ЦитироватьВАШИНГТОН, 28 февраля. /Корр. ИТАР-ТАСС Иван Лебедев/. Управление по аэронавтике и исследованию космического пространства США значительно сокращает свою марсианскую программу. В целях бюджетной экономии НАСА отказывается от двух совместных с Европейским космическим агентством проектов изучения Красной планеты и ограничится запуском к ней лишь одного собственного спутника в 2018 году.

Эти планы обсуждались в понедельник в штаб-квартире НАСА в Вашингтоне, куда были приглашены ведущие американские ученые, занимающиеся изучением Марса. Руководитель научного управления НАСА Джон Грансфелд был вынужден подтвердить их худшие опасения: совместных с ЕКА запусков аппаратов для взятия образцов марсианского грунта в 2016 и 2018 годах не будет. Причина - сокращение бюджета космического ведомства США в следующем финансовом году на 0,3 процента. Виною всему - экономический кризис, заставивший администрацию Барака Обамы урезать государственные расходы по линии 10 федеральных ведомств. Причем НАСА, бюджет которого составит 17,7 млрд долларов, пострадало гораздо меньше других.

В результате космическое агентство США планирует отправить к Марсу через шесть лет лишь одну миссию. Возможность осуществить запуск научного зонда в 2018 году, когда Марс будет находиться на ближайшем за 15 лет расстоянии от Земли, упустить нельзя, пояснил Грансфелд. Правда, стоимость этого проекта не превысит 700 млн долларов, поэтому посадка на поверхность планеты не ожидается - автоматический аппарат должен будет просто выйти на орбиту.

Ученые, побывавшие на встрече в НАСА, не скрывали глубокого разочарования. По словам профессора Стэнфордского университета Скотта Хаббарда, услышанное просто "повергло всех в депрессию". "По существу, это означает конец марсианской программы", - заявил сотрудник Университета штата Аризона Фил Кристенсен.

В настоящее время к Марсу направляется научная лаборатория с марсоходом "Кьюриосити", запущенная с помощью ракеты "Атлас-5" 26 ноября прошлого года с космодрома на мысе Канаверал. Главная цель этой научной миссии, обошедшейся в 2,5 млрд долларов, - поиск следов микроорганизмов на Красной планете. Автоматический аппарат, движущийся со скоростью 15 тыс км в час, должен прибыть туда 5 августа. Если "Кьюриосити" успешно осуществит посадку на Марс, то следующую подобную миссию НАСА сможет организовать только лет через десять, сообщил Джон Грансфелд.

http://www.itar-tass.com/c19/353579.html

Про MAVEN Итар-Тасс забыло.

ЦитироватьГлавная цель этой научной миссии, обошедшейся в 2,5 млрд долларов

А весь РС МКС со всеми потрохами - 3,5.

Вот она какая, такая дорогая, эта самая пЕлотка :roll:

Конечно, кого же сокращать, как не её?

Заживё-ём сразу, как бАре.

Пулять сразу начнем, Кьюриосити, десятками.

ЦитироватьЗаживё-ём сразу, как бАре.

Не заживем. Т.к. АМС делать не умеем.

Planetary Society Statement on Proposed Cuts to Planetary Science Budget
http://planetary.org/blog/article/00003408/

NASA Pondering Future Standalone Flagship Program Offices

ЦитироватьWASHINGTON — NASA is considering whether future flagship science missions should be cordoned off into their own distinct program offices in the same way the budget-busting James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was pulled out of the astrophysics division and put under the agency's third in command.

"In general, with the big flagships, we're having the discussion about how we treat them [and] should we treat them differently," said NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot, the former Marshall Space Flight Center director who replaced Chris Scolese March 5 as the agency's third highest official.

Rick Howard, NASA's JWST program director, said those talks are "about 70 percent complete."

Lightfoot and Howard spoke here the week of April 2 to the National Research Council's Space Studies Board, an independent advisory panel staffed by scientists and former NASA officials.

After an independent report commissioned by Congress found that JWST was running years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, NASA took the program out of Science Mission Directorate's astrophysics division last year and put it under the supervision of the NASA associate administrator, the agency's top-ranking civil servant. The $8.8 billion program now has its own budget line, separate from the roughly $660 million the agency spends on the rest of its astrophysics portfolio.

Some scientists are asking whether all future NASA flagship science missions  should be managed in a similar fashion.

"NASA made some very special arrangements to protect that very important mission," Space Studies Board Chairman Charles Kennel, a former NASA associate administrator, said during the board's April 4 meeting. "That provoked, in our minds, the question, 'should we in the future think of the very large science missions, those that are very complex and expensive ... in a separate administrative category, with separate budgetary and administrative arrangements?"

This talk about managing future flagships took place against a NASA budgetary backdrop that makes no provision for starting any such big-ticket missions in the decade ahead.

President Barack Obama's 2013 budget proposal, released in mid-February, would drop NASA funding slightly to $17.7 billion next year and keep it there through 2017. The agency's planetary science budget, meanwhile, would drop $300 million next year to help offset a $100 million cash-infusion JWST needs to stay on track for its 2018 launch.

The planetary sciences cut is prompting NASA to withdraw from a joint Mars exploration campaign with the European Space Agency, which focused on returning a martian sample to Earth some time next decade.

Meanwhile, JWST's cost-growth siphoned off funds that might otherwise have been used to start planning future astrophysics flagship missions. For example, the 2013 request contained no funds for the Wide-field Infrared Survey Telescope, the astrophysics community's top-priority large-scale mission after JWST, which received $3 million of study money in 2011.

With JWST still six years and several billion dollars from launch and the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory still en route to the red planet, White House budget officials told the Space Studies Board that NASA would be hard pressed to fund similarly big-ticket projects in the current fiscal environment.

"There's less money to go around," said Paul Shawcross, the White House Office of Management and Budget's branch chief for science and space. "It's going to be tough for astrophysics to fit in a really big mission until we're done with James Webb, just based on budget. It would be really tough."

One of Shawcross' staffers, Joydip Kundu, said that the lack of a planetary science flagship likewise reflects the need to plan a NASA science program that can survive absent budget increases.

"The reason there isn't necessarily an explicit commitment to do a flagship within planetary in the near term is really just because of our desire to try to make sure all the pieces across the agency are fitting together within a flat budget," said Kundu, who handles NASA's science budget.

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/120406-nasa-pondering-flagship-offices.html

В принципе, если из планетных программ срежут только Марс, это не так уж страшно. детальная сьёмка и минералогическое картирование выполняется MRO. MSL проработает как минимум несколько лет, полетит MAVEN, жив ещё Opportunity, ExoMars состоится и без них, ожидаются китайский и индийский аппараты. С Марсом всё ок, не стоит драматизировать. Главное чтоб не отменили Европу и экзопланеты. Это сейчас интереснее Марса. И кстати, почему бы эти 300 млн не снять с earth science? 1,7 млрд в год не дохрена ли для одной планеты?

Budget bill provides $525 million for commercial crew

ЦитироватьWASHINGTON -- Senate appropriators released a draft NASA budget Tuesday, proposing a cut of more than $300 million from the agency's funding request for commercial space transportation, but adding money for development of the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket and Orion capsule for human exploration of deep space.
 
The Senate appropriations subcommittee for commerce, science and justice, chaired by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., approved the fiscal year 2013 budget legislation Tuesday. Fiscal year 2013 begins Oct. 1.

The House is expected to produce its own NASA budget later this year.

The White House in February requested $830 million for NASA's commercial crew program, which was chartered to foster private development of rockets and spacecraft to carry astronaut crews to and from the International Space Station. With the space shuttle's retirement, NASA must purchase seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

NASA's request for commercial crew in fiscal 2012 was cut in half by Congress, delaying the scheduled start of crew transportation services by one year until 2017. Officials have warned another significant reduction from next year's $830 million request would cause another delay.

In the budget mark-up released Tuesday, Senate appropriators would provide $525 million for commercial crew.

Some senators, including Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, have accused NASA of robbing the budget for the Space Launch System and Orion programs, which are designed for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit, to pay for commercial crew development.

Hutchison is the ranking member of the Senate appropriations subcommittee for commerce, science and justice.

The SLS and Orion budgets each saw slight cuts in the White House's fiscal 2013 request, which was released Feb. 13.

In testimony before Senate committees, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said the heavy-lift rocket and capsule were making good progress, so the space agency could afford taking some funding away from those programs, highlighting the imperative of keeping pace in the commercial crew effort.

The Senate budget proposal includes $1.2 billion for the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle and $1.5 billion for the Space Launch System. The Obama administration's budget request includes $1 billion for Orion and about $1.3 billion for the SLS program.

The Senate appropriations bill calls for restoring $100 million to NASA's Mars science programs, responding to a cut to robotic exploration of Mars in the White House's budget blueprint. The Senate budget proposal includes $461 million for unmanned Mars research.

Senators also wish to shift $1.6 billion in funding for NOAA's weather satellites to NASA, boosting the space agency's overall budget to $19.4 billion. NASA currently manages acquisition and procurement for weather satellites under a cost reimbursement agreement with NOAA.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1204/18senate/

ЦитироватьThe House and Senate bills would provide more funding for NASA's planetary science program than the White House requested. In its budget blueprint sent to Congress in February, the White House proposed reducing funding for NASA's Planetary Science Division from $1.5 billion in 2012 to less than $1.2 billion in 2013. The House bill includes $1.4 billion for planetary science, including $150 million for Mars Next Decade, an integrated Mars exploration strategy designed to address scientific and human spaceflight goals. The House directs NASA to make sure the Mars Next Decade program includes a sample-return mission with the National Research Council's stamp of approval. If the National Research Council determines, however, that NASA's proposed sample-return mission will not succeed, the money should be used instead for exploration of Jupiter's moon Europa, the bill states. The Senate plan includes $5 billion for NASA's overall science program but the committee did not release information on the amount budgeted for planetary sciences except to note that the bill includes $461 million for robotic exploration of Mars.

http://www.spacenews.com/policy/120420-nasa-faces-budget-cuts-bills.html

$17.5B NASA Spending Bill Favors Planetary Probes over Crew Taxis

ЦитироватьWASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives is slated to begin debate May 8 on a 2013 appropriations bill that would cut NASA's budget by more than $200 million, overhaul commercial crew procurement plans and potentially force the agency to begin work on a Europa orbiter instead of a Mars probe.

These provisions are part of a broader $51 billion Commerce, Justice, Science spending package approved April 26 by the House Appropriations Committee.

By voting to reduce NASA's budget to $17.57 billion — a $226 million cut that would leave the agency with its smallest budget since 2006 — House appropriators set the stage for a showdown with their Senate counterparts, who voted April 19 to raise NASA's budget to $19.4 billion and make the agency responsible for funding the civilian weather satellites it already orders on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Not counting the $1.6 billion in weather satellite money included in the Senate bill, NASA's budget would decline by $41.5 million.

Another key difference between the House and Senate bills is their treatment of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The White House is seeking $830 million in 2013 to fund continued development of two or more privately operated crew transportation systems that could be ready to haul astronauts to the international space station by 2017.

Both the House and Senate bills deny the full request, providing just $500 million and $525 million, respectively. But the House bill would also direct NASA to narrow the field of competitors sooner than the agency intends and speed the transition to traditional government contracts from the flexible Space Act Agreements the agency has been using since it started the Commercial Crew Program in 2010.

In the report accompanying their bill, House appropriators say that narrowing the field now would reduce the projected $4.8 billion cost of the program and free up money for planetary science, human space exploration, aeronautics research and other priorities.

"The Committee believes that many of these concerns would be addressed by an immediate downselect to a single competitor or, at most, the execution of a leader-follower paradigm in which NASA makes one large award to a main commercial partner and a second small award to a back-up partner," the report says.

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation, in an April 25 statement. said the changes House appropriators are proposing "would result in a significant delay in restoring U.S. human access to orbit.

"NASA has carefully designed a program that maintains competition, and preserves safety, through the development and certification process, and that uses the appropriate contracting mechanism at each stage," the statement said. "It is best to leave decisions on program management to the NASA human spaceflight professionals who have access to all the information and have worked closely with all the competing companies."

Planetary Protection

House appropriators, like their Senate counterparts, rejected a White House proposal to cut NASA's $1.5 billion planetary science budget by 20 percent next year. "Planetary science has long been one of NASA's most successful programs, and the cuts proposed in the budget request will endanger this strong record and deviate significantly from the program plan envisioned by the most recent planetary science decadal survey," House appropriators wrote in the report accompanying their bill.

House appropriators included $1.4 billion for planetary science — a 7 percent cut compared with 2012 — and directed NASA to put an additional $115 million into the Discovery and New Frontiers programs of competitively selected missions.

The House bill also carves out an additional $88 million, providing $150 million in total, for Mars Next Decade, the planning effort NASA kicked off in February after withdrawing from Europe's ExoMars sample-collection campaign. But House appropriators make clear they do not want NASA to launch a Mars mission in 2018 just for the sake of launching a Mars mission. If the National Research Council determines NASA's Mars Next Decade mission concept "will not lead to the accomplishment of sample return" — the top priority flagship-class mission in the latest decadal survey — then NASA would be required to shift the Mars money into an outer planets flagship program "in order to begin substantive work on the second priority mission, a descoped Europa orbiter," the report says.

The House bill also includes $14.5 million for an ongoing effort to restart U.S. production of plutonium-238, a radioisotope NASA uses to supply electricity to spacecraft venturing to destinations beyond the range of solar power, such as Jupiter and its icy moon Europa.

House appropriators covered these and other increases by boosting the NASA Science Mission Directorate's budget to $5 billion, which is only $5 million above this year's level but more than $180 million above what the White House is seeking.

Within the $5 billion, Earth science and heliophysics would receive "modest increases" compared with 2012, but not as much as the White House requested. The James Webb Space Telescope, which has grown so expensive that it now commands its own budget line, would get $628 million in 2013, the same as the request. Like last year's spending bill, the 2013 bill would impose an $8 billion cap on what NASA can spend on Webb through its launch in 2018.

Other highlights of the House bill include:

    * $632.5 million for NASA's Space Technology program, which is $57 million above this year's level but $66 million below request.
    * $1.99 billion for the Space Launch System (SLS) and related ground systems, or about $54 million more than those efforts received for 2012.
    * $1 billion for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, or about $200 million below this year's level.

The House bill, if it becomes law, would give NASA 180 days from enactment to submit a number of reports, including one identifying the destinations NASA intends to explore with Orion and SLS and outlining the other flight hardware — and money — the agency needs to accomplish these missions.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, in a report released in March, said NASA is evaluating 15 possible missions for Orion and SLS ranging from sending astronauts to an asteroid to landing on Mars.

"SLS program officials stated that the lack of a defined mission is a challenge when trying to design and build a vehicle, because the program will have to build the flexibilities into the design to accommodate mission specific requirements," the Government Accountability Office report said.

http://www.spacenews.com/policy/175b-nasa-spending-bill-favors-planetary-probes-over-crew-taxis.html

и насколько велик шанс, что к европе что то будет? кто из спецов по бюджетным хитросплетениям расскажет?)

Цитироватьи насколько велик шанс, что к европе что то будет? кто из спецов по бюджетным хитросплетениям расскажет?)

Если ничего умного по Марсу-2018 не придумают, вероятность повышается. Просто очередной марсианский запуск уже не вставляет :)

Video: We Must Explore

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/we-must-explore.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X_5SQPV05E

С текущими бюджетными планами NASA не сможет запустить еще один марсоход до 2020 года.
"Стационарный посадочный аппарат сможем в 2018."
"Орбитальный аппарат сделаем быстро."

Призрак Марс Сэмпл Ретурн продолжает маячить на горизонте.

Figueroa Rules Out Another NASA Mars Rover Before 2020
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/120508-figuera-rules-out-rover.html

а когда окончательно примут бюджет?

Цитироватьа когда окончательно примут бюджет?

До ноябрьских выборов -- вряд ли.

House Passes NASA Budget Bill - Minus A Few Hundred Million http://nasawatch.com/archives/2012/05/house-passes-na.html

http://spaceref.com/space-quarterly-magazine/do-budget-cuts-mean-and-end-to-flagship-programs.html

Do Budget Cuts Mean an End to Flagship Programs?

by Marcia S. Smith
 Posted June 5, 2012 10:36 AM

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/81515.jpg)

This artist's concept of a proposed Mars sample return mission.
© NASA/JPL Caltech

The Obama Administration's decision to cut NASA's planetary exploration budget for FY2013 and beyond generated howls of protest. The action forced the United States to shelve planned cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) on two Mars probes in 2016 and 2018 that were the beginning of a string of missions to fulfill the holy grail of Mars scientists - returning a sample of Mars to Earth for analysis.

As the weeks have passed, however, the news turns out to be not nearly as dire as first imagined. While the future of Mars cooperation with ESA remains unclear, a smaller U.S. mission in 2016 is a possibility and NASA is working to define a mid-sized mission that it hopes to launch in 2018 or 2020. Simultaneously, the agency is reformulating its overall Mars exploration strategy to create an integrated approach that responds to the needs of both the science and the human exploration goals of the agency.

With Congress preparing to restore $100-150 million of the money the President proposed to cut in FY2013, one almost has to ask what the fuss is all about. The series of missions leading to a Mars sample return in the next decade recommended by the National Research Council (NRC) in last year's planetary science Decadal Survey and NASA's reputation as a partner in international science projects remain at risk, but even those may survive.

The Budget Cut Heard 'Round the World

The Obama Administration's fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget request for NASA is $17.71 billion, a slight decrease from the $17.77 billion it received for FY2012. Of that, the request for the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is $4.91 billion, a little less than the $5.07 billion it got for FY2012. With determination to cut the federal deficit driving everything in Washington, austerity is the watchword amid widespread sentiment that NASA did not fare badly at all.

The ruckus is because the cut to the SMD was directed at planetary science rather than spread over all the SMD disciplines, including astrophysics, heliophysics and earth science. The request for planetary science is $1.2 billion, a 21 percent cut from the $1.5 billion it got for FY2012, while the other areas get increases. Aggravating planetary scientists in particular is the increased spending on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with its severe cost overruns. An often heard complaint is that the money from planetary science was used to pay for those overruns though NASA officials decline to make that connection.

NASA and White House officials insist that they have nothing against planetary exploration generally or Mars specifically. Instead, the reasons for cutting that part of NASA's science program were two-fold, they say. First, with a rover (Opportunity) and two U.S. orbiters (Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) already investigating Mars, another rover (Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity) on the way, and another orbiter (MAVEN) scheduled for launch next year, Mars exploration is doing fine. Second, the United States is not in a financial position to commit to the long term series of expensive "flagship" missions planned for Mars sample return, of which the 2016 and 2018 missions with ESA were the first. The 2016 ESA-led ExoMars mission is an orbiter that was to include a demonstrator to
test entry-descent-and-landing (EDL), while the 2018 NASA-led mission was to be a rover.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/81516.jpg)
Artist's impression of the Europa Jupiter System Mission which the European Space Agency might undertake with Russia and Japan after NASA funding became in doubt. NASA/ESA/Artist Michael Carroll

Flagships or No Flagships?

During a briefing to the NASA Advisory Council's Science Committee March 6, SMD chief John Grunsfeld said that the Obama Administration did not want to approve any more flagship missions until NASA had completed its current flagships, JWST and the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and its rover, Curiosity. MSL also overran its budget and suffered a two-year launch delay because of technical problems.

Grunsfeld's comment prompted speculation about whether an anti-flagship sentiment was resurfacing. In the 1990s, overruns, delays and failures on large science missions led to their being derisively referred to as "Battlestar Gallaticas" after a sci-fi television show of that era. Then-NASA Administrator Dan Goldin instituted a "faster, better, cheaper" philosophy of launching smaller missions more frequently instead of large, complex flagship missions.

With the passage of time, however, it became apparent that some scientific questions could not be answered with the smaller missions and flagships returned. For Mars, it was MSL, which launched in 2011, two years late and well over budget. It will land on Mars on August 6 EDT (August 5 PDT) using a technically challenging "sky crane" design that will have mission managers holding their breath until a signal is received that it is safely on the surface.

Despite the problems with JWST and MSL, however, Paul Shawcross, Branch Chief for Science and Space at the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), denies that the White House opposes flagships. He told the National Research Council's (NRC's) Space Studies Board on April 4 that "we're not against flagships" and there was no "bias against Mars." He insisted that the decision to cut Mars funding was budget-based.

Indeed, the "bible" of the planetary science community, the NRC's 2011 planetary science Decadal Survey, gave just that advice to NASA - if money becomes tight, cut flagships first.

The NRC, part of the National Academies, conducts Decadal Surveys at NASA's request for each of NASA's science disciplines every 10 years (hence the name "decadal";). These highly respected documents usually are faithfully followed by NASA and Congress because they represent a hard-won consensus of the scientists most directly involved in a scientific discipline, whether planetary science, astrophysics, heliophysics or earth science. The studies prioritize the most important scientific questions and identify missions to answer them.

The 2011 planetary science Decadal Survey, for the first time, not only identified priorities, but provided decision rules to guide NASA in the event budgets were less than expected. The study was chaired by Cornell University's Steve Squyres, best known as the "father" of the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. At a February meeting of NASA's Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), he stressed that the overarching consensus of the planetary science community was to protect the smaller missions in the Discovery and New Frontiers programs, along with Research and Analysis (R&A) and technology development. If anything had to be cut, the Decadal Survey's advice was to go after flagships first, exactly the path the Obama Administration followed.


This artist's concept of a proposed Mars sample return mission portrays the launch of an ascent vehicle. The solar panels in the foreground are part of a rover. The rover would have delivered to the ascent vehicle a cache of Martian rock samples that would have been left on the surface by a previous sample-collection rover. The ascent vehicle would release its sample container in Martian orbit, to be retrieved by a spacecraft for carrying the samples to Earth. NASA/JPL Caltech

A New Plan for Mars Exploration

Although the Administration decided against the Mars flagship missions planned with ESA for 2016 and 2018, at his February 13 budget briefing, Grunsfeld announced that he was initiating an effort to define a more affordable mission for launch in 2018. Mars and Earth are properly aligned in their orbits around the Sun every 26 months and some of those alignments are better than others. Grunsfeld calls 2018 a "sweet spot" and does not want to waste it. He concedes, however, that budgets may mean the mission will have to wait until the next opportunity in 2020.

He is not ruling out a mission in 2016 either. One of three missions competing in the Discovery category of smaller missions for launch in 2016 is a Mars mission called Geophysical Monitoring Station (GEMS). With MAVEN getting ready for launch in 2013, it may turn out that NASA does not miss any of the planetary alignment opportunities. NASA has launched probes to Mars at every opportunity since 1996 with one exception - 2009 - and only then because MSL was not ready.

Grunsfeld created the Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) to define options for an affordable mission for 2018. MPPG is led by former NASA Mars Exploration Program Director Orlando Figueroa and is due to make its recommendations in August. The figure of $700 million has been mentioned as a target cost for the mission. At an April 13 teleconference updating MPPG's progress, Doug McCuistion, current Mars Exploration Program Director, revealed that the money for this new Mars mission is already in his budget. Granted, budget projections beyond the current year are just that, projections, not promises, but it is a strong indication that the Obama Administration supports the idea.

One question is whether that $700 million is best spent on a Mars mission that was not identified as a priority in the Decadal Survey, but is only now being conceptualized. The whole point of the Decadal Survey is to look at all the scientific priorities for solar system exploration - not only Mars - and decide what should be done first. Squyres said at the MEPAG meeting that under the Decadal Survey's decision rules, new missions to Mars "that lead directly to sample return" have very high priority, but any mission that does not should be openly competed in the Discovery program, not given an automatic nod. Thus, if whatever emerges from the MPPG does not "lead directly to sample return," it would be inconsistent with the Decadal Survey, even though the money apparently already has been put in the Mars budget line.

Congress is very supportive of Mars exploration - and of Decadal Survey recommendations. On April 19, the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee approved its version of the bill that will fund NASA for FY2013, adding $150 million for planetary exploration. It stipulates that the money be used for a Mars mission, but only if the NRC certifies that it is consistent with the Decadal Survey. If not, the money will go to the Decadal Survey's second priority for flagship missions, a probe to study Jupiter's moon Europa. The same day, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the bill, adding $100 million for a Mars mission, without the conditions included by the House subcommittee.

Meanwhile, Grunsfeld, a former astronaut as well as a scientist, is leading a makeover of NASA's overall Mars exploration strategy. NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden tapped Grunsfeld to lead an intra-agency NASA team to reformulate the agency's strategy for exploring Mars. The new plan is intended to address the needs of both SMD and the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD). Grunsfeld, HEOMD Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier, Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati and Chief Technologist Mason Peck are devising an "integrated strategy" of robotic and human space exploration to meet President Obama's mandate to send people to the vicinity of Mars in the 2030s.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/81517.jpg)
The proposed Flagship mission Titan Saturn System Mission would consist of a NASA orbiter and an ESA lander and research balloon. NASA/ESA

International Cooperation

What does all this mean for international cooperation? NASA has a rich history of international cooperation dating back to its origin in 1958. The poster child is the 15-nation International Space Station (ISS) that brings together the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and 11 European countries acting through ESA.

ESA is NASA's closest international partner, particularly in space science. In 2009, NASA and ESA signed an agreement to essentially merge their Mars exploration programs. As Obama Administration officials carefully point out, the agreement did not commit either side to participate in any joint missions. Rather it was a framework for ESA and NASA to work together to define "the most viable joint mission architectures." Still, the intent was clear - not simply choosing a single mission on which the two agencies would cooperate as done so many times in the past, but a new approach, joint planning for a series of missions over many years leading to a sample return from Mars.

NASA informally signaled ESA last summer that budget constraints might require a change in plans, but formal notification had to await release of the FY2013 budget in February. ESA had discussions with Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, last year to determine its level of interest in joining ExoMars. ESA and Russia also have a history of cooperation. Russia lost its Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt, in a November 2011 mishap, and was open to the possibility. It now has replaced the United States as ESA's partner on ExoMars.

NASA officials insist that international cooperation is essential to its programs and certainly wants to continue working with ESA. Jim Green, Director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, publicly praises ESA for responding "with vision and not with anger" at NASA pulling out of ExoMars. ESA's Rolf deGroot, who heads the ExoMars program, was gracious at the February MEPAG meeting. When asked if ESA might be interested in participating in whatever program emerges from the MPPG deliberations, de Groot said "We are open to discuss any opportunities for cooperation."

NASA's international partners are accustomed to the zigs and zags of the U.S. space program, not that it makes such changes any easier to digest. One may wonder why any country chooses to cooperate with us at all. The answer probably lays in the fact even at a reduced level of $1.2 billion, the NASA planetary science budget dwarfs that of any other space agency and NASA's technical prowess is unmatched.

So despite the need for extreme flexibility when cooperating with the United States, many countries do and the majority of NASA's science missions involve international cooperation. Grunsfeld estimated at the April 13 MPPG update that three quarters of NASA's science missions are international. As for the international ramifications of walking away from the 2016 and 2018 Mars missions, OMB's Joydip (JD) Kundu told the NRC Space Studies Board on April 3 that budget constraints demanded that something in SMD be cut, and whatever mission was chosen probably would have involved reneging on an international commitment.

What's Next?

The MPPG report is due in August, the same month that MSL's rover, Curiosity, will land on Mars. Whether that landing succeeds or fails could be a factor in support for future Mars probes. As noted, the $2.5 billion mission is relying on a technically challenging system called a sky crane that looks precarious in a YouTube video animation.

Though public fascination with Mars seems to transcend failures like the three that occurred in the 1990s (Mars Observer, Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander), prognosticating on what will happen if Curiosity fails is itself a risky business. In today's environment with every penny being counted, enthusiasm for the increases currently included in the House subcommittee and Senate committee versions of NASA's funding bill could evaporate. A successful landing, conversely, could fuel subsequent Mars budget increases.

Mars is not the only fascinating object in the solar system and scientists advocating missions to the outer planets are vying for the same pot of money. Whatever happens with Mars this year, the budget wars are far from over.

интересно: Джэйм Перейра, декан факультета аэронавтики и астронавтики МИТ, предсказывает некоторое падение интереса к космонавтике в ближайшие годы в США. Учебные программы претерпевают соответствующие изменения: введен специализированный план, "инженер в аэрокосмической области с углубленным изучением ИТ", и "вообще инженер" на факультете, чтобы выпускники могли идти работать в любую отрасль.

еще интересно: из диалога с президентом американского инженерного общества Доном Гидденсом - аэрокосмическая отрасль США испытывает нехватку самого продуктивного слоя инженеров - 35-45 лет! есть "монстры", реализовывавшие грандиозные программы прошлого, но они уже старенькие, есть молодежь зеленая - а "среднего" возраста дефицит!

в общем, хоть и за океаном, а проблемы схожие с нашей космонавтикой...

Так вот о секвестре текущего бюджета-2013, который не утвержден Конгрессом и исполняется пока по графику 2012 ф.г.
Очередной бюллетень Американского института физики под названием FYI #30: Mechanics of Sequestration поясняет механику предстоящего со 2 марта секвестра, потому как никаких препятствий ему не предвидится.
(1) Секвестру подлежит 85 млрд расходов федерального бюджета.
(2) Оборонные статьи будут сокращены примерно на 8%, остальные на 5% в годовом исчислении.
(3) Так как 5 месяцев из 12 уже прошло, остаток годовых сумм придется урезать на 13% и 9% соответственно.
(4) Буква закона такова, что урезанию в равной степени подлежат все расходы вплоть до уровня отдельных программ и проектов. Нельзя сохранять одни статьи расходов на уровне 100% за счет более масштабного сокращения других.
(5) В общем, будет невесело.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1302/23sequestration/#.USo1pDe55eE

ЦитироватьCommercial crew program threatened by budget cuts
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: February 23, 2013

Automatic spending cuts due to go into effect March 1 would likely extend U.S. reliance on Russia for human spaceflight, delay development of badly-needed next-generation weather satellites, and force a reduction in radar scans searching for space debris, according to Obama administration officials.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/27689.jpg)
Artist's concept of Boeing's CST-100 commercial crew spacecraft. Credit: Boeing
 
That's if Congress and the White House don't act to avoid the across-the-board cuts, which will be automatically triggered at the end of next week without a compromise on how to deal with the federal government's budget deficit.

NASA would lose about $894 million fr om its current budget outlook in the period between March 1 and Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2013.

According to a letter to the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, the space agency's commercial crew program would suffer the brunt of the budget cuts.

By the second half of 2013, NASA says it will be unable to make payments to companies working on private spaceships under the agency's commercial crew program.

"Overall availability of commercial crew transportation services would be significantly delayed, thereby extending our reliance on foreign providers for crew transportation to the International Space Station," Bolden wrote in a letter to Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

NASA has public-private partnership agreements with Boeing Co., SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. to fund the design and testing of commercial spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to the space station. NASA makes payments to the companies upon completion of predetermined development milestones.

Until a commercial provider becomes operational, which NASA projects by 2017, U.S. astronauts will ride Russian Soyuz spacecraft while voyaging to the space station and back to Earth.

Спойлер

Bolden wrote the automatic cuts, known as sequestration, could cause launch delays for NASA's scientific research satellites and potential cancellations of space technology projects, such as advanced communications, radiation protection, nuclear systems and other fields.

The White House and Congress agreed on the sequestration plan in 2011 as part of a compromise to raise the federal government's debt lim it. Sequestration was meant to be a "poison pill" to compel leaders in both parties to reach an agreement to rein in the budget deficit.

But lawmakers could not come to a resolution, and Congress reached a deal Jan. 1 to put off the spending cuts for two months and extend current income tax rates for individuals earning less than $400,000 and households earning less than $450,000.

Sequestration was originally set to go into effect at the beginning of 2013. It impacts all federal discretionary spending, slashing 8.2 percent annually from non-defense government agencies and 9.4 percent from military programs.

Unless Congress and the Obama administration agree on targeted budget cuts - sparing some programs and still hitting others - every corner of the government's military, research and regulatory apparatus will see their funding reduced.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/27690.jpg)
Artist's concept of next-generation GOES weather satellites. Credit: NOAA
 
NOAA's next-generation geostationary weather observatories, currently scheduled for launch in 2015 and 2017, would face a delay of two or three years if the automatic budget cuts take effect and stay in place.

"This delay would increase the risk of a gap in satellite coverage and diminish the quality of weather forecasts and warnings," said Rebecca Blank, acting Secretary of Commerce.

Defense Department officials say sequestration would be devastating to the military, predicting thousands of furloughs and decreased combat readiness.

Air Force Space Command announced Feb. 8 it would reduce some missile warning and space surveillance operations.

Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force chief of staff, told a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on Feb. 13 that Space Command would curtail observations using secondary radars to monitor for missile attacks and track objects in orbit.

The Air Force uses satellites and a network of ground-based radars for the early warning and surveillance tasks.

"We don't have as much redundancy now in the system and we don't have as much capacity to track objects in orbit," Welsh said.

Even if sequestration takes hold, it could be short-lived. The government's current budget resolution runs out March 27, and Congress must pass another budget by then to avoid a government shutdown. The new budget could include deficit reductions directed at specific programs, instead of across-the-board cuts.

[свернуть]

ЦитироватьHow Will Sequestration Affect NASA?

by Nancy Atkinson on March 1, 2013
 http://www.universetoday.com/100377/how-will-sequestration-affect-nasa/ 
Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday (https://twitter.com/#%21/universetoday) on Twitter

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/84430.jpg) (http://ut-images.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/20120823-bolden.jpg)

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden addresses the media at SpaceX's main hangar in Cape Canaveral, FL. The sequester will affect both NASA and SpaceX. Credit: NASA.
It seems the US in not going to avoid the sequester — the $85 billion worth of federal spending cuts due to kick in March 1, 2013. There will be across the board cuts to government agencies, applying equally to defense and non-defense spending, and will affect services from meat inspections to air traffic control. In some cases, federal workers will be furloughed or could stand to lose as much as 20 percent of their pay. One question no one can answer is how long it will take for Congress and the Obama administration to come to an agreement on a package that would reduce the deficit.
But in the near term, how will it affect NASA?
"Sequestration would significantly set back the ambitious space exploration plan the President and Congress have asked NASA to carry out," NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said in a message to NASA employees this week. "These damaging cuts would slash roughly 5 percent from the agency's current annual budget during the remaining seven months of the 2013 fiscal year, a loss of about $726 million from the President's budget request. This could further delay the restarting of human space launches from U.S. soil, push back our next generation space vehicles, and hold up development of new space technologies.
In hard numbers, NASA's overall budget would drop to $16.9 billion, down from the $17.8 billion Congress approved last year.
NASA civil servants are safe from furloughs, but NASA contractors will see cuts in their contracts.
Additionally, spending on the commercial crew program would be reduced to $388 million, which is $18 million less than it is currently spending and $441.6 million less than the agency had been planning to spend in 2013. Boeing, Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX are all under contract to meet performance milestones to deliver cargo and ultimately crew (by 2017) to the International Space Station.
In a separate letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, (D-MD) Bolden said NASA's commercial crew partners would be affected by this summer, as NASA would no longer be able to fund upcoming events such as a test of Boeing's CST-100 orbital maneuvering and attitude control engine in July, a September review of an in-flight abort test SpaceX plans to conduct in April 2014, and an October integrated system and safety analysis review of Sierra Nevada's DreamChaser space plane.


Howard Bloom, founder of the Space Development Steering Committee, said these cuts to commercial crew would be a disaster, delaying when US astronauts could launch on US rockets, and would just "shovel" money to Russia.


"This nip and tuck may result in a period of an additional one to two years in which America cannot get astronauts to the International Space Station on our own launch vehicles," he said in a statement sent to Universe Today. "But we are committed to manning the Space Station. How will we do it? Using Russian Soyuz capsules. At a price of $63 million paid to the Russians for each American passenger– a total of $350-400 million per year."
Even worse, Bloom said, sequestration could eliminate one of more of the companies working on American launch vehicles, and the result would be "less competition and a potentially higher cost per launch once a new vehicle comes into service."
Science and research will also be affected, with reductions of $51.1 million below the FY 2013 budget request for astrophysics and science, meaning funding for new missions such as Explorer and Earth Venture Class will be cut, decreasing mission selections by 10 to 15 percent, resulting in lower funding levels for new activities and causing some launch delays. There will also be a reduction in the number of science flight opportunities such as those for college and high school students, and the elimination of Centennial Challenges funding to for any new prizes.
NASA's Space Technology Program would be cut by $24 million to $550 million instead of $699 million, and any updates or construction at NASA facilities would be centers would be canceled. This may impact updates at Kennedy Space Center for infrastructure needed for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, and other programs.
As far as other science programs in the US there are reports (http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/02/sequestration-to-kill-1000-nsf-grants/) that at least 1,000 National Science Foundation grants will be cut, and the National Institute of Health will lose $3.1 billion. (http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2013/02/nih-director-senator-mikulski-wa.html)
"We will continue to keep you informed as we learn more about issues surrounding the potential sequestration," Bolden said in his email to NASA employees. Dr. Elizabeth Robinson, Agency Chief Financial Officer, and her staff in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer here at NASA HQ will be following up with the Officials in Charge regarding our plans for implementing sequestration and how those plans will affect NASA's day-to-day operations. Please feel free to contact her or her staff with questions or concerns."

ЦитироватьPosted on Mar 03, 2013 08:24:29 AM | Administrator Charles Bolden |:
Industry's success in developing new space transportation systems is enabling NASA to focus on President Obama's goals of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s. We continue to develop the space technologies to make these missions possible even as we marvel at the ingenuity of our commercial partners in taking us to low Earth orbit on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, all of this progress could be jeopardized with the sequestration ordered by law to be signed by the President Friday evening. The sequester could further delay the restarting of human space launches from U.S. soil, push back our next generation space vehicles, hold up development of new space technologies, and jeopardize our space-based, Earth observing capabilities.

Ждем пятницы...

A Victory for Exploration
 
Planetary Science Funding is Restored for 2013

I'm breaking out of a long-planned vacation to share some great news with everyone. Congress just passed a bill that achieves essentially every major policy goal of the Planetary Society in regards to NASA's Planetary Science program.

On March 21st, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR933 (http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/news/cr-clears-congress-funds-government-for-remainder-of-fy2013), the Senate's version of a spending bill to fund the federal government for the rest of the year. Contained in this bill is new language restoring more than $200 million to NASA's Planetary Science program, reversing the vast majority of cuts proposed in President Obama's 2013 budget request. The President still needs to sign this bill to make it law, but that is expected to happen within the next few days.

The bill also specifically funds Plutonium-238 production, required for deep-space missions, and pre-formulation activities for a major mission to Europa. Also restored is a significant funding for the small planetary mission program, Discovery, which should increase the pace of these small, effective missions and move the next opportunity up to 2014 (from 2015 or 2016). I discuss in detail all of benefits here, in an earlier post. (http://www.planetary.org/blogs/casey-dreier/2013/20130312-proposed-senate-bill-restores-223-million-to-planetary-science.html)

This funding is still subject to the sequester, as is NASA's entire budget, which suffers an overall cut of almost $1 billion in this bill from the President's 2013 budget request. There is still a long way to go to ensure a strong future of exploration in the United States. We've won the battle, but 2014 and the future years remain ahead.

But still, this is huge news. I can't thank you enough for the work you've done in reaching out to Congress and the President to help defend this effective, exciting, and affordable division within NASA. Over sixty-thousand of our members and other supporters wrote and called their representatives and the President in support of this issue. Congress heard you. Our voices made a difference.

We need to keep this momentum. Your support of our Advocacy program and membership (http://planetary.org/join) make this possible.
We'll keep you posted as we learn the exact details of what this means for NASA. But for now, I say thank you again, because I feel I can't say it enough.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/casey-dreier/2013/20130321-a-victory-for-exploration.html

ЦитироватьNASA Chief: We Will Renegotiate Contracts If Sequester Continues
By Frank Morring, Jr.
   
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/85839.jpg)
   
April 29, 2013
A continuation of across-the-board budget sequestration into fiscal 2014 will force NASA to renegotiate contracts, including those for commercial resupply of the International Space Station, and begin furloughing employees, according to Administrator Charles Bolden.

Testifying on NASA's fiscal 2014 budget request before the Senate Appropriations Committee April 25, Bolden said the agency has been able to accommodate the fiscal 2013 sequestration without furloughs or major programmatic disruptions. That will change Oct. 1 if sequestration continues, he told Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA.

Спойлер

"My assumption in recommending this budget to the president, and the president's assumption in sending it to the Congress, was that between him and all of you, with 100 senators and 400-plus members of Congress, we are going to solve the sequester problem in this budget coming out," Bolden said. "If that is not done, . . . it will impact the priorities that NASA and the Congress agreed to."

Impacts could include a delay in the planned 2018 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope—a Goddard Space Flight Center project that Mikulski is watching closely—as well as the planned 2017 first flight of the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS), continued development of the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle and plans to begin flying U.S. crews on commercial spacecraft now being developed with partial NASA funding in 2017. The agency has long said that date will slip if Congress does not fund the program at the $822 million level requested in fiscal 2014, and Bolden said continued sequestration will also cause delays.

SpaceX already has delivered two loads of cargo to the International Space Station under its 12-flight, $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract, and Orbital Sciences plans to complete its demonstration missions and begin fulfilling its eight-flight, $1.9 billion CRS contract this year. But Bolden cautioned that will change if sequestration continues.

"I'll have to renegotiate those contracts," he said. "We won't fly the number of missions that we have. Right now we're flying 20 commercial cargo missions to the International Space Station over the next five years for three-point-some-odd billion dollars, an incredible value to the nation. I can't carry that out under sequester."

And while the agency has been able to avoid furloughing civil servants in fiscal 2013, "in all probability I will have to furlough . . . I'm not telling anybody I can work a miracle. If we cannot get out from under sequester, all bets are off."

Bolden said a 2014 sequester would take the agency budget down to about $16.2 billion from $16.8 billion this year. Mikulski has proposed a 1% transfer authority within agencies to help smooth the impact of continued sequestration, but Bolden said it would not be enough.

[свернуть]

 

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_04_29_2013_p04-01-574140.xml
   
Чарльз Болден сказал, что продолжение секвестра бюджета НАСА в 2014 финансовом году вынудит агентство пересмотреть условия контрактов. В результате могут поплыть правее сроки запуска телескопа Джеймс Вебб, (запланировано на 2018 год), на первый запуск SLS (2017), и начало полетов астронавтов на МКС на коммерческом корабле (2017).

ЦитироватьWILL NASA CUT COMMERCIAL RESUPPLY SERVICES?
 
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/85840.png)
 
NASA Administrator Major General Charles Bolden says he will have to make cuts to NASA's "Commercial Resupply Services" contract, Aviation Week reports.

NASA has awarded CRS contracts to Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences Corporation for 12 and 8 cargo missions, valuaed at $1.6 billion and $1.9 billion, respectively.

On April 25, General Bolden told the Senate Appropriations Committee, "I'll have to renegotiate those contracts. We won't fly the number of missions that we have. Right now we're flying 20 commercial cargo missions to the International Space Station over the next five years for three-point-some-odd billion dollars, an incredible value to the nation. I can't carry that out under sequester."

Спойлер

It's hard to see how the proposed renegotiation would save money, however. The International Space Station needs a certain number of cargo flights to operate. There are some optional science experiments, but science aboard ISS is already severely restricted and it's hard to see how it could be cut much further.

Unless NASA takes drastic measures, such as mothballing ISS, cargo flights are not optional. If NASA reduces the number of flights purchased from SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, it will have to increase the number of cargo flights provided by foreign partners (chiefly Russia). Since Russian flights are more expensive, this move would cost money, rather than saving money. NASA often contracts with foreign partners to provide flights through barter agreements, however, rather than cash deals. That enables both parties to hide the true cost of the arrangement. This is a game NASA officials have played often in the past.

Making things even harder are members of the so-called "new space" community who are divorced from budget reality. At this month's Space Access Conference in Phoenix, James Muncy, president of the lobbying firm PoliSpace and co-founder of the Space Frontier Foundation, called for another big government space program, not to meet any specific purpose but merely to give the Space Launch System something to do. "SLS needs a destination," Muncy said. Dr. Phillip Chapman, who was sitting next to him, retorted, "The destination should be the scrap heap."

Dr. Chapman, who was one of the scientist-astronauts who trained but never flew during the Apollo program, is concerned not only with the growth of the Federal budget but also the effects of the Space Launch System, which would actually increase the cost of access of space. Chapman views cheap access to space as the key to all future space programs, both government and commercial, and sees the Space Launch System as a misguided step backward.

Such arguments did not sway everyone. Mr. Muncy explained that, as a lobbyist, he could not afford to take controversial positions against government programs since Congress would "take it out" on his other clients. Such political hostage taking is, of course, common in Washington and usually effective. As the old joke goes, "Profiles in Courage is a very thin book."

Courage will be necessary if America's space-policy problems are to be fixed, however, and that courage will have to come from outside the Beltway. Space policy is too important to be left to the wonks.

[свернуть]

http://www.citizensinspace.org/2013/04/will-nasa-cut-commercial-resupply-services/ (http://www.citizensinspace.org/2013/04/will-nasa-cut-commercial-resupply-services/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=will-nasa-cut-commercial-resupply-services)
 
А здесь есть кое-что о подковерной борьбе вокруг этого секвестра бюджета и выборе приоритетов НАСА. Кстати, Болден сказал, кроме всего прочего, что объем американских исследований на МКС, кроме всего прочего, ограничен возможностями доставки грузов на орбиту.

ЦитироватьValerij пишет: начало полетов астронавтов на МКС на коммерческом корабле (2017).

Интересно, в каком году НАСА решится заявить, что к МКС их ПК  летать не будут?

ЦитироватьLRV_75 пишет:

ЦитироватьValerij пишет: начало полетов астронавтов на МКС на коммерческом корабле (2017).

Интересно, в каком году НАСА решится заявить, что к МКС их ПК летать не будут?

Если МКС окончательно сломается в 2015, в этом же году и скажут.

LRV_75 и instml, ваши сообщения гораздо больше говорят о вас, чем о Бюджете НАСА.

ЦитироватьValerij пишет:
 LRV_75 и instml, ваши сообщения гораздо больше говорят о вас, чем о Бюджете НАСА.

в 2015 году будете опять говорить, что этого не говорили, так же как и про эффективность частной космонавтики и Маска с численностью работников в 300 человек . Проходили уже

ЦитироватьLRV_75 пишет:

ЦитироватьValerij пишет:
 LRV_75 и instml, ваши сообщения гораздо больше говорят о вас, чем о Бюджете НАСА.

в 2015 году будете опять говорить, что этого не говорили

Пардон, о чем говорить? О бюджете НАСА? Так это цитата, там есть первоисточник.
   

ЦитироватьLRV_75 пишет:
 так же как и про эффективность частной космонавтики

Доказанный факт. Вы попробуйте оспорить с цифрами и фактами в руках, но в соответствующей теме.
   

ЦитироватьLRV_75 пишет:
 и Маска с численностью работников в 300 человек.

Вы о чем? Хотите доказать, что у Маска в SpaceX никогда не работало 300 человек?
Доказывайте. С фактами в руках и в соответствующей теме.
Теперь видно?