Бюджет NASA-2013

[Salo]

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.

[Salo]

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.

[instml]

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

By Bill Nye

Today, 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/

[Salo]

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

[Salo]

SFN: NASA's 2013 budget boosts manned space, reduces Mars[/size]

[Salo]

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

[ааа]

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!

[Myth]

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!

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

[Apollo13]

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

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

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

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

On 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

[Salo]

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."

[instml]

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

[Salo]

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.


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.


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."

[instml]

Экономический кризис заставил НАСА значительно сократить программу исследований Марса

ВАШИНГТОН, 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.

[Зомби. Просто Зомби]

Главная 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.

[instml]

Заживё-ём сразу, как бАре.

Не заживем. Т.к. АМС делать не умеем.

[instml]

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

[instml]

NASA Pondering Future Standalone Flagship Program Offices

WASHINGTON — 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

[Georgij]

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?