Questions About NASA's Budget Plans

Phil Plait had a good article in Slate earlier this week that questions NASA's reliance on the planned Space Launch System (SLS), noting it may be a drag on entire space program, enrich large contractors over smaller, more nimble competitors (e.g., SpaceX), and keep us on a path that relies on the Russians for entry into space.  Not a very good series of events.  He notes, 

Bottom line: [Senator] Shelby’s addition makes it easier for SLS to get built, and harder for commercial companies to build their own vehicles to send humans into space (and, importantly, can do it far, far cheaper than SLS can). That means we’ll have to rely on the Russians more for the time being. That’s something we really, really need to stop doing. They’re gouging us for rides to space, and their political situation isn’t exactly the most conducive for us right now...And worst of all, we still don’t have a clear and sustained purpose for SLS. Our government wants to spend billions upon billions of dollars on a rocket for no defined reason. It’s maddening. 

This is what you get when you run a space program via a committee of 535 politicians who are more interested in the jobs for their districts than the overall benefits for mankind.  Maybe the silver lining concerning tensions with Russia is that we start to think of competing in space again.  That seemed to get us to the moon, and it may be necessary to get us to Mars.

Image Credit:  NASA - http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/623766main_8143_Singer-AD_industry_day-021312_FINAL3.pdf