To End The FReepathon
Posted on 12/08/2015 9:47:22 AM PST by Elderberry
NASA has been part of the International Space Station for the last 15 years, but now it's slowly spreading its wings, making it known that it is letting go of the facility to pursue its goals of flying beyond low-Earth orbit.
In an advisory council meeting early December, William Gerstenmaier, NASA human spaceflight chief, said that the agency is making the move to get out of the ISS as quickly as possible, regardless of whether or not its absence is filled by the private sector. This statement is striking because while NASA is clear about its desire to see commercial industries in the U.S. thrive in space, it is not keen on making sure that happens. Instead, NASA is committed towards bringing humans closer to the moon, in an area called cislunar space.
This decision to drop involvement in the ISS is mostly a cost-cutting move. Right now, NASA has a budget of around $3 billion every year. By 2020, this figure is expected to reach around $4 billion. Given the high costs of space exploration, the agency will not be able to afford keeping both a space station program and one for human exploration in cislunar space.
Gerstenmaier's statement comes at a time when there is a debate about what would be the fate of activity in low-Earth orbit once NASA breaks away from the ISS. One of the likeliest results is that the space station will be deorbited safely, breaking apart as it enters the Earth's atmosphere before falling into the Pacific Ocean.
Aside from research possibilities, the ISS also offers commercial opportunities like space tourism, to continue funding its operation.
"We really want to open up low-Earth orbit to the terrestrial markets, and I want the private sector to explore," said Gerstenmaier.
There remains uncertainty, but he made it clear that NASA must at some point move on if the U.S. ever wants to make it into deep space. No one is sure if going to Mars is viable, but the agency has started developing tools to be able to send astronauts to cislunar space at least towards the end of 2020. The effort will be costly, however, once again opening up the practicality of dropping ISS involvement to reallocate funding.
That means the ISS will become an orbiting Russian battle station.
Don’t let them kid you: The USA is as broke as the USSR was in 1989.
Somebody look at this chart and tell me this is where we should start cutting the budget:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ce/Fy2010_spending_by_category.jpg
We’re leaving ISS because we’re going to the moon. In about 50 years.
We are gifting it to the Russians. We already rely on the Russians for taxi service. Pathetic.
NASA has funds for Muslim outreach!
Taking Moooslims along? (Actually, the moon would be a great place for all of them. After all, they worship it.)
Or Russia is about to take back ownership of most of the station anyway. Just another way for NASA to ‘look good’ while actually doing nothing on a shrinking budget, with a shrinking workforce, whose Mars run will end up being canceled in some future budget, so they can concentrate on climate change and muslim outreach.
This decision to drop involvement in the ISS is mostly a cost-cutting move. Right now, NASA has a budget of around $3 billion every year. By 2020, this figure is expected to reach around $4 billion.
...
So NASA is finally admitting it was a boondoggle as it upgrades to the next boondoggle.
“but now it’s slowly spreading its wings, making it known that it is letting go of the facility to pursue its goals of flying beyond low-Earth orbit”
This the same NASA that cant get anyone to the ISS at the moment? THAT nasa?
Social Security, Welfare, Medicare, and Medicaid must ALL be eliminated.
it means that the ISS has outlived it’s usefulness
it means that to move beyond that which is thoroughly known, money must be spent on elsewhere
The Russians won’t be able to afford to keep it up there either. As the article said, they will deorbit it and cause it to fall into the Pacific Ocean.
Obama set a priority of Muslims relations for NASA so when I read the headline I saw “ISIS”.
What they need to do is focus on ROBOTIC development of the moon. Manned missions are to risky and too expensive. Robots are cheaper and less risky and more to the point, they would advance new technology and position us to maximize the spinoff value of space exploration. We need to become the world leader of robotic technology.
NASA is an agency in need of an enema to flush out a bowel full of bureaucracy and bloat. The ISS should be maintained minimally as a port of safety in orbit should you have a damaged ship.
NASA was going back to the moon under Bush43, but el-presidente said no, kill the program, then he brings back the Orion program to land on asteroids? Now we are headed back to the moon it seems. Make a decision and stick to it. Does it support America’s needs? I think we need a manned space program, does the government have to run it? No. Are there commercial boosters that can do this if so why reinvent the wheel?
How about we go back to the moon, build a permanent base and then lets head toward Mars at a slow steady pace. You don’t have the end of the decade time limit you had with Apollo and JFK, but you need to show progress to keep the public’s attention and playing it bureaucrat safe will get you to Mars in 75 or 80 yrs.
HUD, welfare, department of education. . .etc. . .just a quick glance.
I suspect the DOE’s (Depts of Energy and Education) have been used to funnel money to all sorts of black projects for a long time, which is why they still exist.
Wish that money was all being funneled through Defense, which is where it used to be funneled, but you can’t have everything.
Both of those departments need to go. The Air Force needs to go too. DOT needs to go away. Department of Interior could handle all their jobs. ICC needs to go. We don’t need anyone regulating interstate commerce at this day and age.
I’ll bet we could build an aircraft carrier, in a bottle, in geosynchronous orbit for the money you and I just saved.
If we leave who pays the cable and garbage service?
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