Posted on 02/13/2018 2:26:18 AM PST by Simon Green
The Trump administration's budget request for fiscal year 2019 calls for work on a major NASA space observatory and five Earth-science missions to be canceled. NASA's Office of Education would also be terminated.
The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), which would have used an existing spy satellite retired from the National Reconnaissance Office, would no longer receive funding. According to the White House's 2019 budget request, released today (Feb. 12), WFIRST would have required a significant funding increase. Instead, the budget proposal requests that the funding go to smaller astrophysics missions.
The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite; the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3) experiment; the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) Pathfinder; the Radiation Budget Instrument (RBI), which was canceled in January; and the Earth-viewing instruments of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) mission would also be canceled under the Trump administration's budget proposal. The five climate missions were also nixed in the administration's 2018 budget request.
WFIRST would have given scientists 100 times the field of view of the Hubble Space Telescope in infrared light, letting scientists investigate dark energy, dark matter, the evolution of the universe and distant planets around other stars. NASA was in the middle of a review for WFIRST after an independent analysis found that the space telescope could cost at least $3.6 billion; NASA was trying to reduce the cost to $3.2 billion.
"The Budget redirects funding from [WFIRST] to completed research including smaller, principal-investigator-led astrophysics missions," White House officials wrote in the budget document. "These missions have a history of providing high scientific impact while training the next generation of scientists and engineers." The $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which will also survey the universe's infrared light but with a narrower field of view, still receives funding under the budget request, they added.
Gotta say I would’ve gone with the telescope and just ditch the earth science stuff.
Someone has to set priorities on government funding. Not every item on everyone’s wish list MUST be funded.
Those wanting to preserve the items set to be cut, need to lobby on behalf of cancelling specific other projects, making the case that their favorites are more deserving than something else.
Spaceman is on his way to the outer universe in a Tesla ... NASA is .....
The $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which will also survey the universe’s infrared light but with a narrower field of view, still receives funding under the budget request, they added.
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And one problem either during launch or operation could flush that entire $8.8 billion down the toilet.
As far as WFIRST, being given a telescope and saying you still need billions to do anything with it is just asking to be popped in the mouth.
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That’s a great way to put it.
Cutting the global warming projects. Good.
Obama used 40% of NASA’s budget looking for evidence of global warming. I haven’t seen any results of that.
We already have one diamond encrusted telescope putting many billions of dollars at risk. If NASA wants another they need to do it cheaper.
I believe that, technically, people cannot “own” part of the Moon and exploit its resources for private gain.
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I think there’s a treaty that covers the Moon. But asteroids are up for grabs and would be more profitable anyway.
NASA needs to decide if they want to remain relevant in space or become a bunch of desk bound bureaucrats screaming the sky is falling and getting it wrong all the time.
If they want to be relevant cut a ton of redundancy and bureaucracy out of the agency, go back to the moon with manned missions and show they are the NASA of the 1960’s not the scared of their own shadow and everyone has a job even though we are doing nothing clock punchers.
Make the cuts, do a LEO Orion mission and then do an Apollo 8 style mission to the moon when the big SLS booster comes on line or use the Falcon Heavy if they can make it manned rated. Ask private companies to submit on their own dimes a lunar lander, good Lord do something but sit and ossify in to fossils.
And they need to fire idiots like Hansen and his global warming BS.
I don’t object to that part. They all need to be sent to Outer Space, one-way.
Thanks Simon Green. The cancellations undermine the global warming hoax people.
Russians are working on mining asteroids... grown up projects. That's where we need to be too.
They could Launch Payloads into Deep Space using a Magnetic Rail System (like the ones used on Rollercoasters) from the Moon.
In the Movie “Moon”, they launched the mined Helium 3 back to Earth using one. Great idea, no Launch propellant required.
They pushed back the Launch of the Webb Telescope from October 2018 to mid 2019. (nothing to do with Trump’s NASA Budget proposal)
That Telescope will stationed a Million Miles away, not in Earth Orbit (like Hubble) and will see farther than any other Telescope before it.
It will be amazing if it works. There is no fixing it after it’s launched.
Earth Observation and Earth Science are valid missions. Its when the missions and data are used to promote an agenda that things go south. Judging by title, any of these missions may be perfectly valid and valuable. The questions that were asked to determine whether to sack them or not probably included “Do we have the technology in instrument design to actually measure what was intended here? If not, sack until the tech is good enough” and “Is this the best use of funds or can we accomplish this mission by other means at lower cost?”
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