NASA’s budget runs about 25 billion a year IIRC. Of that 80-90 percent goes to the useless manned program. That’s why you don’t see th benefits you’d expect from the unmanned side. It gets the scraps doing real work while the manned program sucks up most of the money accomplishing nothing.
spaceflightnow.com
Vesta is a very dense, igneous object from which we get plentiful meteorites. About 5 percent of the meteorites that fall on Earth come from the asteroid Vesta.
If the unmanned program could be run on the $2.5 to $5.0 billion you suggest, I’d support it. I’m not against scientific research per se, I’m just tired of us failing to move humans into space in a serious manner.
Currently our cost to put a pound of payload into space is too high. I would stop the manned program in eighteen months. I would provide funding for an x-prise for each of about three projects.
The first firm to develop a manned cargo/personel vessel that could take off from a runway and dock with the space station would get $10 billion dollars.
The first firm to develop a manned space trasnport and light cargo vessel that could leave the space station and fly to the moon, land spend one month and return, would get $7 billion dollars.
The first firm to develop a manned space vessel that would remain in space at the space station, and be utilized as part of a space maintenance and construction program would get $2 billion dollars.
I would like to expand on this, but I can’t now.
Thanks for the comments.
Take care.