Is Moon Mission Debate Out Of This World?

 I heard this discussed some on Mark Levin's show last night. Not sure I'm getting all of this debate as to whether or not Obama canceling a Moon mission is conservative.

According to Heritage, the NASA budget is going up, not down. And the additional money will be spent on Earth-science projects, aka climate change research.

Today, the Orlando Sentinel reports that President Obama will introduce a budget next week which will cut future exploration funding from NASA, including the planned missions to the Moon and Mars set in motion following the Columbia disaster.  On first glance, this may appear to be a budget cutting move to fall in line with the drop-in-a-bucket spending freeze Obama has proposed. But it isn’t.  In fact, NASA’s budget is increasing.  So if NASA’s budget is increasing, why are exploration plans being put on hold? Obama is halting America’s exploration of the unknown so we can explore…global warming.

According the Sentinel: “…the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on Earth-science projects — principally, researching and monitoring climate change.” NASA will reportedly receive a budget increase of $200-$300 million over its current $18.7 billion budget.

Comments

[bishop]

It's part of the self absorbed and reductionist view, Space is high tech, it's the final frontier, we
will be beaten to the moon again this time by the Chinese and India, and probably the Russian. Maybe
it will take someone with the old Pioneer spirit to succeed at this

[Neo]

Now if NASA can get out being stuck on stupid as far as climate change research, who knows what they could do. Adding more money may make the professional lives of the small cadre of Gaia worshippers at NASA more difficult.

[Jeff]

Funny, I don't see climate or weather in NASA's title ...

[section9]

This is the "Chinese Red Banner On the Moon" bill. Doesn't bother Obama one bit.

[southdakotaboy]

Don't give up hope. There is a growing private space industry here in the US. This is the best hope for massive space exploration anyway. They thing we need to concentrate on is not allowing Old Floppy Big Ears to find away to over regulate these new companies out of business.

[Jack Okie]

southdakotaboy is correct. Space transportation will go through a similar evolution to that of air transportation in the 1920s and '30s. Elon Musk, Burt Rutan and other visionaries are leading the way. In-orbit assembly and in-orbit refueling are the way to go, reducing our need for heavy lift. I predict that the sub-orbital capability offered by Virgin Galactic will be refined, like air transportation in the last century, until sub-orbital flights like L.A. to Tokyo will be commercially available.

[Jeff]

I love these people. Climate science is "settled", but we need to spend billions more to study it.

[Brett_McS]

James Hanson! Come on down!

[Rich K]

Earth Science Huh. Well, I guess we should once and for all settle the " Where are the Morloks" question. Going Down!!