Obama Effectively Cancels Constellation

[deathofcheese]

http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/01/27/1725236/Obama's budget proposal will contain no funding for the Constellation program (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-no-moon-for-nasa-20100126,0,266846,print.story), which was to send astronauts to the moon by 2020. Instead, NASA will be focused on terrestrial science, such as monitoring global warming. One anonymous official said: 'We certainly don't need to go back to the moon.':rage:

[SpaceProg]

What we need to do is either completely refurbish our out-of-date shuttles, or completely replace them with better designs and better materials.

I mean seriously, I remember most of the shuttles first launching when I was in elementary-middle school.

[deathofcheese]

completely replace them with better designs and better materials. Which is part of what Constellation was.

[Detrevni]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUU

This is such CRAP. There are abundant resources in the solar system and the sooner we get off this rock and star expanding out, the better. There's all sorts of heavy rare metals on teh moon from meteorite impacts. And what better launching point for the rest of the solar system? Answer: none. Dammit, Obama, I wanted to see men on Mars during my lifetime and now you've gone and fucked it all up. GUESS WHAT'S IN SPACE? CLEAN ENERGY! Solar panels are orders of magnitude more efficient in vacuum than in atmosphere and advances in microwave tech have made it feasible to transfer power from geosynchronous powersats to the ground without too much trouble.

If you worried so damn much about global warmig than LET US GO TO SPACE.

Dear Obama: I hate you now. That is all.
Respectfully,
Detrevni

[SpaceProg]

Which is part of what Constellation was.

True, but I would have taken the moonshot out of the equation, as well as the base. At least until we actually have space-worthy vehicles to get there with.

So... it would have been Operation Star, not Constellation.

[Arainach]

GAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

News fact: Our entire species is on this one, rather fragile rock. One large chunk of metal or ice, one pulsar blast, one crazy Russian leader storing the vodka too close to the big red button, and we're all gone. We NEED to explore and keep our options open.

[SpaceProg]

I'd rather explore the universal highways in a brand new Volvo rather than a 30-year old Pinto.

[Charlie]

Obama's an idiot. Plain and simple. He hasn't done much of anything except smile for the fucking cameras since he got elected into office. And with what he wants to act like he's doing, he flip-flops on, or just makes completely retarded decisions. Case and point, right here. I didn't vote for him in '08, I'm glad I didn't, and sure as fuck, I'll be voting for someone else in 2012.

Of course, not that my, or anyone's vote really matters, anyway... but whatever. It gets me out of the house...

[Killer_Man_]

To be honest, the only reason anyone voted for him was the same reason as we did before. I didn't like McCain at all and that was mostly from what I googled up, Ary and a few of my RL friends.... But to be honest I didn't like Obama either.

I still am having a bad vibe for this because there will never be anther minority because of him.

[chefTENGU]

I still am having a bad vibe for this because there will never be anther minority because of him.
Exactly what is this supposed to mean?

[Charlie]

Don't take the job, unless you're qualified for it. That's my whole stance with it. Doesn't matter if you're black, white, alien, polka-dot, whatever. Hopefully that's more what people look at, in the long run.

[chefTENGU]

OH, is that it? I see what you mean now.

[Seegtease]

Let's divert attention away from useful science and study fake science. Horray!

[Arainach]

Obama's an idiot. Plain and simple. He hasn't done much of anything except smile for the fucking cameras since he got elected into office. And with what he wants to act like he's doing, he flip-flops on, or just makes completely retarded decisions. Case and point, right here. I didn't vote for him in '08, I'm glad I didn't, and sure as fuck, I'll be voting for someone else in 2012.

Of course, not that my, or anyone's vote really matters, anyway... but whatever. It gets me out of the house...Actually, he said he was going to cut Constellation way back in the campaign. I disagree with the decision, but at least it's consistent.

And really, to claim he hasn't done much of anything, you must not have been paying attention for the last year. It certainly doesn't help that the Republicans are simply issuing a blanket "no" to anything he suggests without offering alternatives. Hell, the current health care bill looks like it was written by Republicans unmodified and they're not happy with it. I'm not his biggest fan, but he's accomplished a fair amount and what he hasn't accomplished is due primarily to obstructionism.

[Bloodcinder]

I forbid this thread to focus on an evaluation of Obama's presidency. This thread is about Constellation.

In the words of Captain Picard, MAKE IT SO.

[chefTENGU]

The space program has been shat on by every president since Johnson left office.

When I went to Space Camp, they actually had us write letters to our local representatives to beg them for more funding.

[deathofcheese]

I went to an APS (American Physics Society) regional meeting in Jacksonville, FL once, and they had a four-computer station set up just so people could write letters to congress-people and other relevant politicians to beg for funding for the NSF.

I'll admit, in the face of everything else going on, killing the gem of the space program is a great budgetary move. However, despite the also-decent terrestrial focus of NASA because of this, it just burns my ass that we've killed space for non-private/-corporate concerns for America, now.

[Killer_Man_]

Chef, think about it, think about how the common man is racist or thinks some stereotype from day to day.

If he messes up, it could forever make it seem for the time being that minorities can't run the country as president. That's what I mean.

[chefTENGU]

Yeah, I figured that out once Charlie made his post.

I don't know if I buy that reasoning. It sounds a lot like how lots of people were saying Obama was unelectable because "no white person would ever vote for a black presidential candidate."

[Killer_Man_]

Yes, and I heard that too but I voted for him.

I am just stating what may or may not happen in the future.

[Gio Takahashi]

Ah this is Bullshit. WE really need to put more focus, than ever, into space exploration, especially to get off this bloody rock already.

[Seegtease]

lol, when I first read that, I was like "Ron didn't say anything like tha-OH"

[SpaceProg]

Yeah, he sure did. I watched the speech on TV. Wow, how long it's been...

[Stupidthing0]

this really sadden to hear bc when i graduate thats what i was going to be working on hopefully. I don't like obama for a lot of reasons but cancelling the constellation was my last and final straw with him. I can't believe after all the planning and prepreation we've done that it's cancelled... he thinks its going to save money... think of all the money that was already funded to the project that has now gone to waste. UGH...

[SpaceProg]

Well, he won't be President forever. There's always a chance it'll be picked back up.

[chefTENGU]

I have no doubt it will, but we have to stave of severe economic bummerhood first.

The space program is always the bitch when it comes to cutting spending (on top of that, they're always the ones with the least allowance to begin with). Any other president with the same pressures on him would have done the exact same thing.

If you're wondering why, it's because it takes years and billions of dollars to achieve anything, and the prevailing idea in Washington is that we always have something more pressing that needs our concern.

Now, if we were back in a situation where an angry, belligerent superpower like the Soviet Union was making inroads to space exploration (and possibly using it to enhance military capabilities), then there'd be a very good reason to divert some of the bloated defense budget toward NASA.

However, the United States is the unquestioned lord and master of space, and there's now treaties to prevent space from becoming the next frontier in war between nations. There's so much junk in orbit right now that it's making it more difficult to try and get manned expeditions even up there (anyone remember the "near miss" between the shuttle and a satellite that had NASA scientists shitting their pants for a while?).

India's been making some neat-o scientific discoveries recently (water on the moon), but they're our friend. The only other nation out there that has a stated interest in space that could be considered our rival is Iran, and they're so far behind that they only just launched their own sputnik last year (although I did see that they claimed the other day that they managed to get some turtles and a rat into orbit. Oooooooh).

[Stupidthing0]

Im sure it will get picked up again but to completely scrub it now was just a waste of all the time and money put end. I mean I understand the economy and all..but he could have just put it on hold instead of making people feel like the years of research thus far was a waste... I know it won't be later but seriously what an effing letdown.

[chefTENGU]

Well, it just doesn't seem that way to me. It's not like he sent an executive order to NASA saying, "HAY d00ds, take all that research you've been doing for Constellation so far and burn it!"

He just stopped funding it. Once the green starts flowing again, it won't be hard to pick up where they left off. He's not ending the project COMPLETELY, he's just delaying it for a while.

In that sense, nothing's been wasted. We still have everything we've gained so far, we're just going to have to wait a bit longer.