What does the future hold for NASA? Depends on the next president.

[HuckleB]

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0321/What-does-the-future-hold-for-NASA-Depends-on-the-next-president

"Space is having a resurgence. Private companies such as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation are flying supplies to the International Space Station on their own rockets.

SpaceX and Boeing are working on capabilities to ferry astronauts to the space station in the next year or so. SpaceX has even set its sights on getting humans to Mars in the next decade.

NASA just sent an astronaut to space for an uninterrupted year for the first time ever, gathering unprecedented learnings about long-term exposure to microgravity to prepare for a future, manned mission to Mars. Space exploration has generated so much excitement among the public, upwards of 18,300 people applied for just eight to 14 astronaut spots last month, an amount nearly three times the number of applications NASA received in 2012 for the most recent astronaut class, and one that shatters the previous record of 8,000 in 1978.

..."

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As the piece makes very clear, this is another reason we have to work to keep the GOP out of the White House.

[scscholar]

1. Sad to see this corporate welfare...

continue.

[LongTomH]

2. Before someone starts to say that we should have other priorities, let me say.......

......during the 1960s, we had:

• The Apollo project to put people on the moon by the end of the decade,
  
• an ambitious robot exploration program that resulted in the Viking landers on Mars, the Pioneer and Voyager probes to the outer solar system and the Venus Pioneer orbiter and atmospheric probes.

At the same time, we also had:

• A War on Poverty that was effectively reducing dire poverty in the US, and
  
• we were continuing the investment in infrastructure that President Eisenhower begin in the 1950s.

Of course, during that time, we had a top marginal tax rate of 70%, down from the 91% it had been under Eisenhower.

[HuckleB]

4. As humans, we would be foolish to not continue to explore the universe.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

3. I hope NASA has a future

It looks like the Senate Launch System is going to devour the manned space program whole.

[longship]

5. NASA's budget should be doubled.

If one disagrees, than it should be tripled!

Basic science and space exploration has always paid back by multiple factors. The benefits of the Apollo program alone are enormous.

Then, one should consider NASA projects like Voyager, still going and sending data after so many decades, the farthest robotic probe ever launched by humans. It has left our solar system behind and it is still working.

(Waiting for the starship Enterprise to retrieve V-Ger at a future date.)

[HuckleB]

6. Exactly! -eom-