Tonight ABC News said that they were only budgeting $12G for the entire program. Only $1G was new money for NASA, the other $11G would come from reshuffling NASA's budget.
See: http://www.nasa.gov/about/budget/ My immediate impressions was that this is a zero sum game. The unmanned mission consituencies (roboteers and planetologists) are going getting screwed for the manned mission consituencies. --- Personally, I do not think its true that manned space flights have a low research value. They have a relatively low return in terms of pure planetology and allied sciences. Afterall, like the commenator said the primary goal for any manned space mission is bringing the crew back alive. That doesn't mean that manned space missions have a low technology return. It does mean that the technology return from manned space exploration gets concentrated in furthering the science and technology of human space travel and habitation -- which must really suck if you happen to be a planetary science person. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
