"Space Taxis" May Replace NASA Moon Missions

President Barack Obama is no longer shooting for the moon, with a budget plan that aborts a symbolic but expensive lunar program and spends $6 billion over five years to turn over space transportation to commercial companies.

Read the whole story: Reuters

Comments

[mike72]

10:53 PM on 02/02/2010

How come after so many decades since we landed on the moon DOZENS OF TIME BEFORE COMPUTER TIME, it is still a tough job to send a man back to the moon?

Sometimes you just can not resist but wonder ...

[jsarets]

12:20 AM on 02/03/2010

The Cold War is over, and nobody has identified military or commercial applications for space assets beyond earth orbit. During the Apollo Program, NASA consumed up to 5% of the federal government budget. Today, NASA gets less than 0.5% of the budget.

Also, we only did six manned landings (Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17).

Moon landings aren't terribly difficult, but it's very expensive to do in the most straightforward ways, without investing in key enabling technologies such as on-orbit propellant depots, solar-electric tugs, and reusable landers.

The new NASA budget makes the unpopular decision to put off landing on the moon as soon as possible so that we can make the necessary investments that will reduce the costs of lunar exploration in the future.

The budget allocates $7.8B over the next five years for developing propellant depot and electric propulsion technology. That may not mean much to laypeople. But for those who envision a spacefaring future for humanity, this may be more of a moon shot than Apollo.

[Free2Speak]

11:41 PM on 02/01/2010

A trillion dollar Pentagon budget and we wonder why China will run laps around us in the space race.Private companies will be in it for money not pride.I noticed an ad the the other day how the government brags about the percent of people filing online at the IRS website.But you go there and it farmed out to to Turbo tax type of companies not the IRS.No different than our military which has more contractors than soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. This country is racing to the bottom.

[FerrisValyn]

12:00 AM on 02/02/2010

Whats wrong with being in it for money? A lot of people get into something for the money

And, honestly, I suggest you go talk to the people involved in the companies trying to open space - you'll see that its about a lot more than money

[escribacat]

10:03 PM on 02/01/2010

Let's just say we got to invade Iraq and Afghanistan instead of going to the moon. Too bad we didn't get anything back.

[Tom95134]

08:59 PM on 02/01/2010

Why not let private business compete in this? Can FedEx or UPS do any worse? I would also entertain the possibility of a refurbished Space Station being operated by Best Western Hotels.

[FerrisValyn]

09:00 PM on 02/01/2010

Thats likely the way it'll be run - NASA will develop the industry of space taxis, and leave the details to private industry