12/31/2023 0 Comments Nasa total budget“I really applaud the whole community for standing behind a selected Discovery mission. Glaze said that message came through loud and clear. “It would be very upsetting to miss the Discovery call, but if they’re implying that they would defund VERITAS in order to fund the Discovery call, that’s even less acceptable,” said Bruce Banerdt of JPL, who led the InSight Mars lander mission, also part of the Discovery program, during a meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group in February. The response was overwhelmingly in favor of VERITAS. In the months since VERITAS was delayed, NASA had polled the planetary science community: would they prefer continuing with VERITAS, or proceeding with a new competition for a Discovery mission? The implication was that there would not be money for both. Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division, said at the town hall that the restart of VERITAS depended on several factors, including progress made by JPL to resolve its institutional issues as well as completion of two major missions, Europa Clipper and the NISAR Earth science mission, that require extensive resources at JPL.Īnother factor, she said, would be finding the budget for it. “The reason that so many in the community are outraged by this are these facts, that a mission that was on track is contingent on Earth science missions and all kinds of things that have nothing to do with us.” “This mission that was on track is being effectively martyred for all those missions that are going over budget,” she said. During a NASA town hall session, many expressed their opposition to the VERITAS budget, concerned it set a dangerous precedent.Īmong those speaking at the town hall was Sue Smrekar, principal investigator for VERITAS. The detailed budget came out as planetary scientists gathered near Houston for the annual Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference (LPSC). His organization has started a petition asking Congress to restore enough funding for VERITAS to enable a launch in 2029. “That’s functionally a soft cancellation,” said Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society. That suggested an indefinite delay, if not an outright cancellation. What was more concerning to scientists, though, was that the future “outyears” projections in the budget kept VERITAS funding flat at $1.5 million a year - enough to sustain the mission’s science team but little else - through 2028. As the agency released more details about the budget, more warning signs appeared. While a 7% increase looks good on paper, in reality, it is a flat budget that roughly keeps up with inflation. That was to free up personnel and other resources at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is leading work on VERITAS, for other missions after an independent review into the delayed Psyche mission found broader institutional issues at the lab. NASA announced in November 2022 that it was delaying that Discovery-class Venus orbiter mission, previously scheduled to launch by 2028, to no earlier than 2031. The $1.5 million for VERITAS was not necessarily a surprise. The former was the proposed budget for the Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy (VERITAS) mission, and the latter was the budget for Mars Sample Return. The 2024 proposal offers $3.38 billion, an increase of $180 million over 2023, a far cry from the $1.34 billion budget planetary science had a decade ago.īut as scientists investigated the detailed budget proposal NASA released March 13, two numbers stood out: $1.5 million and $949.3 million. Those stresses are perhaps most evident in the budget for NASA’s planetary science programs. Cost growth and delays, particularly in science missions, have heightened concerns in the space community that the agency doesn’t have enough resources to do everything on its plate and on its current schedule. While a 7% increase looks good on paper, in reality, it is a flat budget that roughly keeps up with inflation.Īs the agency released more details about the budget, more warning signs appeared. However, neither the White House nor NASA noted that the increase came at a time of high post-pandemic inflation. “This budget request reflects the administration’s confidence in NASA and its faith in the world’s finest workforce,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a brief “State of NASA” speech the day the budget came out. It appeared to be a sign of strong support for the agency on the heels of successes like the launch of Artemis 1 and the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope. When the White House released its 2024 budget proposal March 9, it included $27.2 billion for NASA, 7.1% more than what the agency received for 2023. Numbers can be deceiving, and budget numbers especially so.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |