Direction of NASA.

[Guest]

Donald Trump has  directed NASA towards human exploration of the moon. But just wondering if this direction will now change with President elect Joe Biden. He appears to place more importance on space research concerning the climate.

If this is true. Does it mean the end of lunar landings for humans in 2024?

Edited November 10, 2020 by Guest
Added text.

[maw lod qan]

I worry we will see many things concerning NASA affected.

Only time will show what and how bad.

[Nik271]

I think its too early to tell. I think the shape of the economic recovery rather than the name of the president will probably determine the direction of NASA.

And if not NASA perhaps the current crop of billionaires and space tourists may continue the human presence in Earth orbit and the Moon.

Beyond the Earth/Moon region I expect the space probes will rule for quite some time - I just don't see human flight to another planet in my lifetime happening, there are too many difficulties to overcome even if the money is found.

[SamAndrew]

The funding is all in place as far as I'm aware, a lot has already been spent, the SLS rockets have been built, it would take a dramatic cut in funding to affect things in the short term.

[Steve]

This will be a difficult conversation to have without including politics but please do try 🙂 

[PXR-5]

I personally do not believe we were going to send humans to the Moon in 3.5 years.

The can keeps getting kicked...

 

[PXR-5]

On 11/11/2020 at 04:28, Nik271 said:

I think its too early to tell. I think the shape of the economic recovery rather than the name of the president will probably determine the direction of NASA.

And if not NASA perhaps the current crop of billionaires and space tourists may continue the human presence in Earth orbit and the Moon.

Beyond the Earth/Moon region I expect the space probes will rule for quite some time - I just don't see human flight to another planet in my lifetime happening, there are too many difficulties to overcome even if the money is found.

Sadly, I couldn't agree more

I remember the Moon landings as a child, they said we would have humans on Mars by 2000 or before. 

Musk is probably our only hope. 

 

[maw lod qan]

If I remember correctly, (without googling to be sure), we had at least 1 more moon shot already built, but scrapped it. 

We have a history of wasting billions of dollars on projects we start, then decide we dont need.

If I could just get a job overseeing these things, think of the kit I could have if I just siphoned off .001% of a billion dollars into my offshore account!😎

[andrew s]

I enjoyed watching the moon landings and all the robotic missions before and since then. For me, at least, the lesson from them is why send people into space when robots can do a better job?

I know Hubble needed repairing but many space telescope worked well beyond their scheduled life without repair in space.

Regards Andrew 

Edited November 15, 2020 by andrew s

[PXR-5]

10 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

If I remember correctly, (without googling to be sure), we had at least 1 more moon shot already built, but scrapped it. 

We have a history of wasting billions of dollars on projects we start, then decide we dont need.

If I could just get a job overseeing these things, think of the kit I could have if I just siphoned off .001% of a billion dollars into my offshore account!😎

You are correct.

Apollo 18 was ready to go.

Then it was literally gutted and the Saturn V was made into Skylab.

Edited November 15, 2020 by PXR-5
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