Human Space Flight Panel to be Revealed Shortly

Do folks think the panels recommendations will be addressed this time? What is NASA's history with implementing outside expert panel recommendations?

Expert panels making assessments of NASA usually recommend big budget increases. Despite pleading by the White House, Congress, and OMB, the space agency has stubbornly refused to substantially boost spending for most of the past 40 years, God only knows why.

Any more questions needing an answer?

I think the panel's recommendations are just to give the O'bama administration "cover" as he shelves any return to the Moon. O'bama will claim his decision to axe the program is a way to save taxpayer's money...and in the next breath he'll announce a new government run health care plan costing trillions. Hope and change.

Dan nailed it. Obama gets cover, and the new administrator gets to point to the panel recommendations as he oversees the systematic dismantling of much of the agency to free up funds for social programs.

I find it unlikely that Augustine would be a part that Dan. I agree with mike shupp that they will point out the need for budget increases, no doubt. As long as Ares I/V get built (or any kind of heavy lifter, like Jupiter), I'm happy.

But yeah NASA needs more money.

The underlying problem with Constellation, like Freedom 20 years ago, is that it does not address any national needs or priorities. It is what the space-geek community wants. Is that the basis for spending hundreds of billions of dollars? Hardly.

NASA's mission is supported and the agency itself is successful when it supports a specific national goal. Apollo was "defeating" the Soviet Union. ISS was bringing together a broad international coalition, including the Russians, giving NASA a foreign policy role.

I continue to recommend NASA focus its efforts on things that meet national needs. Space based power is one such potential need, as is a continuing role in foreign policy if it were to make Constellation a truly international program.

They will shift focus to a more inspiring destination.

Conspiracy theorists. I thought Obama chose Lori Garver to act as his administration's spearhead concerning NASA's new direction. Why would he chose someone so pro-spaceflight to kill NASA? Just look at her work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Garver#Presentations

And I thought Augustine was chosen because he did a good job last time getting to the bottom of things. Can't a cigar just be a cigar? Even people inside NASA don't agree on what NASA should do. Maybe Obama knows as little as they do and just wants to figure out an answer.

In any case it's not rocket science (or is it?) to look at the ambition, cost, and delays of parts of Constellation and say "maybe this is a bad idea? someone should check!"

My opinion: Constellation is an uninspired Apollo rehash and that makes it uninteresting to people. It is also not particularly innovative science and engineering. I think Constellation is America aiming low. Also, 'Go to the moon and mars and beyond' is not much of a mission. It is light and flaky like french pastry. It would not sell as a modern marketing campaign in the free market.

"Build robotic mining and processing facilities on the moon to supply an inter-system transport ship and orbital fuel depot" sounds like a much higher and more interesting goal to me. I'm Canadian and I would pay the $200/year tax to build the robotic arms for that!

PS: Ambitious space exploration is probably too expensive for any one country to endure on its own, so NASA needs to be thinking in terms of international coalitions, not just "Me, Me, Me." I think Obama is the president who can compel the world to chip in for a 10 year plan. An ambitious plan in a short time is better than the same amount of money spent over twice the time. More time = more time to screw up or quit.

Spending hundreds of billions of dollars on? Where do you see this number? The NASA budget is 18 Billion now. Even if all that was directed to VSE, since 2004, that wouldn't even amount to 100 billion. It doesn't look to increase any significantly over the next few years, certainly not while Obama is in office.

Obama has already stated his desire for NASA, Earth Observing. This is the common Democratic line that is being pushed to the front once more. It is something that can be accomplished in a presidential term and show results, like pretty pictures of Hurricanes that supposedly allowed thousands or millions of lives to be saved.

We need a long term plan and the political and public will to see it through changes in parties.

I really wish we could jump to an alternate reality and see what the world would be like today if space had been so unimportant. Would we have launched a satellite into space yet if the Russians had not done it first? Would we have global communications today if we had just said "Good for the USSR, but we already have our plans in place, we will not push them or change them"? What if?