Senate panel authorizes money for Mars mission, shuttle replacement

The worst part of this news is the continuation of the Space Launch System (SLS), which has cost over seven billion dollars (not including Ares development costs), and is expected to end up costing forty-one billion by 2025, by which time they expect to complete a total of four launches (destination: nowhere important, and probably late).<p>Vulcan (from ULA), New Glenn (from Blue Origin), and Falcon Heavy (from SpaceX) are all better platforms for space exploration, which could enable science (such as the Europa mission) and travel (to Mars), and cost far less than SLS (in development and $&#x2F;kg to orbit). NASA should be spending money on missions, not rocket development.

We expect headlines to be &quot;truthy&quot; these days, but this bill does not actually authorize money for any Mars mission. There is no Mars mission. There is policy, and a strategic framework, and a critical decision plan, and a Congressional goal of new propulsion tech and a new spacesuit: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.congress.gov&#x2F;bill&#x2F;114th-congress&#x2F;senate-bill&#x2F;3346&#x2F;text#toc-id35ffe0125e0f4c929eae4f08ea6c9a31" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.congress.gov&#x2F;bill&#x2F;114th-congress&#x2F;senate-bill&#x2F;334...</a>

Great!<p>&gt; <i>• Expand the full use and life of the space station through 2024 while laying the foundation for use through 2028.</i><p>So does that mean ISS is <i>not</i> going to be abandoned by 2024?

Oh please. Sure, they&#x27;ll authorize money for some big things right now, then in a year or two they&#x27;ll change their minds (after new people are elected) and pull the plug on it. They&#x27;ve done it over and over.<p>The only way the US can get anything done in space exploration is if it can be fully funded and completed in less than 2 years. So a little probe here and there is completely doable, but a Space Shuttle replacement or manned Mars mission or any other big project is a complete no-go. It won&#x27;t ever happen.

At least they want to fund the Commercial Crew project. Space-X should have sent a manned Dragon capsule to the ISS by now. There seems to be political pressure to hold them back until ULA can catch up.<p>(Space-X now claims they know why they had a pad explosion. They&#x27;re saying &quot;breach in the helium system&quot;.[1] But what caused that? What part has to be changed? This just came out a few hours ago, so the details are lacking.)<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;9&#x2F;23&#x2F;13031308&#x2F;spacex-falcon-9-rocket-explosion-cause-cryogenic-helium-system" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;9&#x2F;23&#x2F;13031308&#x2F;spacex-falcon-9-r...</a>

Perhaps I&#x27;m a bit cynical, but space exploration strikes me as a waste of money and energy. The universe is clearly no good for space travel, otherwise we would witness aliens visiting us. It&#x27;s empty and hostile. This planet is the only realistic long-term home. Sure, space stuff gets kids into science, but I wonder how many more kids we would get into science by investing billions of dollars in education instead. We know enough about space for now. We&#x27;ve sent robots to Mars and the photos show it&#x27;s just dust.<p>Right now we need to solve sustainability, global warming, super bugs, cancer, aging, friendly AI, pollution, global cooperation etc. Space can wait.