NASA's plans could hurt Moon and Mars missions

* 18:35 27 July 2006
* NewScientist.com news service
* David Chandler

A sharply-worded US government report says that NASA is on the verge of
a major mistake that could make its plans for finishing the space
station and going on the explore the Moon cost more, take longer and
achieve less.

The report, by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), specifically
criticises NASA's stated plan to award a contract in September 2006 for
the design, testing, fabrication and maintenance of the Crew
Exploration Vehicle. The CEV is an all-purpose crew capsule designed to
carry astronauts to the International Space Station and later, in a
modified form, to the Moon and Mars.

The problem, says the report, is that fulfilling these goals could cost
$230 billion over the next 20 years, yet NASA wants to award the
single-source CEV contract, that could run to 2019, before it has
developed "well-defined requirements, a preliminary design, mature
technology, and firm cost estimates". ...

See
http://www.newscientistspace.com/art...-missions.html