We know all that, but the real problem was and still is, how much the
leadership of your country wants to spend. If you really wanted it all, you
could have it by throwing money and expertise at the problems. If you are
limited in funds then the statement below is correct.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
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in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Jonathan" wrote in message
...

Remarks by NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr.
as taken from NASA's website:


"At the highest level, the President and his staff as well as
my NASA senior leadership team closely reviewed the
Augustine Committee report, and they came to the same
realization the Committee concluded: The Constellation
program was on an unsustainable trajectory. If we continued
on our current course, at best we would have ended up flying
a handful of astronauts to the moon sometime after 2030.
But to accomplish even that limited task, we would have had
to make even deeper cuts to the other parts of NASA's budget,
terminating support of the ISS early and decimating our
science and aeronautics efforts. Further, we would have had
no money to advance the state of the art in any of the technology
areas that we need to enable us to do new things in space -
no money to lower the cost of access to space, no money for
closedloop life support, no money for advanced propulsion
technology, no money for radiation protection. The President
recognized that what was truly needed for beyond LEO exploration
was game-changing technologies; making the fundamental investments
that will provide the foundation for the next half-century of American
leadership in space exploration. In doing so, the President put forward
what I believe to be the most authentically visionary policy for
real human space exploration that we have ever had."

"Some have argued that the Constellation program was the symbol
of American leadership in space. I think they have been misled.
An unsustainable program, as described in the Augustine Committee
Report, with no funding planned to support the ISS beyond 2015
and no definitive, funded plans for a heavy lift launch vehicle necessary
for exploration beyond low Earth orbit can hardly be considered a symbol
of American leadership in space. U.S permanent human presence in space
and our international human spaceflight partnership would have ended
or been totally dependent on the Russians for the foreseeable future.
'That is not American leadership in my book. Under the new plan, however,
we will ensure continuous American presence in space
throughout this entire decade, re-establish a robust and competitive
American launch industry, start a major heavy lift R&D program years
earlier, and build a real technological foundation for sustainable
beyond-LEO exploration. That to me is real leadership, and our
international partners already recognize it."
http://www.spaceenergy.com/Announcem....aspx?ID=43043