Thread: NASA declines to protect the Planet Earth
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Old July 24th 06, 10:59 AM posted to sci.environment,sci.space.policy,alt.global-warming,sci.geo.geology,sci.physics
Jan Panteltje
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Posts: 453
Default NASA declines to protect the Planet Earth
On a sunny day (Sun, 23 Jul 2006 21:56:12 GMT) it happened
(Henry Spencer) wrote in :

In article ,
jonathan wrote:
It appears to me Nasa can spend fast enough
to lock in the cev, which is fine by me, but the
moon mission and beyond have to get past the democratic party.
Fat chance.

You might be surprised. Space is not a partisan issue to any great
extent. Even shuttle retirement and the Moon/Mars stuff, despite the
strong association with the Great Satan Bush :-), has largely bipartisan
support; it helps that the NASA budget has not grown substantially, and
that a lot of existing jobs are being preserved. Schedules and priorities
might change some, but wholesale gutting of the program is unlikely.

Would it not have made sense to keep project Prometheus (nuke propulsion,
later changed to nuke power), and then with that make VASIMIR (plasma engine)
possible.
That would give you a 3 month trip to mars.
And some flag to plant :-)
Better engine.
I did read VASIMIR is now on its own (private).
But it needs a power source.