Obama: US will make to it Mars, moon is history - Summary

Anne K Walters

Washington - US President Barack Obama on Thursday pledged to send astronauts to Mars, as he outlined a vision for the future of US space flight that eschews earlier plans to return to the moon in favor of boosting commercial flights and reaching deep space.

Obama traveled to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to defend controversial budget plans for NASA that rely heavily on creating a commercial spaceflight option and which some have accused of amounting to the killing of US dominance in space.

He pledged to send astronauts into deep space by 2025 - reaching an asteroid or other distant object - after first conducting a series of test missions early in the next decade.

"A landing on Mars will follow and I expect to be around to see it," he said, vowing humans could touch the surface of the Red Planet by the mid-2030s.

He had harsh words for those who want to continue with plans to return humans to the moon. "We have been there before. Buzz (Aldrin) has been there," he said, pointing to the astronaut who along with Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the surface of the moon in 1969. "There's a lot more of space to explore and a lot more to learn when we do."

In February, Obama's administration announced it would scrap plans started under former president George W Bush for a next-generation spacecraft to return astronauts to the moon and eventually travel to Mars and beyond. That program was behind schedule and over budget, and officials argued it would never achieve its goals with current funding levels.

Instead Obama plans to transfer the transporting of US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) to commercial providers.

That move had prompted an outcry from members of Congress and space supporters, including some prominent former astronauts, while also drawing praise from those who saw it as a chance to revamp an unsustainable program.

In an open letter to Obama earlier this week, former NASA administrator Michael Griffin and a host of prominent former astronauts, such as Apollo 13's Jim Lovell, urged the president to reconsider his budget plans that end the so-called Constellation program of next-generation spacecraft just as the space shuttle is retired.

"Too many men and women have worked too hard and sacrificed too much to achieve America's pre-eminence in space only to see that effort needlessly thrown away," they wrote, pointing to a loss of jobs and lack of vision that they contend will cede US dominance to other countries.

"We urge you to demonstrate the vision and determination necessary to keep our nation at the forefront of human space exploration with ambitious goals and the proper resources to see them through. This is not the time to abandon the promise of the space frontier for a lack of will or an unwillingness to pay the price."

But Obama defended his plans and expanded on its goals, insisting he remained "100 per cent committed to the mission of NASA and its future."

"As president, I believe that space exploration is not a luxury. It's not an afterthought in America's quest for a brighter future, it's an essential part of that quest," he said.

Obama on Thursday defended the use of commercial vehicles as freeing up the space agency to focus on long-term goals such as reaching Mars, but also revived parts of the program he had canceled for being over budget and behind schedule.

He backtracked on plans to completely kill the so-called Constellation program of spacecraft and rockets to replace the shuttle.

Instead, he announced that the capsule will be retooled as an emergency escape vehicle for the ISS, while still handing over routine transport work to the commercial firms.

His plans include development of a heavy-lift vehicle by 2015 that could carry astronauts outside of low-Earth orbit to a series of destinations such as asteroids seen as a stepping stone for a mission to Mars. Humans have not left low-Earth orbit since the moon missions of the 1970s.

The speech comes at a critical moment as NASA prepares for the retirement of the space shuttle program later this year. One shuttle is currently in orbit and just three more flights remain once it returns home. The retirement of the shuttle fleet will leave Russian Soyuz capsules as the only means to get humans into orbit.

He said the new plans would create some 2,500 jobs and pledged money for jobs training as many shuttle employees prepare for lay- offs.

The decision came after an independent review of the space program commissioned by Obama and conducted by aerospace experts and former astronauts last summer. The review found that the Bush-era plans were unsustainable under existing funding levels, prompting Obama's retooling of US efforts.

The panel did not offer specific recommendations, but rather presented several options, including traveling a series of destinations culminating in Mars.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318977,obama-us-will-make-to-it-mars-moon-is-history.html.