One of the panelists who will appear at a National Space Council meeting next Tuesday said to expect "a few fireworks" during the discussion, which will focus on NASA's efforts to return humans to the Moon.
Pence is being encouraged to go faster by confidants, too. In November, an advisory group to the National Space Council received an earful from former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, who now holds a senior position in the Department of Defense and remains influential in space policy."I think 2028 is so late-to-need that it doesn't even need to be on the table," Griffin said of NASA's Moon plans.
The National Space Council will likely press NASA at its upcoming meeting to speed up its plans to return humans to the moon as the agency continues to study alternative approaches for the next flight of its Orion spacecraft.
If the end goal is getting footprints on the Moon no later than 2024 starting from US soil.Then the only high probability option is SpaceX. Since they are the only one who might get a heavy crewed Lunar lander (aka Starship) operational in that time frame.There was a slight chance that ULA & Masten could have fielded a Xeus lunar lander if ULA's parents had throw some profit margin back to ULA. It might still doable IMO with a lot of funding and not be choosy about the launcher.NASA's Moon plans seems to be getting a man on the Moon in about twelve years with a schedule slippage of almost a year annually IMO.
Vanity project...
Is there absolutely nothing that can't be turned into a Bad Thing because Trump is President?
How can Trump get funding to land on the moon when he can't even get the funding for his border wall?
Congress already effectively agrees with going to the Moon...
Nothing yet. But they also haven’t voiced extreme opposition to the idea.
I don't get why the motivation matters, any attempt to accelerate America's return to the moon is welcome. Apollo was a glorified vanity project as well, but nobody ever complains about that...
Quote from: HeartofGold2030 on 03/23/2019 10:50 amI don't get why the motivation matters, any attempt to accelerate America's return to the moon is welcome. Apollo was a glorified vanity project as well, but nobody ever complains about that...Any attempt is not welcome by all.I do not (supposing for the moment I was an american voter) support the creation of projects that will result in vanity projects.This includes something that will end up as "Apollo II" - at least in terms of the current plans for DSG.Launching billion+ dollar sub-ISS modules on billion dollar launchers to end up with a partially habited station that does not particularly actually help in making lunar exploration cheaper, ...Launching billion dollar modules on $50M reusable rockets is not a notable improvement.