Latest Guides

Science

NASA Budget Unveiled, Serious Implications for JPL and Caltech

Published on Monday, February 13, 2012 | 6:50 am
 

[Updated: Monday, Feb. 13, 2012 | 8:50 a.m.] President Obama’s proposed 2013 budget has been sent to Congress.  NASA’s budget provides $17.7 billion, a decrease of 0.3 percent, or $59 million, below the 2012 enacted level and “implements a lower cost program of robotic exploration of Mars that will advance science and will also help lay the foundation for future human exploration.”  More details to follow

 

Some say the future of space exploration hangs in the balance.

President Obama’s 2013 federal budget request is set to be released today (Feb. 13), and will likely include cuts in space exploration. As a result of cuts in the federal budget, NASA officials will unveil what some say are drastic cuts which will likely affect programs and employees at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Astronomers are worried. Budget cuts may force NASA to withdraw from planetary exploration and other projects which have popular support. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg and other experts predict dire results.

“We may see, in the next decade or so, an end to the search . . . which will not be resumed again in our own lifetimes,” warned Weinberg during meetings of the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, Texas.

Some experts believe that Obama’s budget request will allocate only $1.2 billion to the program, compared to the $1.5 billion that planetary exploration will receive this year. That’s a 20 percent cut and would make it tougher for NASA implement exploration projects, including the robotic exploration of Mars. That’s a real problem.

According physicist Paul Goldsmith chief technologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, part of the solution could come from emerging technologies.

“The exoplanet community and the deep-universe community each want something very different and are pulling NASA in opposite directions,” said Goldsmith. “But if we can get them together, we all win.”

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will brief reporters about the agency’s fiscal year 2013 budget at 11 a.m. PST today. NASA Chief Financial Officer Elizabeth Robinson will join in the news conference and will be broadcast on NASA Television. Pasadena Now will cover the event and give readers the results of the conference.

Get our daily Pasadena newspaper in your email box. Free.

Get all the latest Pasadena news, more than 10 fresh stories daily, 7 days a week at 7 a.m.

Make a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 

 

 

buy ivermectin online
buy modafinil online
buy clomid online
buy ivermectin online