In 2025 NASA has stated that it will have landed a person on a 'space rock' and by Mid 2030s will have placed someone on Mars (They didn't say anything about bringing them back though)
Its About Time NASA! WHy weren't you stating these plans 5 years ago and taking all of those who have been sidelined into the new programme...the answer is simply 'overheads' I would guess. The long and the short of it, is that NASA can't afford staff as much as contractors who will get paid for the job and carry the fixed costs. NASA has become the BBC in effect.
They have asset, facility and know-how and they will rent and offer their services as well as issue grants and pay others to develop the technology to move man beyond The Moon, but they won't be doing it themselves. The shame of it is that NASA is perhaps the last of the great government bodies that does nothing more than research and development, the rest are there to fuel bureaucracy, collect taxes and sit and procrastinate about social reform and how to keep people happy. The answer was staring them in the face in the 50s...Give people work, give them hope and give them something to strive for.
Has NASA done that this morning...perhaps. Is it enough...maybe not and will it make a difference...I'm not sure? All I know is that I will be pushing 70 in 2035 and will it make a difference to me that I will have watched a man land on The Moon and on Mars in my lifetime? The answer is yes IF I believe that date and that they will see it through without another administration canning it. Do I believe it enough to lose a little weight and stop drinking? CHEERS!
Ewen
Ewen Rankin