Senate Launch System
So the past couple of weeks have been great for NASA. They had a Pluto flyby, released a new Blue Marble photo, and discovered a new exoplanet that is one of the most earth like planets we have ever found.
That’s all great but the future of the US space program is uncertain. This is because of two reasons.
1: NASA’s budget has been shrinking. Not only just in the past 40 years, but in the past 15 years too. Its unclear if this continues whether we’ll be able to do these sort of missions into the future. Or whether or not these will be the glory days, and if future generations will look back at us with disdain for gutting this capability.
2: The second reason is because of what I like to call Senate Launch System. Its a future manned launch system that will outclass the Saturn V in capabilities. Its nickname refers to the fact that elements in the US Senate have the most to gain from making sure SLS is funded. Now, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing and if that was the end of it I’d be fine with SLS.
The problem is that its a launcher that NASA never asked for, never wanted, and more importantly its too expensive to fly. For us to utilize SLS in full, NASA’s budget would have to go up in the next 30 years. Maybe it will, and maybe pigs will fly. Evidence though, doesn’t suggest that that is likely to happen.
All the evidence shows that the American people are unwilling to increase NASA’s funding. If you build it they will fund it is not a sound way to run your space program. Especially when it threatens the manned program we can do within the current budget realities, and science funding in general because it costs a billion dollars a year to develop.
We need to be realistic about what we want NASA to do. If we want NASA to do all that it has been tasked to, that means increasing its budget. If we are unwilling to increase NASA’s budget. We need to have a space program vision that reflects that.
We cannot have it both ways and our space program will suffer if we try.