Nasa's chief talks new approach (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News, Houston

The head of Nasa has been outlining its new strategy at a major conference in Houston, Texas.

The US space agency will concentrate more on exploring the outer Solar System and a little less on exploring Mars.

Dr Mike Griffin tried to reassure the community of scientists who study the Red Planet, but also warned them to be prepared for change.

Nasa's 2009 budget request called for significant funding cuts for its Mars programme over the next five years.

The average annual budget plan for Mars exploration from 2009-2012 stands at about $343m, compared to an average of $620m for the same period in last year's budget estimates.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7298608.stm

[Phoonzang]

1. What they need to spend more money on is

building the Terrestrial Planet Finder and other space telescopes dedicated to finding planets like Earth. Planets with life on them. That will have the greatest impact on the scientific community and humanity in general. That being said, I think the ESA and NASA could explore different areas of the solar system. Let the ESA explore Mars and let NASA explore the outer solar system.

[n2doc]

2. They need more money in general

But also are stuck wasting huge amounts in the ISS and on moon return planning. But until we get rig of *, end the Iraq war 12 bil/month spending, and get some headway against the financial crises going on, not gonna happen