NASA says its pockets not deep enough for new rocket

[n2doc]

By John Zarrella, CNN
February 7, 2011 4:54 p.m. EST

CNN) -- The marching orders from Congress and the White House to NASA were pretty straightforward.
Go out and build a new big rocket to replace the retiring space shuttle fleet.
Unlike the shuttle, the new rocket has to be powerful enough to get out of low Earth orbit and carry humans to an asteroid and eventually Mars, perhaps even the moon. There must also be a test flight by 2016.
But at this point, NASA officials are warning of a potentially devastating setback to future space exploration.
Its first new rocket in 40 years may not happen because the agency doesn't think the $8 billion budgeted over the next three years is enough.
"We have done calculations with current models and approaches to doing this type of development and it doesn't work with funding constraints combined with schedules that were laid out in the Authorization Act," Doug Cooke, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems, told CNN.

more

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/07/nasa.rocket/index.html

Needed or not, this kind of stuff never seems to happen with new subs or carriers, all of which seem to get the "price no object" tag.

[Lorien]

1. You can't "out innovate" the rest of the world without funding the space program. nt

[damntexdem]

2. That's no new rocket in NASA's pocket ...

and, no, NASA doesn't like us.

;-)

[Pterodactyl]

3. Can't say that I like Obama's space policy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_policy_of_the_Barack_Obama_administration#Neil_Armstrong.2C_James_Lovell.2C_and_Eugene_Cernan_Statement

[pokerfan]

4. No bucks...

No Buck Rogers...

[baldguy]

5. We had one that was 80% through the design phase.

Obama killed it.

[jakeXT]

6. knowledge archaeology

Saturn V
While much of the information resides in obsolete computer formats, it could be recovered if necessary. What NASA has lost is its corporate knowledge.
http://books.google.com/books?id=u-MDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA37&dq=Popular%20Mechanics%20July%201994&pg=PA46#v=onepage&q=Popular%20Mechanics%20July%201994&f=false


Reverse engineer Apollo parts
http://video.pbs.org/video/1329863944

Program: Wired Science
Episode: Space Junkyard

Ever wonder where spaceships go to die? Special correspondent Adam Rogers visits a Southern California scrapyard to the find the place where the remnants of the Apollo missions were laid to rest.

[Phoonzang]

7. Give them the money that would be spent on Boner's jet engine... nt