Originally posted by Total Package
Well what a shock... it appears NASA will no longer be going to the moon....
it's all become just too hard and too expensive.
It's always been expensive, but too hard? No. I'm not sure where you're getting that from. But NASA clearly doesn't have the funding to return to
the Moon with the way things are currently going.
The original plan for returning to the Moon depended on funds from decommission the ISS and retiring the Space Shuttle. But funding for the ISS is
likely to be extended as is for the Shuttle. And like all complex engineering projects, the Ares 1 and Orion have been experiencing various set backs
in there development, which leads to higher than planned costs. Unfortunately NASA doesn't have the budget required to do everything it would need to
make it all happen, something has to get cut.
You might want to actually read the
Summary Report[.PDF], if you
haven't yet already.
Just as I said when it was first announced... it would literally never get off the ground and they will find a way of not having to go but
making it look like they really really wanted to.
Riiight
So they've just been pretending this whole time? I supposed this photo of a fully assembled
Ares 1-X (large image), due to launch this October is just a prop?
And the modifications done to launch complex 39B to handle launching the Ares 1 was just for the fun of it? Ok then...