Where is the money for moon and Mars, ask US senators?

11.45am


WASHINGTON - NASA's chief faced sceptical questions today from senators wondering where the money would come from to pay for President George W Bush's plan to send Americans back to the moon and eventually to Mars.

"I think the American public is justifiably apprehensive about starting another major space initiative for fear that they will learn later that it will require far more sacrifice, or taxpayer dollars, than originally discussed or estimated," Senator John McCain told NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe.

O'Keefe told members of the Senate Commerce Committee that the details of financing Bush's "vision" for human space exploration would be available next Monday, when the Office of Management and Budget releases the president's budget request for fiscal 2005.

Bush has said he plans to add US$1 billion to NASA's overall budget over the next five years, and US$11 billion will be channelled from other space agency programmes to fund the ambitious exploration plan unveiled by Bush on January 14.

McCain, an Arizona Republican, questioned whether this would be enough to get a human mission to the moon by 2020, as Bush has urged: "I am very curious to hear how Administrator O'Keefe thinks we can implement the president's proposal with the very limited resources that have been proposed."

Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat and former astronaut, asked about Bush's commitment to the exploration project.

"I was one of the cheerleaders that was there when the president made his announcement" about the moon-Mars plan, Nelson said. "But six days later, when he had the opportunity to put some juice behind that ... he did not mention it in his State of the Union speech. If we do not have the full weight of the president behind it, I'm afraid it's going to fizzle."

O'Keefe said Bush was "100 per cent" behind the exploration plan, but said the State of the Union address is not a "tick list" of all items on the president's agenda, and so it was to be expected that the moon-Mars initiative was not mentioned.

But O'Keefe said the president's budget request would show "an endorsement of this directive with the resources necessary to carry it out."

To bolster NASA's case for funds, O'Keefe screened a video of the recent Mars landing of the robotic rover Spirit, complete with muscular musical accompaniment and the jubilant reaction of mission controllers.

The video brought praise from the panel, but also a direct question about the need for human space flight when robots like the rover cost less and do not risk human life.

"We really do need to take a very hard look at the cost-benefit of putting people up there and does it really benefit us as a species ... compared to the huge, huge difference in cost ... along with the risks," Senator John Ensign, a Nevada Republican, said.

O'Keefe said there were cases where only human decision-making on the spot can solve problems in space. He also noted that humans repaired the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, a premier observatory now doomed to slow death because NASA has decided not to service the craft again.

The hearing was held on the 18th anniversary of the shuttle Challenger disaster, and one day after the 37th anniversary of the Apollo 1 launch pad fire that killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee.

O'Keefe said the martian landing site of the rover Opportunity would be designated as the Challenger Memorial Station, and that three hills around the Spirit landing site would be named for the Apollo 1 astronauts.

A memorial service for families of the shuttle Columbia astronauts, who died when the craft broke up on re-entry last Feb 1, will be held on Monday at Arlington National Cemetery.

- REUTERS