More Money For Pluto (and Europa) ?
A loose bipartisan consensus is falling into place in the U.S. House of Representatives to add some $60 million to NASA’s FY 2003 budget earmarked specifically for NASA’s on/off/on again Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission (now known in reincarnated form as the New Horizons mission). Legislative language would also be added to restore NASA’s Outer Planets Program breathing potential life back into a mission to Europa.
Congress added $30 million to the FY 2002 Budget for the Pluto mission. The President’ s FY 2003 budget then omitted the outer planets program entirely including both the planned Europa and Pluto missions. There is some sentiment in Congress to link these funds to something that NASA – and Administrator O’Keefe in particular – wants in the FY 2003 budget so as to make certain it gets spent where Congress wants it spent. This is only half of what would be needed to in FY2003 to conduct the Pluto mission as currently planned.
Office of Space Flight Associate Administrator Ed Weiler has said that he welcomes input from the scientific community on priorities in space science missions and that he will take into account any recommendations from the community with regard to missions to Europa and Pluto.
The NASA Advisory Council’s Solar System Exploration Subcommittee (SSES) and the Division of Planetary Science (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society have already given their strong endorsement for the Pluto and Europa missions.
A “Decadal Survey of Solar System Exploration” covering all aspects of planetary research (based upon input from the space science community) is currently in the final review process at the National Academy of Science. The final report is widely expected to give missions to Pluto and Europa very high ranking. The report is due to be released this summer.
Sean O’Keefe will testify on NASA’s FY 2003 budget before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans, Housing and Urban Development next week. This subcommittee is chaired by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD). The New Horizons Pluto mission is managed by the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University – in Maryland. Additional work is being done at Goddard Space Flight Center – also in Maryland. Mikulski has a habit of vigorously defend things in her home state.
Stay tuned.
Related links
Background Information
President’s Budget Cancels Current Outer Planets Plan in Favor of Developing Nuclear Propulsion and Power for Mars LandersÊ and Future Outer Planets Probes, Planetary Society
