AeroRocket NASA Budget Proposal

NASA should built the HL-20 space taxi Save America's Human Space Exploration Program. AeroRocket believes NASA should build the Ares heavy lift launcher and the Orion spacecraft to establish a permanent presence on the moon. AeroRocket believes the present NASA budget is a destination to nowhere. Without a clear goal the NASA deep-space program will never be fully funded and will never be realized if America needs to wait until after 2025 to take the first tentative steps beyond low Earth orbit. AeroRocket agrees with Neil Armstrong the first man to walk on the moon that President Obama's NASA budget is “devastating” to America’s space effort because losing the lead in space has long lasting national-security and industrial implications. The new NASA plan implies the United States is not ready to take the next step into space because it lacks a powerful but incredibly safe propulsion system and a yet to be developed and mythical plasma shield to protect astronauts from solar radiation on long journeys. However, the VASIMR plasma rocket motor often touted to be the answer for high speed travel to Mars requires a nuclear reactor making the VASIMR rocket motor as problematic for future space travel as the solid core nuclear rocket motor (NERVA) developed 40 years ago. Also, technology to shield astronauts from solar radiation using hydrogen bearing plastics and ordinary water has existed for many years. Flights beyond low Earth orbit should not be contingent on development of warp drive propulsion and ethereal plasma shields. Instead, America should establish a permanent presence on the moon and develop the technologies required to explore Mars and beyond. Otherwise, President Obama's unfunded and unscheduled goal of traveling to Mars by 2035 means America's presence in space beyond low Earth orbit will be as transitory as the Apollo project. The present NASA budget in effect kills America's long term prospects for human space exploration and cedes space exploration leadership to Russia and China...

John Cipolla , Chief Aerodynamicist, AeroRocket