Tim Furniss/LONDON
Work at NASA on advanced planning for potential manned Moon and Mars missions has been stopped. Budget difficulties and anticipated future budget restraint have made it obvious to the agency that nearer-term goals must take priority.
NASA centres, including the Advanced Projects office at Houston, Texas, and an Exploration Transportation section in Huntsville, Alabama, have been working on the technology required to support a return to the Moon in about 2005 and a manned mission to Mars in about 2010. The work includes portable life-support systems and advanced transportation. Some research contracts have already been cancelled.
NASA's International Space Station (ISS) budget is $200 million overspent this year and, in an effort to make up this deficit, cuts are being made to the Space Shuttle programme, with the United Space Alliance, which operates the Shuttle commercially for NASA, being told to lay off up to 500 workers at the Kennedy Space Center.
The cuts will not affect current unmanned Mars missions such as the Mars Surveyor 2001 lander, which will still carry an experiment to demonstrate in situ production of propellant from elements in the Martian atmosphere, which is related to a future manned mission.
The proposed TransHab Mars habitat module will still be flown aboard the ISS as planned, and some work is to be done on potential orbital-transfer modules.
Source: Flight International
