Remember when a panel of experts before a U.S. House committee back in February urged NASA to produce a solid plan for its human mission to Mars by the 2030s? It warned that the space agency is pressed for time, given the possibility of a space mission-unfriendly administration taking over the White House next year.
This early, however, NASA’s space technology program is apparently already facing a budget crunch. While it requested $826.7 million for the program next year, a Senate-approved spending bill last April 21 provides only $686.5 million.
In particular, budget for its Mars landing technology demo project is slashed by around 85 percent in response to budget cuts to its space tech plan, as well as the need to reserve funding for a satellite servicing effort.
According to Space News, NASA deputy associate administrator James Reuter said the agency's Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project would receive a fraction of its originally intended budget of $20 million for 2016. This cut was deemed a requirement by the fiscal year 2016 appropriations bills last December, particularly the Congress’ instructions to spend $133 million or almost 20 percent of the total on the RESTORE-L satellite servicing.
"The net effect is that we had to find $40 million to cut," revealed Reuter, pertaining to other space tech programs that ultimately included LDSD and a program studying composite structures to be used on the upper stage of the Space Launch System.
But what is LDSD all about? Well, it investigates the function of inflatable decelerators and advanced parachutes for slowing down space vehicles as they enter a planet’s atmosphere – specifically of Mars. Two test flights failed to show the success of the technology, with the parachute either failing to open fully or suffering canopy tears even if it opened.
NASA would have performed such research despite any budget developments, but will be less capable to do it now, Reuter explained, comparing the original $20 million funding to the now available $3 million.
The Senate’s spending bill, he added, also requires $130 million to be allotted to RESTORE-L, which is double the agency’s projection. These are just some programs expected to constrain NASA’s space efforts if budget remains at the Senate’s level.
NASA's space tech program was conceived in 2010 to address the many challenges of exploring deep space. However, the Congress has not shown enough support, funding only around half of what President Barack Obama has requested from that time on.
This year, some of the limited funds will be given to the SLS rocket for its accelerated development, as well as the Earth-observing Landsat satellite managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
For now, the Mars exploration remains a puzzle to be solved. For instance, NASA must land massive payloads on its surface, although one has to face that the Curiosity rover itself still was a relatively small payload of 900 kilograms. Human and cargo missions would be much larger, therefore posing a great challenge ahead.
