The White House panel of independent space experts has determined NASA can not return to the moon. The reason is money. It would cost an extra $3 billion a year in the NASA budget to accomplish this goal. To put this in perspective Obama gave $4.5 billion to groups like Acorn in the stimulus. Health care reform is expected to cost an extra $1 trillion over the next 10 years by conservative estimates. Many experts believe NASA spending returns more dollars than the actual budgeted cost. Many people claim the money spent on NASA should be spent on social programs closer to home. In contrast, social programs receive about 98 times the amount of money spent on NASA.
On 04/27/09 Obama said at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences:
"We will not just meet but we will exceed the level achieved at the height of the space race,"
I guess Obama's priorities have changed.
From MSNBC:
WASHINGTON - A White House panel of independent space experts says NASA’s return-to-the-moon plan just won’t fly.
The problem is money. The expert panel estimates it would cost about $3 billion a year beyond NASA’s current budget.
“Under the budget that was proposed, exploration beyond Earth is not viable,” panel member Edward Crawley, a professor of aeronautics at MIT, told The Associated Press Tuesday.
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