so why did we elect this jerk

Obama Plans To Kill NASA's Mars Missions


Scientists and former NASA officials are enraged over the proposed cuts to planetary science in NASA's FY13 budget, which will be released on Monday. 


It is reported that the current $1.5 billion planetary science budget will be cut by $300 million, with more than $200 million of that coming out of the Mars programs. 


The current Mars budget is $581.7 million. This will mean, as NASA has said for months, that the U.S. will pull out of the joint 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions with Europe. The ostensible reason is to cover the $1.8 billion cost-overrun of the Webb telescope, within a flat or declining total NASA budget.


In remarks to the AAAS {ScienceInsider}, Ed Weiler, former head of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, explained that he quit his job at NASA last Fall because he was tired of fighting with the OMB to save the Mars programs -- a fight that this year was ultimately unsuccessful. 


He described the cutbacks to the wildly successful Mars missions as "irrational."  


Weiler said he had told Bolden that the fight was "not about Ed Weiler, this is not about the Science Mission Directorate, this is not even about NASA. 


This is about the country. We are the only country in the world that has demonstrated the capacity to land anything on Mars. 


How can we allow that to be undermined?" Scott Hubbard, a planetary scientist who led NASA's Mars programs, called the cuts "a scientific tragedy and a national embarrassment." Regarding OMB, Hubbard said, "They don't seem to be interested in finding life in the universe or letting the experts manage their own program."


The appropriate House and Senate committees will hold hearings on the budget request over the next few weeks. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Pasadena), who represents the national Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which handles the planetary missions, says he met with NASA administrator Bolden yesterday, which meeting was "tense." 


JPL has already laid off about 240 people in the past two years, from previous budget cuts. Schiff says he'll fight the cuts "tooth and nail."


If Congress fights this the way they fought Obama's cancellation of NASA's manned space program, don't expect much. This fight is up to us to lead.