NASA Needs Your Help Today [Urgent From the Planetary Society]
43 replies, posted
[QUOTE][B]Urgent action required: Please call Senators TODAY[/B]
Jul. 14, 2010 | 09:56 PDT | 16:56 UTC
It's time to make phone calls to support space exploration. We're sending the following letter to all our members today, and urge everyone reading this to pick up the phone and take action. I've already made my phone calls.
The NASA budget is coming to a critical vote tomorrow, July 15, by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. This is the Committee that authorizes the NASA program. The planned authorization bill has some good features: fully funding the President's request for an increased budget for NASA, strong space and Earth science programs, and redirecting human space flight towards exploration into the solar system. It also increases support for the deep-space rocket and spacecraft necessary to take astronauts there.
But it has two big drawbacks:
[QUOTE] 1. It stops the rapid development of commercial rockets for Earth orbit crew transportation, while authorizing no new government program to replace the shuttle.
2. It cuts out most of the technology development (90%!) and robotic precursor missions related to the future of exploration, two of the brightest lights in the new exploration strategy.[/QUOTE]
Two amendments are being introduced tomorrow to correct these problems: one by Senator Mark Warner of Virginia and the other by Senator Barbara Boxer of California. Together they will restore much of the technology program (increasing it by $356 million) and permit commercial launch vehicles to be developed to allow astronaut flights to the International Space Station sooner.
We urge you to call your Senators today and ask them to support the Warner and Boxer NASA Authorization Amendments, especially if one of your Senators is on the Senate Committee. A phone call is necessary; there's no time for a written letter (these amendments just were announced late yesterday). These are the Committee members:
[QUOTE]
* Democrats
o Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia, Chairman
o Daniel Inouye, Hawaii
o John Kerry, Massachusetts
o Byron Dorgan, North Dakota
o Barbara Boxer, California
o Bill Nelson, Florida
o Maria Cantwell, Washington
o Frank Lautenberg, New Jersey
o Mark Pryor, Arkansas
o Claire McCaskill, Missouri
o Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota
o Tom Udall, New Mexico
o Mark Warner, Virginia
o Mark Begich, Alaska
* Republicans
o Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas, Ranking Member
o Olympia Snowe, Maine
o John Ensign, Nevada
o Jim DeMint, South Carolina
o John Thune, South Dakota
o Roger Wicker, Mississippi
o Johnny Isakson, Georgia
o David Vitter, Louisiana
o Sam Brownback, Kansas
o Mike Johanns, Nebraska
o George LeMieux, Florida
[/QUOTE]
You may call your Senator directly in Washington by calling the U.S. Capitol main number, 202-224-3121, or find their office numbers through The [URL=http://www.capwiz.com/tps/home/]Planetary Society Legislative Action site[/URL]. [Note: I can vouch for the fact that calling that main number and asking for the office of a specific Senator works just fine. --ESL]
Please call today; the vote is tomorrow morning.
Thank you for your consideration and prompt action. No one is more devoted to the future of human and robotic space exploration than Members of The Planetary Society.
Sincerely,
Louis Friedman
Executive Director
[/QUOTE]
Source: [url]http://planetary.org/blog/article/00002584/[/url]
tl;dr: Congress as usual is trying to fuck Obama's plan for NASA. Obama's plan is probably the first good decision in spaceflight in the last 40 years, and the congress should be voted out of office for giving them such a hard time with it. Now it seems that it will get passed (But don't get too confident), yet there are two drawbacks (Mentioned in the letter) that must be fixed immediately before it gets approved (If it does), otherwise they will be pretty considerable problems, and will widen the gap between the end of the manned spaceflight program and the creation of a new heavy-lifter.
[URL=http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=954365]- My thread about how Obama's plan is good -[/URL]
I am all for space and stuff, but I would really rather have jobs.
[QUOTE=Henry Townshend;23360827]I am all for space and stuff, but I would really rather have jobs.[/QUOTE]
Space exploration will create jobs. NASA was always hiring.
Hot
NASA needs support.
[QUOTE=Henry Townshend;23360827]I am all for space and stuff, but I would really rather have jobs.[/QUOTE]
I'm quite sure that if this passes more jobs will become available at NASA.
Yeah but I'm not smart enough to work for NASA.
I could probably be a janitor and clean some shit up I guess.
[QUOTE=Henry Townshend;23361045]Yeah but I'm not smart enough to work for NASA.
I could probably be a janitor and clean some shit up I guess.[/QUOTE]
Not just NASA, but all the hundreds of corporations that are associated with it, and the corporations those corporations buy materials from. You kill NASA, and we'll have the same technology we do today in 60 years, because over 90% of the stuff you use today was either made by space exploration or is an indirect product of it.
Before we get more spaceships, we need an objective to reach, such as orbital solar panels, building a colony on a nearby planetoid, asteroid mining, offworld reserach stations, microgravity hotels, etc. You don't just go into space because you can, there's gotta be a purpose behind it, be it for recreation, colonization, resource gathering, or scientific research, the lattermost of which is one of the reasons why the International Space Station was built.
But yes, we definitely need a new line of space vehicles before we can do any of these things.
Should i go
[QUOTE=snuwoods;23361003]NASA needs support.[/QUOTE]
We can play their Moonbase Alpha game to show that we care
Bumping is because voting is tomorrow morning.
Fuck, here I sit in Sweden and can't do shit
i wonder if i can buy a phone number on skype that makes me appear to be american because i want to support this
So all the senators around me EXCEPT the state Im in?
Could I just call on in florida then since there are none in AL?
I reely want too help NASA.
[QUOTE=Grammer Master;23368357]I reely want too help NASA.[/QUOTE]
you're the worst gimmick ever
Fuck yeah, I love my states senators :smug:
Whoot, NASA.
Can't do anything but.
Nasa needs your help!:d
On August 5th, Sen. John Rockefeller introduced the Senate's version of the NASA Authorization bill - S. 3729 on the floor. The bill authorizes an additional $6 billion in NASA funding over the next five years, including $2.6 billion for developing commercial spaceflight over the next three years. It also authorizes a second shuttle mission in 2011, extends operation of the ISS through 2020, funds new technological development programs, and scraps Constellation in favor of immediately starting work on a new HLV. Not a perfect NASA bill, but easily the best in years, if not decades.
The bill passed with unanimous consent, and will go to the House of Representatives in September.
Unfortunately, the House Committee on Science and Technology has approved its own version of the bill - H.R. 5781. The House bill cuts commercial funding to just $150 million, effectively shutting down the COTS program, and instead of giving much needed boosts to research and technological development, devotes $22.6 billion, a fourth of NASA's entire budget for the next five years, to continuing the Constellation program.
If the House passes its version of the bill there will be no commercial replacement for the shuttle, and no NASA LV for another seven or eight years. NASA's scientific research, unmanned missions, and technological development will continue being cut, delayed, and stalled to free up additional funding for Constellation.
I think that's bullshit. And for those who agree I recommend the following:
1. Look up your Representative. [url]www.house.gov/writerep[/url]
2. Write/email/phone your Representative, explain the situation and tell them to vote against the HCST's bill and to vote in favor of the Senate's version.
3. Convince at least one other person to do the same.
Congress won't stop fucking over NASA unless their constituents tell them to stop.
NASA deserves better! Tell your Representative - NO on H.R. 5781, YES on S. 3729!
NASA NEEDS ME!
I feel so flattered.
[QUOTE=Encryption;24144838]NASA NEEDS ME!
I feel so flattered.[/QUOTE]
Well, fucking finally somebody bumps this thread.
I'm counting on you guys to spread the word :sigh:
[B]Yes on s.3729[/B]
I bump this thread because I care!
To bad no one listed is from my state. :smith:
[QUOTE=Eudoxia;24145053]Well, fucking finally somebody bumps this thread.
I'm counting on you guys to spread the word :sigh:
[B]Yes on s.3729[/B][/QUOTE]
When's the vote?
Even though i'm not american, NASA technology improves lifestyles across the world so if it were me i'd replace the defence budget for NASA's current one
The world needs to get over its problems and form a global space agency that the entire human population can support
[QUOTE=HazeFyer23;23362250]We can play their Moonbase Alpha game to show that we care[/QUOTE]
Agreed.
[QUOTE=CoolCorky;24145710]The world needs to get over its problems and form a global space agency that the entire human population can support[/QUOTE]
You sir brought a new wish into my life
Imagine what we could do if NASA had but a fraction of the Defense funding.
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