On Monday President Obama called NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover team, offering it well-deserved congratulations for their successful landing of a very large probe on a distant world.
It was a classy move by the President, and only twice before — President Gerald Ford after the Viking landers and President George W. Bush after the Spirit and Opportunity rovers — has a president called NASA to remark upon their efforts with robotic missions.
However, the call cannot mask the fact that beyond the spectacular success of the Curiosity mission NASA’s planetary science program is a mess.
During his call, the President said, “As all of you know, my administration has put a big focus on improving science and technology, engineering and math education. And this is the kind of thing that inspires kids across the country.”
Fine, but it’s worth noting that the Mars Science Laboratory was created and received much of its funding during the presidency of George W. Bush.
Later, the President said, “I’m going to give you guys a personal commitment to protect these critical investments in science and technology.” This is what really has upset some planetary scientists.
To pay for the massively over-budget James Webb Space Telescope, which undeniably will be a boon to science but has nevertheless been very poorly managed, the President allowed Sen. Barbara Mikulski, of Maryland, to raid the planetary science budget.
Here’s a look at the relevant chart from the President’s 2013 budget request for NASA:
If you don’t feel like squinting, the budget for planetary science declines from $1.5 billion this year to $1.2 billion in FY 2013, and down to $1.1 billion in FY 2014 and 2015. The effects of these cuts on planetary science — if they make it through Congress, which they probably won’t — would be significant.
In planetary science NASA has three classes of robotic exploration programs, Discovery (the cheapest), New Frontiers and Flagship (most expensive). All do great science, but the Flagship missions are by far the splashiest. Flagship missions include the Voyager probes, Cassini spacecraft and the Curiosity rover.
Under the President’s budget, instead of being flown every two years, Discovery class missions would only be flown every 60 months, and instead of being flown every 60 months, New Frontiers missions would be flown every 72 months.
And Flagship missions? The best of the best? In this budget there is no funding for new Flagship mission starts beyond Curiosity and Cassini. In addition there may not be money to keep those missions beyond their nominal flights, even if the probes are functional.
So to recap: No money for a Mars sample return mission. No money for a Jupiter-Europa orbiter. No money for the kinds of stuff that really stimulates, well, curiosity in the public imagination. No money for the kinds of missions that would have the capability to find life elsewhere in the solar system.
I recognize that there are a lot of competing interests for the federal budget, and that there’s a large deficit. However, if the President is going to give NASA’s finest a “commitment” to protect these kinds of critical investments in planetary science, he ought to have a budget that backs that up.