Quote from: RocketEconomist327 on 08/16/2013 04:53 pm Again, Dr. Mike Griffin has testified before the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology saying we could return to the moon utilizing these kinds of vehicles.

These arguments are pointless. NASA is not going to the Moon! President Obama cancelled that program.



- Ed Kyle



Actually Mr. Kyle, President Obama cancelled Constellation which was, by our numbers, about $6 billion over budget and 5 years behind schedule. I will contend that it was the fiscally responsible thing to do.Constellation's goal was the moon. Senator Nelson and now retired Senator Hutchison wrote the 2010 NASA Authorization act. They did not specify a destination. They could easily announce that the moon was the destination.The only politician in DC who has come even remotely close to naming the moon as a destination is Congressman Bill Posey whose district owns KSC. It seems as though no one really wants to take a leadership and ownership position when it comes to NASA. They just want funding for their districts and states. Results do not matter.If results mattered we can compare and contrast the two programs and see what has worked in the last 10 years and what has not. The COTS and CCDev programs have real metrics that can be argued at the political level and also at the economic level. Someone should ask ULA how much Atlas V Phase 2 would cost and the time involved. It would be under three years of SLS funding and give us a modest capability of about 68mT.Again, I do not dislike SLS. I think in a world where the United States had a real robust economy with economic growth of somewhere between 3.5 to 3.75 percent growth we could do this. However, we do not have a real robust economy right now.Instead of focusing on the Lamborghini Countach or the Ferrari F40 lets go with a Ford F-150. We can afford it.I would argue that if some in Congress; preferably Senators Nelson, Mikulski, Shelby, and Hatch all got together with say Congressmen Smith, Posey, Edwards, Wolf, and Schiff, and said we want to go to the moon - the President would say just that.However, this President will not do that - and as a very conservative kind of guy - I do not blame him. It makes no sense at all for the President to waste political and human capitol on something that isn't going to happen with Space Launch System. There is no utility.The President, in this instance, can safely defer to the bureaucratic hell that is the US Congress.Respectfully,Andrew GasserTEA Party in Space