Yahoo Autos What an $18 Billion Budget Will Buy NASA
President Obama's 2017 budget request for NASA is out. While nothing is final (this is, after all, a presidential budget going up against a Congress that has not supported Obama's policies), NASA tends to have bipartisan support in Washington, D.C., so the $18 billion ask may not be far off the mark in the end.
There are few major surprises in the budget. It continues a planetary science emphasis on Mars and the upcoming mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, while laying the groundwork for whatever becomes the next flagship mission. The James Webb Space Telescope gets $569 million, enough to keep it on track through its 2018 launch. And funding continues to look toward the agency's future, funding research into new exploration targets and propulsion.
Here's a little breakdown of the proposal:
Science ($5.6 billion)
Earth science would theoretically get $2 billion, but this may be the most contentious part of the budget. It boils down to NASA's research into climate science, especially climate change, which is a perpetually hot-button issue. Some members of the GOP (which controls both chambers of Congress) do not believe that anthropogenic climate change is happening, and many would like to see NASA (and NOAA, the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration) step away from that work.
Planetary science is slated for $1.9 billion, which will cover the cost of building the Mars 2020 rover, plus continuing operations of the Mars Curiosity and Mars Opportunity rovers as well as the Mars Odyssey orbiter. It also provides money for the upcoming Europa mission, which has widespread bipartisan support. The New Frontiers missions will continue to be funded, which comprises the Juno mission (set to arrive at Jupiter this year), the Pluto New Horizons probe, and OSIRIS-REx, an asteroid sample mission that will launch in September.
Many space telescope projects will get a total of $782 million, covering continued operation of Hubble and various Explorers Program missions like WISE and NuSTAR. The James Webb Space Telescope gets $569 million to stay on track for a 2018 launch. NASA's heliophysics missions get $699 million. Various missions fall under that umbrella, including the Voyager missions, though they will be only a small fraction of that budget.
Human Exploration Operations ($8.4 billion)
