But your Congress has nothing better to do?!?!?!

From NASAWATCH

23 October 2003: Pluto Mission In Peril -- Again. No One Notices.
Editor's note: From a NASA Watch reader: "Take a look at H. J. Res 73, Section 4 (6) - it effectively kills the Pluto flyby mission. And this is a continuing resolution, too; keeping the government running after 31 October (when the current one expires) through 7 November. Surely the Senate will feel forced to pass the exact same resolution?"


From Discovery.com

First Mission to Pluto in Trouble, Again
Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News

Mission to Pluto Grounded?

Oct. 22, 2003 — After already rising from the ashes several times over the last ten years, the New Horizons mission to the only planet not yet visited by a spacecraft could be delayed — and therefore scrubbed for another century or so — because of an unexplained budget cut proposed by the U.S. House of Representatives.

"Without any warning, out of the blue the House made this budget cut of almost half our budget," said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado.

Ironically, it was only in April that NASA finally gave New Horizons the green light to start "cutting metal" to build the spacecraft.

The $55 million cut out of a $130 million budget has the planetary scientists particularly upset because it would mean a delay in the January 2006 launch. That means missing critical alignments in the orbits of not only Pluto but Jupiter as well, Stern explained.

As the mission is now planned, New Horizons first travels to Jupiter, and slingshots around it to speed its travel to Pluto. That boost would save fuel and three years of travel time.

A delayed launch, on the other hand, would miss Jupiter and gobble up the fuel that was expected to send the spacecraft beyond Pluto and into the Kuiper Belt — the outer solar system asteroid belt of which Pluto is the largest member. What's more, the longer length of the mission would boost the overall cost of running the mission. That's a bad deal, according to an editorial entitled "Planets don't wait for budget catch ups" in the October 6 Aviation Week & Space Technology.

Another problem caused by a delay in launch and a later Pluto arrival date is that scientists would probably miss a highly anticipated event — the freezing of the ninth planet's atmosphere. Right now Pluto is heading toward the further, chillier part of its elongated 248-year orbit and its atmosphere is in the process of freezing to the surface — an event that won't happen again until the middle of the 23rd century.

The good news is that the project could get the funding back. Senators Kit Bond (R-MO) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) have reinstated the funding in the Senate's version of the NASA budget, according to Sen. Mikulski's press secretary Amy Hagovsky. The Senate bill is expected to reach a vote within a couple of weeks, she said.

"We're hoping the Senate language will bring it back," said John Appleby of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and a member of the New Horizons science team. "The support in NASA and the scientific community is there."


Mauro


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BOO!

Shame!

Grrrr!

Howl!

All we have to do is spread the news that Pluto is a hiding place for terrorists... Funding secured. Maybe then they send the Sulaco there...

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit... It's the only way to be sure!



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This is game over man, game over!

Not necessarily. The Senate could quite easily pass their own version, and the differences would be worked out in committee.

Considering the article mentions two senators, a Republican and Democrat, who would be involved in the Senate version, and who want to restore the funding?

Everyone, remember to contact your senators!

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Sleep? Isn't that that totally inadaquate substitute for caffeine I've heard so much about?

Quantumfoamy.com, my astronomy/astrophotography blog.

There's a reason it's called congress after all. Congress is the natural opposite of progress.

I'm not sure what a gress is, but apparently it's good to be for it.

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People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.

Congress Cut your slaries you fat cats and leave my space dreams alive

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Light is faster than sound. "That's why some people appear bright until they speak"

WWGD (What Would GLP Do)

Inspected by #13

This also reminds me, Senator Kerry(i?)'s daughter was speaking on our campus a while back about health care for every person in the US being necessary and how it should be run by the government(great, that will work real well anyone seen social security lately?) because her father as a US senator could barely afford coverage. That was the greatest cock and bull story ever. I make buttkiss an I can afford health care and these senators make fortunes (relative to what I make) and can't balance their own household budgets(buying too many BMW's probably) and they are in charge of passing spending bills. No wonder NASA's funding is screwed.

__________________
Light is faster than sound. "That's why some people appear bright until they speak"

WWGD (What Would GLP Do)

Inspected by #13

I don't know how much a buttkiss is, but apparently I make less than that because I can't afford anykind of healthcare at all.

I think free healthcare is a great idea (if done right) as long as it doesn't apply to smokers or drug addicts (at least not for symptoms caused by them)

__________________
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.

Well wedge I am a graduate student so it hovers pretty low. Lets just say I get all of my income tax back each year.

__________________
Light is faster than sound. "That's why some people appear bright until they speak"

WWGD (What Would GLP Do)

Inspected by #13

T A N S T A A F L

There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!!!

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

[TRANSLATOR]Buttkiss should be BUPKIS[/TRANSLATOR]
From Yiddish, basically means 'nothing'...

...although the original mispronunciation has a certain charm to it...
:-k

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"If a tree is cut down in the rainforest, and is used to make paper to print a book, and the book is really bad, and there's nobody that will read it, do you still hear a sucking sound?"
Charlie in Dayton, A.AsC.

Bad news, tuffel999. Congress just raised their own salaries!

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

Free for whom? Who would pay for this "free" healthcare? Someone has to.

(hint: you would - and you'd be paying for smokers and drug addicts too)

Anyway, Pluto. We should go there. Soon. Write (email) your Congressman.

Actually it is kind of a joke between a few friends of mine. When they were little and losing teeth they couldn't say it right so we kind of continued it and the irony of the mispronounciation just made it funnier when we knew what it meant.

So how do I give them the finger for raising their salaries and canceling the funding for pluto on here........I don't see it in the emoticons?