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JPL could be 'major player' in NASA's new approach to human spaceflightFeb 02, 2010 (Pasadena Star-News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- While President Barack Obama's 2011 NASA budget calls for cancelling the human space flight program, the plan plays to the strengths of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a go-to agency for Obama's emphasis on studying earth. The budget calls for increasing the earth science budget from $1.42 billion to $1.8 billion, the first major funding increase since 1998. "Earth science has suffered over the last decade," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for Science Mission Directorate. "NASA's budget for studying the earth began to decline, just as we're understanding how important earth science is to our planet." The budget will continue to support the 15 Earth-observing spacecraft that are already in orbit, while supporting the launch of new instruments that will study sea surface salinity and aerosols in the atmosphere. The new focus plays to JPL's strengths -- robotic exploration and earth science. "I would say we are in very good shape," JPL director Charles Elachi. "We're uniquely suited to take advantage of these programs." Right now earth science makes up about 15 to 20 percent of the missions at JPL, but Elachi said he expects that that number could rise to 25 to 30 percent. JPL will be managing six new instruments that are expected to launch in the next decade, including the revived Orbiting Carbon Observatory, Elachi said. These instruments will measure soil moisture, biomass, track changes in tectonic plates and ocean temperature. And since human flight programs could be reduced, JPL could see an increase in robotic exploration -- such as the use of probes, rovers and orbiters. The devices could set the stage for a more flexible human space flight program by gathering information about Mars, the moon and asteroids -- places humans eventually could go. Elachi said the new budget firms up funding for two Mars rovers and a Mars orbiter, all of which could launch within the decade. Obama's proposal still must get out of Congress, and lawmakers in Florida, Alabama and Texas were livid that the budget proposed phasing out the Constellation program, a rocket program supposed to bring people back to the moon. Other space centers that do a lot of work on human spaceflight, such as the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral and Johnson Space Center in Houston, might face more radical changes and even job losses. [email protected] 626-578-6300, ext. 4444 http://www.twitter.com/emmaggallegos To see more of the Pasadena Star-News or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, Pasadena Star-News, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |