----- Original Message -----
From: "gerts mail" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2001 2:57 PM
Subject: Re: Confirmation of the Pluto decision
>
> On Sat, 28 Jul 2001 18:19:10
> Bruce Moomaw wrote:
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "gerts mail" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 3:51 PM
> >Subject: Re: Confirmation of the Pluto decision
> >
> >
> >
> >> In a Dutch (Kuiper was Dutch after all) newspaper I read today the
Pluto
> >2004 mission is off again. I hope the journalist overhere in Holland was
> >misinformed.
> >> Can anyone please confirm the Pluto 2004 mission is still on? (It's
what
> >you could call a "digital mission": on - off - on - off - on ...)
> >>
> >> Kind regards,
> >> Gert van den Heuvel
> >
> >Could you give me more details as to just what the article said? I can't
> >find anything about it here.
> >
> >
>
> The article said the Bush administration cut the budget for the Pluto 2004
mission and so it's quite unlikely anyone living right now is ever going to
see photos of Pluto's atmophere (because soon hell will freeze over and
that situation isn't going to change for the next 120 years...)
>
> I suppose the Dutch journalist was misinformed or wasn't aware of the
latest news about the 2004 mission?
Yes -- my news about the Senate's attempt to revive the mission postdates
that much earlier news. It should be kept in mind, though, that this
revival is still a long shot. Even if all the money NASA had planned for
deep space propulsion over the next four years was transferred to the Pluto
mission, it would still be only $100 million -- only 1/5 of what the probe
needs. And the House, by contrast, is trying to earmark half of this year's
deep-space propulsion money to the Marshall Space Flight Center.
Moreover, my guess is that the final compromise between the House and Senate
will consist of the Senate going along with the House's plan to provide $275
million to restore the Space Station's emergency crew rescue vehicle
(without which the Station is virtually useless scientifically), but the
total increase in NASA's budget being much less than the total of $410
million that the House is trying to provide -- which would mean that there
would be still less for NASA's non-Station programs. The main chance of
saving the Pluto mission, I think, rests on Sen. Mikulski's current attempt
to delay Europa Orbiter and take away JPL's full control over NASA's outer
planet missions.
By the way, I just talked to Michael Drake about the latst meeting of NASA's
Solar System Exploration Subcommittee. He didn't have all that much
dramatic news -- but he did say that Europa Orbiter's cost has now
mushroomed all the way to $1.2 billion, and no one can think of any way to
make it cheaper without stripping it of most of its scientific value. He
also said that if its cost continues to rise, the SSES will start
considering whether to request that it would indeed be put off until we have
more advanced technology.
==
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