US House Science Committee wants Moon & Mars bases

[DocM]

Notable also is that they upped the funding for Commercial Crew (Dragon. Dream Chaser, CST-100 etc.) 40%, from $500m to $700m, and they authorized NASA for 2 years instead of the usual 1 year.

There has also been a lot of talk of setting up 5 year budgets for NASA with stable funding so the annual budget crisis goes away, and setting a permanent strategy panel to provide long term goals & guide for the agency that would include govt., commercial and science community members.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/mars-base-moon-plan-93017.html

Mars base added to moon plan

Republicans in Congress are pushing for major cuts across the federal budget, but so far, they?re not willing to sacrifice a plan to build a moon colony.

In fact, Republicans on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee are eyeing an even more ambitious goal: building a base on Mars, too.

Those calls will be part of new legislation to be released Wednesday reauthorizing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for two more years, and though the bill doesn?t use the term ?moon base,? the goal is clear.

?The [NASA] Administrator shall establish a program to develop a sustained human presence on the Moon and the surface of Mars,? states a recent discussion draft obtained by POLITICO.

New language in the bill also says that while the NASA chief is authorized to develop international partnerships to establish a ?sustained presence? on the two celestial bodies, ?the absence of an international partner may not be justification for failure to pursue such program in a timely manner.?

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich famously said during last year?s presidential campaign that the U.S. would have a permanent base on the moon by the end of his second term, drawing mockery from Mitt Romney, who said he?d fire someone for proposing to spend billions on such a project.

But the new NASA authorization isn?t quite as ambitious as Gingrich?s plan.

Although it calls for bases on the moon and Mars, the bill doesn?t set a specific timetable for any of this and opts for a ?go-as-we-can-afford-to-pay? strategy.

The language in the new bill is a ?reaffirmation? of earlier authorizations and existing law, a Republican committee aide said?although it does add the Mars plan. The Science panel?s space subcommittee will hold a hearing Wednesday morning to discuss the bill, which will be released around the same time.

With the end of NASA?s space shuttle program in 2011 and the International Space Station?s retirement at the end of the decade, the aide said, the question is, ?what comes next??

?While the Chinese are dumping money into their space program, American astronauts are hitching rides to the International Space Station on Russian rockets,? Space subcommittee Chairman Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.) said in a statement.

?NASA no longer even has the capability of sending our astronauts into space. We must ensure every single dollar appropriated to NASA is spent effectively and efficiently?that is why we are prohibiting further work on costly distractions like the Obama Administration?s Asteroid Retrieval Mission,? he added.

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[Hum]

Better start printing more funny money.

 

Too many people on social security, disability, food assistance, etc.

 

Not to mention the coming fallout of Obama-care ...

[Xerax]

Not to mention the coming fallout of Obama-care ...

Being from the UK, i'm not too educated in the details of american politics. What actually happened to Obama-care?

[neufuse Veteran]

Being from the UK, i'm not too educated in the details of american politics. What actually happened to Obama-care?

 

so far? nothing

[DocM]

Being from the UK, i'm not too educated in the details of american politics. What actually happened to Obama-care?

Parts have been implemented and facilities are changing things in anticipation, for the worse. The more "features" people find out about, the less they want it. Even many Democrats are critical, and the costs are skyrocketing fastef than they were before Obamacare due to many of its requirements. Cash outlays by patients will go way up, and there are fewer general practitioners in teaining so quality of care will go down because of treatment delays

Essentially, its becoming the massive cluster f*ck many of us feared it would be.

[ILikeTobacco]

Being from the UK, i'm not too educated in the details of american politics. What actually happened to Obama-care?

So far, "children" up to the age of 26 can be covered by their parents health insurance plans, even if they are no longer dependents. Every year, taxes on prescriptions have been going up. If you had health insurance before Obamacare, your premiums are going up faster than normal and the reason, as cited by the insurance companies, is to pay for the increase in cost of paperwork and bureaucratic bs that they are forced into. Hospitals are having to pay more taxes on medical equipment. Both insurance and actual health care costs are rising faster than the normal increase that people complained about before the law existed. And finally, parts of it have yet to be implimented, with more rounds of tax increases on all healthcare you receive, more taxes on life saving drugs, etc.

 

My favorite side effect, the lowering of what private health insurance companies will cover because the law lowered the standard to that of medicare.

 

To sum up and qoute DocM, its a "massive cluster f*ck."

[neufuse Veteran]

So far, "children" up to the age of 26 can be covered by their parents health insurance plans, even if they are no longer dependents. Every year, taxes on prescriptions have been going up. If you had health insurance before Obamacare, your premiums are going up faster than normal and the reason, as cited by the insurance companies, is to pay for the increase in cost of paperwork and bureaucratic bs that they are forced into. Hospitals are having to pay more taxes on medical equipment. Both insurance and actual health care costs are rising faster than the normal increase that people complained about before the law existed. And finally, parts of it have yet to be implimented, with more rounds of tax increases on all healthcare you receive, more taxes on life saving drugs, etc.

 

My favorite side effect, the lowering of what private health insurance companies will cover because the law lowered the standard to that of medicare.

 

To sum up and qoute DocM, its a "massive cluster f*ck."

 

We've had to raise our insurance rates for clients around 25% just to cover all the stuff that changed... we had to hire tons of people to deal with the issues... jus a train wreck when you work in the insurance field

[ILikeTobacco]

We've had to raise our insurance rates for clients around 25% just to cover all the stuff that changed... we had to hire tons of people to deal with the issues... jus a train wreck when you work in the insurance field

My rate only went up $5 a month which isn't to bad at first glance. Then you realize it was because they lowered what was covered to the medicare standard. I can't even get a CGM covered because Medicare won't cover it. That use to be covered.

[Growled Member]

I've been hearing moon base for years. I'll believe it when I see it.

[ILikeTobacco]

I've been hearing moon base for years. I'll believe it when I see it.

I am wondering if they will do a moon base first or a station orbiting the moon.

[DocM]

Both have been proposed. An Exploration Gateway station at L2 (Lagrange point 2 - a gravitational stability point above the far side) could serve as a staging point for both lunar sorties and beyond Earth orbit explorations including Mars, Phobos, Deimos, Ceres, large asteroids & comets etc.

[M_Lyons10]

Better start printing more funny money.

 

Too many people on social security, disability, food assistance, etc.

 

Not to mention the coming fallout of Obama-care ...

 

 

Parts have been implemented and facilities are changing things in anticipation, for the worse. The more "features" people find out about, the less they want it. Even many Democrats are critical, and the costs are skyrocketing fastef than they were before Obamacare due to many of its requirements. Cash outlays by patients will go way up, and there are fewer general practitioners in teaining so quality of care will go down because of treatment delays

Essentially, its becoming the massive cluster f*ck many of us feared it would be.

Yep.  But Nancy Pelosi, having not read it (Since they wouldn't know what's in it until they voted on it), knew faaaar better than we did, didn't she?  LOL

[Xerax]

So far, "children" up to the age of 26 can be covered by their parents health insurance plans, even if they are no longer dependents. Every year, taxes on prescriptions have been going up. If you had health insurance before Obamacare, your premiums are going up faster than normal and the reason, as cited by the insurance companies, is to pay for the increase in cost of paperwork and bureaucratic bs that they are forced into. Hospitals are having to pay more taxes on medical equipment. Both insurance and actual health care costs are rising faster than the normal increase that people complained about before the law existed. And finally, parts of it have yet to be implimented, with more rounds of tax increases on all healthcare you receive, more taxes on life saving drugs, etc.

 

My favorite side effect, the lowering of what private health insurance companies will cover because the law lowered the standard to that of medicare.

 

To sum up and qoute DocM, its a "massive cluster f*ck."

Parts have been implemented and facilities are changing things in anticipation, for the worse. The more "features" people find out about, the less they want it. Even many Democrats are critical, and the costs are skyrocketing fastef than they were before Obamacare due to many of its requirements. Cash outlays by patients will go way up, and there are fewer general practitioners in teaining so quality of care will go down because of treatment delays

Essentially, its becoming the massive cluster f*ck many of us feared it would be.

so far? nothing

Oh wow... I never really liked Obama, but I guess now I have a real reason.