GAO Says NASA Moon Plans Are a Mess
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a 19-page report that is highly critical of NASA's Constellation Program. Constellation is the program that is supposed to find America returning to the moon, building a base, and eventually heading to Mars for human exploration.
According to the GAO:
NASA is currently working toward preliminary design reviews for the Ares I and Orion vehicles. While this is a phase for discovery and risk reduction, there are considerable unknowns as to whether NASA's plans for these vehicles can be executed within schedule goals and what these efforts will ultimately cost. This is primarily because NASA is still in the process of defining many performance requirements. Such uncertainties could affect the mass, loads, and weight requirements for the vehicles. NASA is aiming to complete this process in 2008, but it will be challenged to do so given the level of knowledge that still needs to be attained. The challenges NASA is facing pose risks to the successful outcome of the projects.
Personally, as a hardcore supporter of NASA, the Constellation Program is a massive waste of money to achieve goals that aren't adequately defined or needed, which shouldn't come as a surprise when one considers this entire thing was urged by the Bush Administration. Sending humans to Mars is more for our collective ego than it is for science, especially when robotics are far more inexpensive.
Read the full GAO Report here. [PDF]
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