Politics
Americans Don't Want the Shuttle Program to Die
Around the State
Atlantis heads into Florida for a touchdown Thursday / Credit: NASAWith space shuttle Atlantis touching down Thursday, a chapter of space exploration ended -- and a new poll finds that Americans are not at all happy about it.
A poll released by CNN /Opinion Research found that 50 percent of those surveyed believe that the federal government pulling the plug on the space shuttle program is bad for the nation. Only 16 percent of those surveyed think that ending the program, which has been based in Florida and exploring space for 30 years, is good for America. A third of Americans -- 33 percent -- think that ending the space shuttle program will have no impact on the country.
The poll also finds that Americans have more faith in the private sector to continue space exploration than they do in NASA. More than half of those surveyed -- 54 percent -- think that private companies would take the lead on continued exploration while 38 percent think the federal government should continue as the primary conduit on space matters.
According to the poll, Americans remain convinced of the value of space discovery and stay optimistic about its future. Eighty-seven percent of those surveyed believe that Americans will be able to establish a replacement vessel that could send astronauts into space and back -- and 75 percent of Americans believe this should be done. Only 23 percent oppose the idea.
A plurality of those surveyed -- 38 percent -- believe it is very important for the U.S. to remain ahead of other nations in space exploration while 26 percent think it is fairly important. Some 36 percent responded that it is not important for America to continue leading the space race.
The poll of 1,009 American adults was taken between July 18-20, and had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
President Barack Obama called the crew of the last shuttle flight last week, conveying that they have done important work and that future space missions will focus on Mars.
Comments (3)
How's a revolution to start?
the ENTIRE (40-tons-total) payload mass that "should" be carried to the ISS between 2014-16 and 2020 (+delays) by ALL the 20 "commercial space" CRS missions (12 with a cargo-Dragon and 8 with a Cygnus) awarded by NASA to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences (for a total price of $3.5 billion + over $1 billion for the COTS program) can be carried by (just) TWO further Shuttle flights (at 20 tons of payload per flight) and NOW, in late 2011 (then, NOT in 2015, or 2018, or 2020) for a total cost of about $1.5 billion, that is LESS THAN HALF the CRS program!!!
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Cygnus: timeline: 2014-16 to 2020 -- number of flights: 8 -- max cargo per flight: 2.5 tons -- max total payload of all CRS missions: 20 tons
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Dragon: timeline: 2014-16 to 2020 -- number of flights: 12 -- max cargo per flight: 3 tons -- max total payloads of all CRS missions: 36 tons
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costs of the COTS + CRS program: $1 billion for COTS + $3.5 billion for CRS including all 20 missions for a total of 56 tons max carried to the ISS = $80 million per ton of payload
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Shuttle: timeline 2011-12 -- number of flights: 2 -- max cargo per flight: 24 tons (+ 7 astronauts!!!) -- max total payload: 48 tons (or just 40 tons to the ISS)
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total costs of two further Shuttle missions: $1.6 billion for a total of (only) 40 tons of payload (+ 14 astronauts!!!) = $40 million per ton of payload (that's HALF the price of the "cheap" commercial space...)
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SLS: timeline 2017-up -- max cargo per flight: 130 tons -- costs of the program: $10 billion -- price per launch: over $1 billion -- number of cargo flights in 2017-2020: four???
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price per ton of payload of four SLS launches: $10 Bn + $4 Bn = $14 Bn / 520 tons = $27 million per ton of payload (that's 1/3rd the price of the "cheap" commercial space...)
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