Space Exploration Enthusiasts Say US Program Adrift

June 14, 2012

The U.S. space agency NASA has ambitious plans for exploring Mars with the robotic rover called Curiosity, scheduled to land on the red planet in August. But NASA's long-range plan to send a human crew there by 2030 is under fire from critics, who include some former NASA astronauts and managers. The critics doubt such a mission will ever come about and some also question whether it should.

A half century ago, NASA sent astronauts to the moon, and for the past three decades used its space shuttle for low-earth orbit missions.

But many veterans of NASA's glory years, such as former Johnson Space Center Director Chris Kraft, are critics of the agency's plan to send astronauts to Mars.

“That objective is ludicrous. It cannot be done. It cannot be done technically and, more importantly, it cannot be done financially,” Kraft said.

Kraft says the new Space Launch System proposed by NASA at a cost of around $5 billion is too expensive and that it would be better to utilize existing rocket systems for exploration beyond earth's orbit. He also says an ambitious goal like sending humans to Mars requires a detailed plan with intermediate, preliminary steps, like establishing bases on the moon.

“We know how to go back to the moon; it is a reasonable program; it is a feasible program; it can be done with today's capabilities.”