JAKARTA – At the beginning of this month, the United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) wanted to slow down the progress of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) program due to funding problems.
However, this plan was strongly opposed by six members of Congress. They asked NASA not to slow down the program and tried to persuade other members of Congress to seek additional funding by 2024.
Congressional parties, namely Senators Alex Padilla, Laphonza Butler, Representatives Adam Schiff, Judy Chu, Mike Garcia, and Young Kim stated in the letter they issued that NASA had made a fairly short-sighted decision.
The reason is, this unilateral decision was made too quickly because Congress had not finished arranging the allocation of funds for Fiscal Year 2024. Congress felt that postponing the MSR would result in hundreds of jobs and knowledge being lost.
However, the important point of this program is its strategic competition. Congress emphasized that MSR could put America ahead in discoveries on Mars, but this would be hampered if NASA delayed it.
What’s more, China and Russia are also targeting exploration of the planet. They don’t know which country will get the best exploration results so delaying the MSR will be very fatal.
“MSR’s mission is critical to remaining at the forefront of strategic space technology competition, meeting the national security challenges posed by China, and maintaining our current competitive advantages,” congressional representatives wrote in the letter.
For information, on November 13, NASA officials announced in a committee meeting that they had asked the Goddard Space Flight Center, JPL, and Marshall Space Flight Center to reduce MSR-related activities.
This is because the funding plan proposed by the committee initially amounted to 949.3 million US dollars (Rp. 14 trillion), but the funds offered by the senate were very far from estimates, namely only reaching 300 million US dollars (Rp. 4 trillion).
“It is unfortunate that we have to take this decision. However, the goal is to allow sufficient funding to support us throughout the year so that we can continue working on and designing this mission,” said NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Science Sandra Connelly, quoted BUTTER from Spacenews.
Tags: outer space nasa mars
2023-11-24 02:34:00
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