Re:The SR-71 Spy Plane Was So Fast, It Outran Every Missile ...
by quacked on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @05:25PM
(#19506203)
Can you source the Trump story? In the Atlantic [1], it looks like Trump asks NASA if they can do it by the end of his first term with unlimited budget, so that's 4 years instead of 10 years. (10 years is still very short for a manned Mars mission.)
NASA is an enormous entity with many different branches, and each aerospace mission must be planned and funded carefully. Upper management at NASA must also consider the politics of a situation; what would happen to NASA if they agreed to such an offer and failed to deliver results?
This seems like it was a political move by Trump that allowed him to look good by making a risky request. If NASA says "yes" and gets to Mars, Trump wins. If NASA says "yes" and fails to get to Mars, Trump says "I gave the money and you didn't do your part". If NASA says "no", Trump says "I offered them the money but they didn't take it".
NASA is an enormous entity with many different branches, and each aerospace mission must be planned and funded carefully. Upper management at NASA must also consider the politics of a situation; what would happen to NASA if they agreed to such an offer and failed to deliver results?
This seems like it was a political move by Trump that allowed him to look good by making a risky request. If NASA says "yes" and gets to Mars, Trump wins. If NASA says "yes" and fails to get to Mars, Trump says "I gave the money and you didn't do your part". If NASA says "no", Trump says "I offered them the money but they didn't take it".
[1] - https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/trump-ma...