NASA should skip moon, fly elsewhere by Magdalena Rosova

According to a special independent panel, NASA have to make a big detour on its expansive plans to return its astronauts to the moon. It seems that NASA chose wrong destination with the wrong rocket. A new rocket Ares I is waiting for its first experimental flight. In the final 155-page report the panel suggests NASA should concentrate on bigger rockets and try to explore new places. The committee was created by the White House in May to monitor NASA's activities, space programs and troubled explorations. The report was issued last month and urged NASA to spend more on space. Norman Augustine, a chairman of the committee, said on Thursday in a news conference that NAS! A should focus more on new fresh destinations. He added it makes more sense to send mission to one of the moons of Mars than returning to the moon which would take about 15 years, as NASA has outlined. The plans of returning back to the moon were created during the administration of previous President George W. Bush. In the report the panel asked NASA to extend the life of the space shuttle program and the International Space Station as well. NASA's space shuttles retire in Oct. 1, 2010 but some of them will keep flying until 2011 because NASA will not get all their flights to the station done by that time. Space station will operate until 2020, allowing more scientific experiments. The White House will now study the panel's report and the president will make the final decision. In the report the committee suggests new places NASA should explore and it also gives 8 new options. One of it is idea of exploring the inner solar system to interest public in new destination! s.

related story (sgx15702): http://thehill.com/component/content/article/545-technology/...

by Magdalena Rosova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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