There will be a House committee hearing on the NASA authorization bill this morning at 10:00 am EDT: Subcommittee on Space Hearing – NASA Authorization Act of 2013 | Committee on Science – U.S. House of Representatives
A draft of the bill contains language that would prohibit funding for much of the NASA plan for future asteroid missions. However, its emphasis on redirecting NASA to focus on missions to the Moon does not include funding for the systems to do lunar expeditions.
- Asteroid mission plans in the House’s crosshairs – Space Politics
- House GOP: Don’t grab an asteroid — let’s put bases on moon and Mars – Cosmic Log
- NASA’s asteroid-wrangling plan may get shot down: Lawmakers look to cut plan; NASA says it’s crucial to future treks – Florida Today
I’ll note that the reason the Augustine committee recommended asteroid missions for the human spaceflight program was to have something useful to do while landing and surface operations systems were being developed for lunar and Mars missions. There would not be enough money to develop such systems in parallel with development of the launch and in-space transport systems. This authorization draft shows this to be the case. The SLS/Orion project eats up the HSF funding in a NASA budget that is actually getting smaller rather than remaining flat as in the Augustine worst case scenarios.
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Dennis Wingo posts his thoughts on destinations for the : Moon, Mars, or Asteroids, Which is the Best Destination for Solar System Development? – Dennis Wingo