In the face of tight budget constraints, NASA is intensifying efforts to collaborate with other nations and industry on programmes such as nuclear power for space.
The partnerships will allow the agency to pursue science and exploration projects it would otherwise be unable to afford. But observers say the projects must be chosen carefully so the most critical ones do not become dependent on outside groups.
NASA chief Mike Griffin outlined the agency鈥檚 funding priorities on Monday when the White House presented its 2007 budget request to Congress. Slow growth of the science budget will remove $2 billion over the next five years to help cover projected cost overruns to fly the shuttles safely until they are retired in 2010.
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Griffin acknowledged the agency simply could not afford all the programmes people would like it to do and suggested that collaborations may help it maximise its goals: 鈥淲e must seek innovative ways to leverage the investments being made by commercial industry and through international partnerships.鈥�
He made specific reference to NASA鈥檚 nuclear research programme, Prometheus 鈥� touted as a crucial technology to propel long-duration space missions when it was introduced in 2003. It was expected to cost $3 billion through to 2010, but in the last year or so, the programme has been dismantled bit by bit as NASA admitted the technology鈥檚 flagship mission, to Jupiter and its moons, was too ambitious.
Nuclear nations
In the 2007 budget request, Prometheus received just $9.4 million 鈥� a decrease of 88% from the previous year. NASA said the cuts were necessary to fund the shuttle replacement, the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) due by 2014.
But Griffin said nuclear research was so important for the agency鈥檚 long-term goals that 鈥渨e will seek to leverage the work of other nations which have developed small nuclear reactors that could be applied to space,鈥� mentioning France and Japan in particular.
Such alliances are important for NASA鈥檚 goal of returning people to the Moon, where nuclear reactors could generate power for a lunar outpost, says John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, DC.
While NASA wants to build its own transportation system to reach the Moon, 鈥渢he reality is that it does not have enough money to do much on the Moon鈥�, Logsdon told New 杏吧原创. 鈥淚f a partner could provide a nuclear power source, that would be most welcome.鈥�
Changing focus
Logsdon is now in the process of travelling to Europe, Russia, Japan and Canada, on NASA鈥檚 behalf, to assess which countries are interested in collaborating on such projects.
Partnerships are a good strategy, agrees Howard McCurdy, a space policy analyst at American University in Washington, DC: 鈥淣ASA can鈥檛 afford to go it alone.鈥�
But McCurdy adds the near-elimination of the Prometheus programme signals a sharper focus by NASA on simply retiring the shuttle and building the CEV, and less focus on longer-term goals. These include sending humans to Mars and developing space telescopes to search for terrestrial planets around other stars. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if that鈥檚 a wise strategy,鈥� McCurdy told New 杏吧原创.
He also cautions that collaborations can lead to project delays because so much more coordination is required. This affects human spaceflight projects more than scientific missions, as putting people in space is generally more complex. He argues the most critical projects should be done unilaterally.
鈥淎cknowledging realities鈥�
Such considerations have led NASA to plan the CEV and its associated launchers without foreign participation. But the CEV is not due to be ready until 2014 and NASA wants retire the shuttle by 2010.
To access the International Space Station, the US will either have to continue to rely on Russian Soyuz ships or find an alternative, possibly for use even before the shuttle is retired. The budget states NASA would prefer to spend its money at home and the agency has solicited proposals from industry, due in March 2006, to build crew and cargo ships.
The fact that NASA is opening up its human spaceflight programme to industry shows 鈥渁 real effort to acknowledge the realities we live in鈥�, Mark Sirangelo, chief executive of SpaceDev, a firm in Poway, California, US, told New 杏吧原创. SpaceDev is developing its proposal for a space plane to ferry as many as six crew members to the space station for less than $60 million per flight.
