So, I can only assume everyone has noticed the big news, that President Obama has not funded the return to the moon program in his current proposed NASA budget.  What the new budget does is:

• Actually adds $5.9 billion to NASA's budget
• Extends the support of ISS through 2020
• Funds commercially developed launches to support ISS (ie Falcon 9)
• Does not leave enough money to support development of the Ares launch vehicle

In general, these are all good things, except the idea of giving up on returning to the moon, which is moronic.

In fact NASA has already spent more than $9 billion on the return to the moon program, which includes $3.5 billion on Ares I and $3.7 billion on Orion.  This shows what NASA is really good at - wasting money!

Of course I do not mean the space program is a waste of money, or returning to the moon would eb a waste of money.  What IS a waste of money is the actual programs NASA intends to use to accomplish this goal. 

Some engineers at NASA have proposed an alternative program, Direct 2.0.  Direct 2.0 is essentially a shutte without the orbiter/re-entry vehicle component.  Instead you bolt a shuttle main engine directly on the bottom of the external tank.  According to the engineers, this would overcome several of the cost and risk problems of Ares, would not require developing 2 new launch platforms, and would be a more capable vehicle.  Another alternative to Ares is to use existing heavy launch vehicles, like Delta or Atlas, which actually have a better safety record than the space shuttle, even though they are not officially "man rated" launch systems.  And of course the obvious other possibility is to use commercially developed transportation, which is exactly what Obama did fund.

So, why are NASA engineers working on this project essentially in their spare time, while the "official" plan is to pursue ARES, which has know technical issues, include significant vibration from the solid rocket booster stage and a tendency to drift into the gantry at launch?  Frankly, the aerospace companies that are profiting from this program wield enormous influence in the white house and in congress.  They don't care if we get to the moon or not, so long as we spend billions doing it.  And frankly the more money we spend, or waste, the better.

My personal opinion?  The commercial route is definitely better.  How long would it take for Armadillo aerospace to put pixel on the moon?  What if we gave Carmack $100 billion dollars to do it?  As for cancelling the moon program?  It seems like our current administration is serious about that, unfortunately.  But china definitely plans to go to the Moon.  I think when China starts putting astronauts on the moon, the movers and shakers in DC will get their panties all in a twist and decide, in fact, we need to go there too.  So, it's going to happen.  The only question is when and what will it cost.