New NASA budget eats the seed corn of its Journey to Mars

An artist's rendering of the Space Launch System rocket. (credit: NASA)

This week, the US Senate's Appropriations subcommittee overseeing spaceflight put forward its blueprint for NASA's FY2017 budget. The top-line number looks promising at $19.306 billion—a $21 million year-over-year increase.

Yet the Senate plan exposes two potentially fatal flaws with NASA's Journey to Mars. Namely, the US Congress continues to place funding for the Space Launch System rocket and Orion space capsule before all other elements of NASA's exploration program. And by raiding other areas of NASA's budget, notably Space Technology, it is hamstringing the agency's ability to carry out the journey.

There is an old-time expression to characterize what is happening here: eating the seed corn. In a different era, a farmer's family might be forced to eat its seed corn for the next growing season to survive a long winter. This few weeks of sustenance would then doom the family during the next planting season, leaving them with no seeds to put into the ground. This sort of budget eats NASA's seed corn for the Journey to Mars.

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