SteveMcMahon

Government bureaucracy sucks. NASA has suffered the long-term fate of all government agencies, it has become ossified and terrible at producing good value from its budget. For example - spending $3.2 million to say they can't afford to go to Mars?!? For something that could have been done by a couple of accountants and a few engineers spending a few weeks on a spreadsheet and MS Project? They spent $3.2m to produce a report begging for more cash. Crazy waste of money, and somebody should be fired for it. But they won't, because public sector. Other problems NASA has include being in thrall to the prevailing political agendas of the day rather than focusing on their mission. 1960's NASA was obsessed with putting men on the Moon. Today's NASA is obsessed with affirmative action and climate change. Wernher von Braun wouldn't get past security if he tried to join modern NASA. Yes, getting to Mars and back is technically an awesome challenge and will be hideously expensive. But if Project Orion could figure out a plausible way to do it back in the 1950's, what's stopping NASA in 2014? More money doesn't necessarily mean better missions if the money's going to people who already waste much of their budget. They have a budget of over $18Bn a year and some of the smartest people in the world working for them. They should be capable of doing better, but once bureaucratic inertia sets in at a government agency it's very difficult to shake off. Unless there's a new space race with China to focus minds or a wholesale change in NASA's leadership, they'll probably never recover the spirit of 1969.