... they seem to be too busy playing tickle O'Keefe's tummy for that. Look at http://www.planetary.org/html/society/press/budget_03.htm ; which is supposedly the group's response to the cuts. It's the most pathetic document of its kind i've ever seen; & filled with mealy mouthed platitudes about cutting real missions to pay for technology development being a good thing for space science when we all know its really a gutting.

Frankly, though, i didn't expect much better. In recent years, the TPS acts as a JPL lobbyist on all key issues; & for that reason, they were rather dragged kicking & screaming into the Pluto mission debate in the first place (JPL management didn't want their claim that their PKE concept was the cheapest best solution; so it wasn't until Congress forced a public review of the program that the TPS did so, too). So long as NASA hq hives off the Mars program from financial scrutiny, the TPS management is happy; & if popular targets like Pluto get shafted along the way... then that's space politics for you.

Robert