Larry J wrote:
There's only so much money to go around.

Alex writes:
Thanks for the tip. Actually, I regularly submit competitive grant proposals, the most recent of which is for NASA's AO for Participating Scientists on the 2003 MER mission.

Larry J wrote:
As much as we space enthusiasts would like to believe otherwise, there isn't a strong consensus for a big increase in science/space funding. I've read several reports that PKE costs were rising, as were PKE costs.

Alex writes:
Look, you seem unfamiliar with the programmatics and terminology of the Pluto exploration effort. At the risk of sounding repetitive the Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission was competitively selected late last year; the New Horizons proposal SwRI/JHU/APL was selected at a cost cap of $500 million dollars. As anyone who has followed the issue closely is aware, NASA did not want a Pluto mission, preferring instead a Europa Orbiter probe, and therefore did not request any funding for PKB. However, lobbying of Congress outside of NASA resulted in $30 million being restored to fund PKB/New Horizons for FY2002. Whether or not funding can be restored to save this mission for the 2006 launch window is anyone's guess, but it does require any magic technology and can fly with off-the-shelf equipment.

Pluto-Kuiper Express (PKE), on the other hand, was an earlier iteration that *was* cancelled under the now-defunct Outer Planets/Solar Probe Project aegis. It was intimately tied to the success of OP/SP as a whole (e.g., reliance on vaporware technology, advance nuclear power sources, etc.) and, not surprisingly, encountered large cost overruns. Sound familiar? What makes you think that New Frontiers (NASA new "magic nuclear technology initiative") will be any different?

Larry J wrote:
What would you be willing to sacrifice to pay for Europa Orbiter or PKE? Ultimately, that's the central question.

Alex writes:
I agree. Since I am a Mars specialist, I'd be willing to sacrifice one of the proposed sample return flights, or even *one* Space Shuttle mission, either of which could easily pay for New Horizons from start to finish.

Larry J wrote:
If you aren't willing to have your budget cut, then why should you expect anyone else to sacrifice their budget to pay for PKE/Europa Orbiter?

Alex writes:
This is a strawman argument with a little hand waving thrown in for good measure; I never said I was not "willing to have [my]budget cut."

Alex R. Blackwell
University of Hawaii