"I really admire Griffin, but I'm having a hard time shaking the impression that he's gonna be hung out to dry by a nation that, in the end, just doesn't give a damn."

As one NASA hand put it to me long ago, the big problem is no one cares. That's been true since Mariner 4 returned the first good images of Mars, which showed that Mars was not Earth-like. The funny thing is that while NASA has been trying hard to justify its spending levels since then, for at least the last 15 years it has also done its best to avoid responsibility for dealing with the impact hazard.

"lying" is a pretty harsh word, but it's the best one word you can use to describe NASA's behavior. "suppressed " is also a pretty harsh word, but tt also appears that Mazanek and CAPS have been supressed. It's not a pretty picture.

$104 B works out to around $1,200 per family, and most would rather spend that money on something other than manned Mars flight. Now a rover at $ 300 M works out to 1$ per head, or $4 per family, and most have no complaints with that and feel that it is money well spent.

But Griffin is simply lying: "Let me be clear," Griffin told lawmakers, "the primary objective for the next several years is to develop a new vehicle for lower orbit and beyond, following the orderly retirement of the space shuttle" NO. Griffin is tyring to develop a new shuttle derived heavy lifter, when the existing EELVs and Falcon 9 could be adopted for use with the CEV in LEO and for lunar work.

Griffin could put off SDLV development until 2012, after the shuttle is shut down, but he isn't going that route.

Another glitch with this fantasty of the GDFMN is that the US has to pick up the whole tab. Japan, Europe, Russia and China will all have space programs in the 2030's, and $1,200 divided by 5 is $240, and that's a whole different ball game.

Griffin is a bright cookie, but he simply got taken in in the Thiokol sponsored briefings. Thsy overwhelmed him with their own well developed vision, but it is a vision that the majority is not willing to pay for.

Now we all get to watch it crash and burn, as it justly should.