Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the - Solar System ...

More recently, among the goals of the Vision for Space Exploration were the return of humans to
the Moon and the development of new rockets and human spacecraft, designated Constellation. NASA’s
Exploration Systems Mission Directorate also funded the first of what was planned to be a series of lunar
precursor missions known as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and then the Lunar Crater
Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). Both missions played a major role in helping to
reinvigorate lunar science in the United States. However, the need for funds for the Constellation
program led to cuts in the space science budget which also affected the planetary science program in
significant ways, including cuts in technology development and other budgets, particularly the Mars
program line.
FIGURE 2.6 Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan on the Moon’s surface. The Apollo program was the last
widespread cooperation between planetary scientists and the human spaceflight program, and the later
Apollo missions provided a wealth of scientific data about the Moon. SOURCE: NASA.
In fall 2009, the U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee—also known as the Augustine
Committee—presented the results of its study of options for human spaceflight. 8 In February 2010, the
White House proposed NASA’s FY2011 budget. From the planetary science perspective, the major
impact of the proposed budget was the cancellation of plans for returning humans to the Moon, and the
initiation of a series of robotic precursor missions to targets such as near-Earth objects (NEOs), the Moon
and possibly the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos. At the time this decadal survey report was written
the outcome of the congressional budgeting process was unclear, but it appeared likely that the robotic
precursor program would not be funded to the extent it was originally proposed.
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