Planetary Scientists Protest: NASA Budget Cuts Proposed for 2014 'Disastrous'

Supporters of planetary science are rallying against NASA's proposed 2014 budget, which they say unfairly guts funding for solar system research and exploration.

The Obama administration unveiled the budget plan April 10, requesting $17.7 billion for NASA — $50 million less than the agency got in 2012.

The budget must be approved by Congress before it becomes official. Under the budget proposal, planetary science would receive $1.217 billion in 2014.

Discounting the $50 million earmarked for producing plutonium-238, which fuels deep space vehicles (this used to be paid for by the Department of Energy), and $20 million for asteroid detection in service of a future manned asteroid mission, this represents a $268 million cut from planetary science funding levels approved by Congress for 2013, advocates said.

Carl Sagan

"The Planetary Society has deep concerns about the continued effort to defund planetary science in NASA's 2014 budget proposal," wrote officials from the society, which was founded by astronomer Carl Sagan to promote solar-system exploration, in testimony submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology April 24.

"Without immediate investment in technology and mission development — not possible under the FY14 proposal — the United States will go 'radio dark' in almost all regions of the solar system by the end of the decade."


In this still from a NASA video, a robotic spacecraft's capture bag swallows an asteroid in order to return it to Earth. 

NASA plans to retrieve an asteroid and park it near the moon by 2025, possibly even by 2021, so astronauts can explore it.

CREDIT: NASA

The proposed budget would include $105 million in funds to support an asteroid-capture mission and other asteroid studies, but eliminate Europa Clipper, a planned robotic mission to Jupiter's intriguing moon Europa, which harbours an ocean buried beneath its icy surface that may support microbial life, and current missions, such as NASA's Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn and the Messenger orbiter around Mercury, may come to premature ends.

Bill Nye

Bill Nye, chief executive officer of the Planetary Society, called the budget "shortsighted and disastrous" in a letter urging supporters to write their Congressional representatives in support of planetary science.

The organization aims to send 25,000 messages to Capitol Hill by April 28.

A group of lawmakers also joined in the campaign, penning a letter to NASA administrator Charles Bolden on April 19 asking that he and the Obama administration rethink their 2013 NASA budget, which is still unfinalised.

Senator Barbara Boxer

"We write to express opposition to any Fiscal Year 2013 NASA Operating Plan that disproportionately applies sequester and across-the-board cuts to the science budget," wrote Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in a letter signed by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representative John Culberson (R-TX).

"While we fully understand that the funding levels enumerated in the bill and report are subject to change to reflect the across the board and sequester cuts, we expect that the balance among programs will remain consistent with the structure directed by Congress."

China hands out death penalty for Uighurs protest

BEIJING — A Chinese court sentenced six men to death and a seventh man to life in prison for their roles in the deadly ethnic rioting that convulsed the western regional capital of Urumqi in July, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.

All seven men appeared to be Uighurs, the largest ethnic group in the vast region of Xinjiang. All were convicted of murder, and some were also found guilty of arson and robbery, Xinhua reported.

The sentences were the first to be handed down by a court in response to the rioting of July 5, in which enraged Uighurs went on a rampage against Han, the dominant ethnic group in China, in the streets of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. At least 197 people were killed, most of them Han civilians, and 1,600 injured, the government announced. The ethnic rioting was the worst in decades in China and prompted cycles of retaliation as well as protests against the regional government.

Uighurs in Urumqi said the Chinese government gave severe underestimates of the number of Uighurs killed, while some Han residents say the government is covering up the extent of the atrocities committed by the Uighurs. Last month, as rumors of further violence by Uighurs swirled in Urumqi, large crowds of Han took to the streets to call for the resignation of Wang Lequan, the top official in Xinjiang for 15 years.

Uighurs in Xinjiang have long complained of deeply entrenched discrimination against them by the Han and of mass migrations to Xinjiang by the Han that have changed society in parts of the region they once clearly dominated.

All the men sentenced on Monday have Uighur names. The six sentenced to death by the Intermediate People’s Court in Urumqi were Abdukerim Abduwayit, Gheni Yusup, Abdulla Mettohti, Adil Rozi, Nureli Wuxiu’er and Alim Metyusup. A seventh man, Tayirejan Abulimit, was given a life sentence because he had admitted to committing murder and robbery and assisted authorities in the arrest of Alim Metyusup, Xinhua reported.

Full Story from NY Times.com

Protests in Peru against former President

A man wearing a rat costume holds an image of Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori during a protest in Lima.

The local riot Police do not seem too concerned!