We need your help to save the Mars program! Write or call your member of Congress and let them know that you support the continuation of a strong Mars exploration program. Use the below tools to Please consider getting involved to help preserve America's role in space. Congress needs to hear from you!
Please feel free to use the sample letter below or draft your own version.
Dear Senator/Representative [name here],
I am writing to you out of my strong personal concern over the future of the U.S. space program and the leading role America has played, until now, in space and planetary exploration.
It has been brought to my attention in recent weeks that the Obama administration and the Office of Management & Budget have effectively terminated support for future planetary missions.
The Mars Science Lab
Curiosity now on the pad and the almost complete small Mars orbiter
MAVEN will be launched in the near future, but no further planetary exploration missions
are currently in the budget.
As part of these cuts, the American contribution to the joint US-European Mars exploration missions planned for 2016 and 2018 has been pulled. This reversal will not only wreck NASA's Mars exploration program conducted as a highly-effective coordinated campaign since 1994, but destroy an international partnership with European nations who had offered to contribute over $1 billion to further the effort.
In addition, the now orbiting Kepler telescope will likely be turned off in mid-mission, stopping it before it can complete its goal of finding other Earths. The magnificent Webb telescope, NASA's future space astronomy flagship, is funded, but not at a level sufficient to assure completion in a timely manner. As a result, it has been setup to linger through endless costly delays, until fiscal pressures lead to eventual cancellation.
Finally, America's human spaceflight program has lost the ability to reach orbit and is adrift in the face of the ongoing fiscal tsunami. If it is to survive and thrive, it needs a clear and meaningful goal, which should be humans to Mars. The robotic missions now on the block are the scouts needed to open the way. If they are lost, the manned program will be left dead in the water.
The ostensible reason for the decision to cut planetary exploration and space astronomy is budgetary discipline. Yet while overall federal spending has grown 40% since 2008, NASA's funding has remained virtually the same. It is not NASA that is bankrupting America, and our nation's space program should not be made a casualty of overspending elsewhere.
I am calling on you, as my representative in Congress, to support NASA and its mission of exploring our solar system. To accomplish this, NASA will need proper and adequate funding from Congress to continue its involvement and leading role in human and robotic exploration.
First and foremost, to avoid derailment of our most important and successful exploration program, as well as loss of national credibility and international partnerships, the joint American-European Mars exploration missions planned for 2016 and 2018 must be funded in full.
Please remember that acceptance of the destruction of the U.S. space exploration effort simply amounts to acceptance of America's decline. That is something we truly cannot afford.
Sincerely,
[Add your name here]
