A new report released by an American Physical Society (APS) Special Committee on NASA Funding for Astrophysics has questioned the space agency's Moon, Mars and Beyond initiative. The APS assessment warns that t he cost of overcoming technological challenges to make real the plan could far exceed budgetary projections and that numerous approved science programs could be jeopardized.
Returning Americans to the Moon and landing on Mars would have a powerful symbolic significance, the APS report observes, but it would constitute only a small step in the advancement of knowledge, since much will already be known from exploration with the robotic precursor probes that are necessary to guarantee the safety of any human mission.
The APS report was authored by a 10-person group, with the committee chaired by Joel Primack, a professor of physics and a leading astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
According to their web site, the American Physical Society is the world's largest professional body of physicists, representing more than 45,000 physicists in academia and industry in the United States and internationally. It has offices in College Park, Maryland and Ridge, New York.