WASHINGTON (States News Service) -- Outraged at the prospect of a $1 billion cut to NASA's budget, the Mars Society will celebrate its first birthday by trying to save the program for which it was founded.
As part of its overall cuts, the House appropriations subcommittee cut $75 million in NASA funding for future Mars missions. The full committee restored that on Friday, but Mars still needs more, said Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society.
"If we want to get more value out of our space dollars, the thing to do is not strip the capacity of the missions, but energize the entire agency by giving it a human-to-mars mission," he said.
To fight the cuts, the society sent out a mass e-mail to its 8,000 members, listing every member of the House and Senate appropriations committees and their addresses and asking members to write letters to save NASA's funding.
"The massive cuts by the subcommittee were completely outrageous," Zubrin said. "They depict a complete disconnect (of the Congress) with the values and beliefs of the American people."
When Congress finally finishes with the bill, Zubrin predicts only a little erosion overall from NASA's 1999 funding in the 2000 budget.
"It is extremely clear that the American people want this nation to continue to be one of pioneers," Zubrin said. "To respond to success by cutting off money seems to be absurd."
Members of the Mars Society have also met repeatedly with members of the House of Representatives, Zubrin said.
"We have a strong policy of getting our local chapters to sit down and talk with their congressman," he said. He cited a 90 percent positive response from those members of Congress, which he believes will help in the fight for the restoration of NASA's funding.
The budget debate came to a stand-still this week when the House decided to halt consideration of the bill until after the month-long summer recess. The House spending bill includes only $12.7 billion for NASA for next year, $1 billion less than its 1999 funding and $900,000 less than President Clinton requested. The Senate will not write its version of the bill until September.
The Mars Society will hold its annual convention later this month in Colorado and will continue to encourage members to contact Congress to increase funding to NASA.
"We should seize time instead of shrinking into our shells and saying there's not enough money," Zubrin said.
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