/sci/ - Science & Math

https://spacenews.com/debate-rages-about-future-of-new-horizons/

> That puts the future of New Horizons after fiscal year 2024 in limbo. “We are in a quandary. I don’t know what we’re going to do about it,” said Curt Niebur, lead scientist for flight programs in NASA’s planetary science division, at the OPAG meeting. NASA had hoped the mission would accept the senior review outcome. “That path is broken.”

> While NASA’s planetary programs have struggled with cost issues, from potential increasing costs for Mars Sample Return to the delay in the Psyche launch that has pushed back the VERITAS Venus mission by three years, New Horizons takes up a minute part of the overall planetary budget. NASA requested $9.7 million for the mission in its fiscal year 2024 budget proposal, less than 0.3% of the overall planetary science budget of $3.38 billion.

so SLS and JPL are basically fucking everybody else

> Some at the OPAG meeting suggested that a solution would require some improved cooperation among NASA’s science divisions, including perhaps a more equitable sharing of mission costs. “Meritorious science can be achieved in heliophysics, astrophysics and planetary science but science optimization will require creative problem solving and cross-divisional leadership,” the senior review report stated.