Econominst.com is sponsoring a debate on the question of whether we should return to the Moon, Returning to the moon- This house believes that NASA should not send humans back to the moon. Michael N. Gold is defending, Gregg Maryniak is against.

Florida Today reports Panel: Moon within NASA budget’s reach

The United States cannot afford to return American astronauts to the moon under the NASA budget currently proposed by the Obama administration, a presidential panel said Wednesday.

“Your budget problems are bigger than your technical problems,” he said.

The Obama administration’s 2010 budget for NASA represents a $26.5 billion cut from previous projections.

Gary Pullium, a vice president with The Aerospace Corp., said NASA won’t be able to return to the moon by 2020 under those constraints. “Given our assessment of the 2010 budget and what we believe about cost and schedule, we just simply said there is not enough money in this budget in the near term to do the human lunar return,” he said.