WASHINGTON, May 4 — NASA has too many tasks and too little money to maintain a vigorous science program, a situation that threatens to erode the nation's leadership in space research and the goal of sending humans to Mars, the National Research Council reported on Thursday.
"There is a mismatch between what NASA has been assigned to do and the resources with which it has been provided," said Lennard A. Fisk, chairman of the council's Space Studies Board, which wrote the report at the request of Congress.
"We are particularly concerned that the shortfall in funding for science has fallen disproportionately on small missions and on funding for basic research and technology," said Mr. Fisk, a space science professor at the University of Michigan and a former NASA associate administrator for science.
NASA has come under heavy criticism from scientists since the Bush administration proposed the agency's 2007 budget, which requested $16.8 billion, including $5.3 billion for space science. But while money would be added to continue flying the space shuttle and completing the International Space Station, the science budget would be held about even for the next four years, $3.1 billion less than officials had expected from earlier estimates.
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What should the priorities be for NASA? They definitely need to keep the funding for analyzing past data. Otherwise, what good is the collection of that past data?
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