JPL Budget Not Likely to Lead to Lay-offs

The White House's recent 2008 proposal of just over $17 billion would allow for a small increase in NASA's budget. This includes a plan to replace the aging space shuttle fleet. Locally, the budget is felt at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as it impacts new science and exploration missions.

"Here, [at JPL] it is going to be okay," said Richard O'Toole, JPL's manager of legislative affairs.

JPL is budgeted project by project, O'Toole said. The projects that JPL is now working on have already had their budgets approved.

It is this year's budget constraints that are more of a concern for O'Toole than the 2008 purposed budget.

"They [NASA] will get $16 billion, 250 million in 2007," he said. "They requested $16 billion 792 million," he said.

That shortfall will most likely be in exploration, because of the goal of replacing the space shuttles.

At this point, however, the workforce at JPL is expected to remain the same.

"We don't foresee any layoffs in the immediate future," he said.

However one mission, SIM Planet Quest, has been cut. The mission had been scheduled to launch in 2015 to determine the positions and distances of stars and to probe nearby stars for Earth-sized planets.

"We have started to move people away [from the project]," O'Toole said. He feels that all those employees will find work in other areas within JPL.

Many of the space missions will continue as planned including those to Mars.

"The Mars missions are fully funded in 2008," he said.

Two of the anticipated upcoming Mars missions, Phoenix, scheduled for a launch in 2007 and Mars Science Laboratory, to launch in 2009, are not affected by the proposed budget.

With a watchful eye on the budget, JPL has found innovative ways of saving money on its missions, according to O'Toole.

"The Phoenix has been equipped with some hardware left over from the Mars Polar Lander," O'Toole said. "Some of the engineering that was used in Phoenix helps cut the cost of the mission."

The Phoenix mission will land on Mars' north pole, on a ice-rich area. The lander will dig into the terrain with its robotic arm. The mission is to discover the planet's geological history of water and to search for evidence of areas that could support microbial life.

MSL is a long-duration mobile lab that will study Martian geology and also search for water and life. It will be able to gather, analyze and return data from areas that are difficult to traverse.

With the recent hearings on global warming, the area of earth science may be opening up.

"We didn't see a lot of earth science [exploration] in the 2008 [budget]," O'Toole said, but he added he thinks there may be more in the future.

Whether the next administration and Congress will support that exploration is still in question. For now, JPL is watching Washington as closely as they are watching space exploration funds. NASA must submit their budget to Congress for approval.

"The final resolution has to be passed by legislation," O'Toole said.