
Obama cuts manned moon budget Space blog Obama cuts manned moon budget Sir Martin Sweeting So President Obama has scrapped the US plans for a manned return to the Moon . As the world claws it way out of recession , many might see this decision as being financially prudent . However , the exploration of the lunar surface is still very much on the agenda . But it won’t be man making one small step next time , it will be a robot Several nations are planning robotic lunar missions including India , China , Korea and interestingly , the USA . And when you think about it , this makes perfect sense because robotic lunar missions are much more cost effective than manned missions , although not so emotive . Of course , robotic exploration is nothing new with NASA and ESA both utilising this technology , but it’s still very expensive . The price tag for the European ExoMars programme is around 1Bn which is a lot of money in any currency . But does robotic exploration have to be this expensive MoonLITE Orbiter Penetrator , designed by SSTL for the design phase of the UK government's MoonLITE mission for a low-cost orbiter carrying scientific lunar surface penetrators and a communications