Newswise — Jonathan Lunine is a Cornell University professor of astronomy and has chaired or participated in a number of advisory and strategic planning committees for NASA. Below he comments on the proposed 2013 federal budget unveiled by President Obama.
Lunine is a principal investigator for a mission to sail one of the three great seas of Titan. He is also co-investigator of the Juno mission launched in 2011 to Jupiter, and on the science team for the James Webb Space Telescope, focusing on characterization of extrasolar planets.
Lunine says:
“In the past decade American planetary probes have discovered vast hydrocarbon seas on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, sampled deposits of minerals left by liquid water on ancient Mars, and brought back material from a comet. The proposed budget draws a curtain across plans for new missions at a time when the nation really needs to show that it has not lost its technological edge and spirit for adventure.”
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