(Music)
Great news! It's official.
The president has requested a new start
for a mission to Europa in the 2016 budget request..
Now, this is really exciting,
but it's also kind of interesting
because for the past few years,
Congress has actually given money
to NASA for this very same mission.
So, you might be asking yourself,
what does this mean? What’s the difference?
What does the new start mean?
And, fundamentally, what it comes down to,
is that the Administration, the White House, NASA's boss,
has given their official blessing to this mission.
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You might remember from your Civics classes
that you have a legislative side of government
and an executive branch of government.
NASA is part of the executive branch.
They answer to the White House.
Congress, as part of the legislative branch,
sure they can control money,
they can approve money,
or they can deny money,
but it is very difficult for them
to force NASA to do something.
So, with the White House coming in,
and even more specifically,
with what is called their Office of Management and Budget,
their budgeteer is coming in,
and approving a mission to Europa,
giving that official new start,
it essentially unlocks the bureaucratic machinery
that creates space craft
and unleashes it on this new mission to Europa.
Remember, Congress works on a year-to-year basis,
but missions don't take one year.
They take many years.
Something out to Jupiter can take up to ten years.
In order to do that,
we need a long term commitment
from the White House,
that they'll spend that money ,
and that's what a new start gives us.
Now that we have agreement
between the White House and Congress about this,
the real work of getting to Europa can begin.
But we're not quite cutting metal yet.
The next few years are all about development.
It's about the people and paper.
And this brings me to the most crucial point
of what it means to have a new start.
In the past,
there have been missions that have had this official blessing,
have had a new start, and have ultimately been cancelled.
So, even though we're in a much better position
than we were a year ago,
we here at The Planetary Society
know that there's going to be
a long road yet ahead of us.
We all need to remain diligent
that this mission gets off the Earth
and to Europa.
We've got a new start,
but we've got to see this thing to the finish.
(Music)
Thanks for watching.
If you want to learn more about this topic,
check out the link in the description of this video.
Otherwise, you can always go to planetary.org/spaceadvocate
