Nasa cuts 'will hamper science'

BBC NEWS: "A major US research body has warned that cuts in Nasa's 2006 budget will hamper progress in understanding our planet and the rest of the Universe. The American Geophysical Union says there are signs space and Earth science have dropped in priority at Nasa. The AGU says research in these areas is threatened by the financial demands of meeting President Bush's Moon-to-Mars initiative and other manned programmes. It also says Nasa is doing 'more than it can with the resources provided'. 'The problem is that Nasa has a great deal on its plate,' said Eric Barron, who has chaired an AGU Panel on the President Bush's Moon-to-Mars vision for space exploration. '[It] wants to return the space shuttle to flight, finish the space station, [build] the next generation of space transport vehicles as well as exploring the Moon and Mars with humans,' Dr Barron told reporters at a news conference in Washington DC."