The Rocket to Nowhere

I'm confused

NASA is building a new rocket. And by new rocket, I mean a bastard child of the space shuttle and the cancelled Constellation program. The new rocket is called the Space Launch System, and its purpose is... 

ummm... 

this is awkward. 

It turns out that NASA has no damn clue what they are going to use it for. Literally, they say "we might use it for a variety of future projects." In the mean time, we are using Soyuz to get to and from the ISS, and we are planning on using SpaceX in the future for trips to our floaty home away from home. In addition, the Europeans, a variety of NewSpace companies, and little Boeing/Lockheed United Launch Alliance are planning on building crew capsules to pair with existing launch systems (read:rockets).

So what the fuck are we using this thing for?

"Today NASA unveiled the design of a new rocket to help the agency meet a challenge from President Obama: send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars by the mid-2030s. Called the Space Launch System (SLS), the new heavy-lift launch vehicle will cost $18 billion, with its first test flight planned for 2017."

Oh sweet jesus. We are using it because Obama challenged us to make it to Mars by the middle of the century! I have not been so fired up since Chrysler offered $2,000 off the Sebring. 

Please buy me. Please. 

Seriously though, the only reason we are building this thing is because certain senators wanted to preserve space shuttle jobs in a recession. So we are literally building a rocket to nowhere, just so that workers in Florida don't have to find new jobs. At the same time, NASA is being forced to massively cut back its science budget. And while there are Constellation/Orion/SLS supporters at NASA, most there see it as a jobs program, not a legitimate science mission.