MicroSpace News: New programs in NASA's budget

From the FY11 budget materials for NASA Ames Research Center:

Exploration Scouts: New Program Office as part of Exploration’s Precursor Robotic Missions effort to manage approximately $20 million in FY 2011 and $400 million over five years allocated to scout locations for eventual human visits with a focus on small, competed robotic missions.
 Small Satellite Subsystem Technology: New Program Office to manage $6 million in FY 2011 and $126 million over five years in research and development in this important technology area.
 Edison Small Satellite Demonstrations: New Program Office to manage $10 million in FY 2011 and $90 million over five years to demonstrate key small satellite capabilities.


The first idea on this list, not that anyone will remember, was presented in a 2006 paper and a followup Space News op-ed by Kris Winkler and myself. We did not originate the notion, but it's nice to see NASA has come around to thinking the same way we did. (Or maybe that's scary. I'm not sure.) Credit for getting it in the budget goes, I suspect, to Ames Director Pete Worden, an ardent proponent of small spacecraft.