Friday, April 16, 2010
Politics....
They confuse me. After reading the article from the Associated Press (available here), I still don't really know what's going on with Obama's new goals for NASA. Does he have any? I was under the impression that the NASA program would be undergoing extreme budget cuts, which would cause many people involved to be laid off from their jobs, though admittedly, they can probably afford it at this point. Yet the President says that he plans to "be around to see" our landing on Mars. What do you think?
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I suppose I shall offer what little input I can, and see if I can shed some light on this subject. Obama's new plan will added $100 billion to NASA's budget. So this looks kinda nice when you think about it, until you look at some of the stuff that got cut. A big slice of the money will go towards developing the International Space Station, which, in my humble opinion, is just a big, bright, shiny, twelve-year-old box that has not really accomplished much in the way of furthering space exploration. It looks good though. To help fund this big shiny box, NASA has scrapped the Constellation program, which was aimed at developing new boosters and making long-term stays on the moon a reality. It appears that the goal of manned flight to Mars is also being put off for later. Now, one thing to keep in mind is that America doesn't really have a whole lot of actually shuttles anymore. For the most part, NASA isn't even building them, and after 2010, I believe that all of the shuttles currently used by NASA will be retired. So all-in-all, I guess this means that we're dumping about a hundred billion dollars into a bright shiny box, with no shuttles to get to it, unless if we want our American astronauts to hitch a ride on a Russian shuttle, built out of scrap metal from old Soviet tanks from the forties, and held together with duct tape and paper clips. However, this is not to say that America will be completely without shuttles. However, NASA probably won't be developing them anymore. Most likely, they'll be designed, funded, and constructed under big evil corporations, particularly United Launch Alliance, and NASA will most likely just end up buying these bad boys, rather than making them like the good ol' days. Ah well...We'll just have to see how this turns out I guess.
ReplyDeleteThank you, kind sir! That does shed some light on the subject. I believe what we have concluded is that money is being cut from exploration of the moon and put elsewhere, i.e. the International Space Station. Speaking as one who has at various points entertained vague notions of traveling to the moon, the idea that we as a country won't return there bothers me rather a lot. And as I mentioned initially, the GPS system is evidence that we are not approaching a sort of moon-exploration-usefulness asymptote, so I just don't understand why this has to happen. But maybe this new space station will prove the existence of extra-terrestrial life or something. That would be awesome, provided that they don't invade my back yard and then ask to phone home. E.T. always did terrify me.
ReplyDeleteI, too, always felt as though E.T. was immensely creepy. Particularly that part when he was creeping with all those stuffed animals. Furthermore, I suppose the ISS has served its uses, like promoting teamwork betwixt nations like Russia, America, and Japan. But...teamwork doesn't pay bills. We ought to get to Mars fairly quickly, if for no other reason, because we're running out of room here.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I believe they may have found a bit of ice on Mars, which is exciting. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/sep/HQ_09-224_Mars_Ice_Revealed.html Yep, I skimmed that. It looks like they don't know if it's water ice or another kind, though. I went to see some astronaut speak with Astronomy Club one time, and he said that he thought it would be really pretentious to say that there isn't life on other planets, at least in other galaxies. I was very intrigued.
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