NASA cuts inspire 'Planetary Exploration Car Wash & Bake Sale' Planetary scientists across the US will bring attention to NASA budget cuts on Saturday by mockingly hosting their own fundraising event: the National Planetary Exploration Car Wash & Bake Sale. "Join us and make Congress and the American public aware of the planetary cuts and the damage they are doing!" the organizers exhort …
The US mil budget was around $1tr a year, until recently.
The mil people can afford to give NASA a couple of old Hubble-quality space scopes, as well as running secret year-long reusable unmanned mini-shuttle missions.
But ask congress to throw another couple of billion at NASA and all the hairy-palmed knuckle-draggers explode into frothy self-righteous indignation.
Sad indeed.
I've wonder about that sooper sekret re-usable mini unmanned space shuttle ever since it was "leaked". Surely the thing itself isn't anything new and secret. It's what it carries, the missions it undertakes, which are sekret.
So why don't the military just give the technology or sell the ready-built shuttles to NASA? It could save NASA a shitload of dev cash and it's all US Gov owned anyway. I'm sure Boeing, Northrop or whoever would be happy to have more than one customer for a proven and re-usable launch tech.
Read your history. NASA spending goes down when the President is a Democrat.
BTW, the "Bush era tax cuts" were/are for the upper-middle class. It was a shift in the tax brackets. That's why Obama enthusiastically extended the tax cuts. I know because I actually had to read the bill while everyone else repeats everyone else.
"[Rabble rabble rabble... Republicans... rabble rabble rabble... Creationists]"
There's a Democrat in the White House, the Democrats are in control of the Senate… but this is all the "[Republican's/creationist's/Bush's/Bigfoot's]" fault?
Either this is a case of cognitive dissonance or you actually put blinders and rose colored glasses on when you get out of bed every morning.
I'm sad that there is less space exploration... but I'm not sad that NASA is getting it's budget slashed.
To be honest the NASA that put a man on the moon has been dead for twenty years or more. The NASA we have today is a bunch of bureaucrats and bean counters throwing money away on "testability studies" and other such drek, while doing everything they can to kill the private space industry.
If it was still the NASA that put a man on the moon, that came up with a way to save Apollo 13 in a conference room, then I'd be screaming for more money... but not for the twerps that took it over, not the ones that destroyed NASA.
Instead of naming probes and satellites after famous dead scientists and officials, why not allow commercial sponsors to name them? So, instead of the James Webb telescope, it could be the Coca Cola telescope. Lots of billionaires and politicians with votes would like to see their names in space lights. Whatever it takes, be pragmatic.
"NASA's 2013 budget of $17.7bn – essentially flat from this year, by the way – is miniscule in comparison to the $3.8 trillion US Federal Budget within which it sits,"
And what, pray, is the projected Federal Revenue for 2013?
Jest axing.
Once the Planetary Scientists get their go at a funding round, all the Astronomers will throw a similar fit over whatever potential project gets chosen instead. Almost every budget (whether it be ESA, NASA or someone else) will pick one over the other, and the next budget will give the other lot their go - I've heard some fairly bitter comments about missions that got cancelled "because it was the planetary scientists turn"...
NASA will soon be riding the graviton train again.
All it has to do is hook up with Peter Jackson and "The Hobbit" this December.
"There and Back Again: A Hobbit's Tale." That's exactly what Space is all about. There and Back Again.
Send a vehicle to Mars. Bring it back. Send a probe to gassy ole Uranus. Bring back what you learn there. (Was there an Hemorrhoidal Invasion in eons past? Or was that just Frank Herbert pulling our chain?) Maybe we can even send some Bilbonauts to the nearest event horizon.
And the best part of it is it can all be done with freshly printed money from the Fed. Yep, soon we will back on the graviton train. Riding to the black hole in the center of the Milky Way.
And thanks to the Fed, we won't even need a ticket to ride.
at the moment the USA is one big car-crash just looking for a telegraph pole to wrap itself around.
Quite frankly, good riddance.
You would think that spending more than 1 tril per year on military shit they would have bloody well accidentally nuked themselves by now.
Pretty sad though, the military can afford to GIVE AWAY billion-dollar space telescopes (of which they have about 20 or so. Remember when the HST seemed special & unique? IT NEVER WAS.), Yet NASA struggles on a budget less than Australia's entire health care system. Go figure.
Or pray to your fictional 'GOD' since thats all Merkins seem to be good at these days.
Yep, that's why the USA is begging Angela Merkel for Germany's money - oh no, wait, that's half of Europe, not the USA.
Yep, that's why the USA stayed entirely out of the invasion of Libya - oh no, wait, the Europeans couldn't have found Libya if it wasn't for American AWACS flights.
Yep, that's why the USA economy is still in recession - oh no, wait, that's good old Blighty.
Yep, that's why the USA has to wait for other countries' banks to provide VC for it's tech startups - oh no, wait, that's good old Blighty too.
Oh well, seems like I'd rather folks prayed to their "fictional GOD" and actually achieve something than just spout pure fiction and call it fact.
And why do you lot think this is? There's only one reason: Budget cut after budget cut.
The only way to really create a proper uptight bureaucracy is to underfund the organisation. Because that way the workers have to spend 90% of their time defending their jobs and their research and are left with very little time to actually get work done. The pressure of HAVING to perform means failure is no longer an option. Thus only certain "certain to have results" projects get started and are bureaucratized through the nose to make sure it doesn't fail. Want to make an organisation like NASA or ESA back into a lean mean space-traveling machine? Throw it some gobs of money and give it an ambitious goal. And then make sure you allow failure again, without screaming about lost money/time. Because a failure is also a result!
"And speaking of plights, pity the poor event organizers at the Southwest Research Institute's Space Science and Engineering Division in Boulder, Colorado, where local regulations prevent both the selling of tasty baked goods without a vendor permit and the washing of sudsy car-wash runoff into storm drains."
Well, good, I'm glad all other problems have been solved since I lived in Boulder that they have time to worry about this. Because, you know, we all need more government regulation.
BTW, I wonder if the Town Gang of F-- er, Council will now try to prevent the shining of shoes because the American Shoe Shiners Union Politburo (ASSUP) demands it or because it discourages the required wearing of birkenstocks by people with ugly feet.
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