NASA boss-to-be gets spaced as proposed budget cuts detailed More details are emerging about potential NASA budget cuts alongside the abrupt withdrawal of the nomination of Jared Isaacman as the agency's new administrator. Isaacman, a paying SpaceX customer who has flown several private missions with the company, was expected to be confirmed as the new NASA administrator within the next …
Hahahahahahaaaaaa!
You think the spineless toadies of the Repubs are going to stand up for anything other than backhanders? Trump is getting far more credit for this chaos that he's due, the real fault lies with the party that surrendered themselves to him.
The entire purpose of the budget is to fund projects in every state that give the highest return in political fund raising. There is simply no point in being a congressman without a path from federal taxes to a congressman's pocket. One of the few things that could possibly make congress push back is cancelling SLS. This funding has strong bi-partisan support, but that can be undermined using the method that worked the last two times.
When the space shuttle was cancelled congress insisted that the same money should be spent on the same contractors to produce the same components re-arranged into the constellation program. When constellation was cancelled congress insisted that the same money should be spent on the same contractors to produce the same components re-arranged into SLS.
This time the promise is a huge amount of money to be spent on the same contractors to propose new components that would be needed for the golden dome missile defence shield as if the project were not an incomplete work of fiction. Normally people know the value of a promise from Trump but congress is one of the few places where you can find people dumb enough to take him at his word.
It has taken longer than I expected but this is the fight that will determine Trump's future as dictator for life. Trump has some of the required pieces in place to win it. He can accuse people of any crimes he likes and have them investigated into poverty. He can have people deported to his allied countries (Vietnam and South Sudan). So far that has not happened for US citizens but Trump wants to get rid of birthright citizenship.
Congressmen thinking about speaking out against Trump really need to sort out some private security or they will be bundled into a black van and flown somewhere unpleasant.
But that was based on the governing party needing campaign funding for votes to get seats in congress. Once the president can simply ignore congress there is no need for the party to be concerned about election campaigns
The difference is that this time around we know SDI was a crock of shit and whilst the Russians aren't in a position to object to nukes in space, the Chinese not only ARE, they plus the EU can take firm economic action to stop it happening without resorting to war
Both regions have experience of devastating war on home territory that cost millions of lives - unlike the USA
"There is simply no point in being a congressman without a path from federal taxes to a congressman's pocket. One of the few things that could possibly make congress push back is cancelling SLS. This funding has strong bi-partisan support, but that can be undermined using the method that worked the last two times."
My first thought on SLS was why not just cancel it now, why spend a fortune on an "American boots on the Moon" stunt, which is all it is now. But the above answers that point fully :-/
Bill Nelson was the only decent NASA Admin since the '60s.
When Congress does the "NASA needs to do X & Y, but we are taking away the money" all the other Admins went "please sir, may we have some more?" whereas Nelson was a long-time hard-boiled congressman and was like "what is this shit? give us money or we cancel programs and lay people off, and yes, I'm talking about canceling programs in YOUR district"
Remember when he laid off all the JPL staff and Congress had a rummage around the back of the couch and suddenly found money to pay them?
Which is, of course, why he was gone so quickly.
I think Isaacman made the mistake of doing this before he was confirmed. (which the article did suggest)
Yeah, I kinda got the impression that he switched from "this is a great honour" to "shit, what have I got into here" and may well have done or said some stuff to make sure he was no longer "suitable" in Trumps eyes. Trump clearly wants full on MAGA supporters in these sorts of roles and has no interest in competent people to do a job. Even the nutter Musk seems to backing quietly away from being out-nuttered by Trump.
"Bill Nelson was the only decent NASA Admin since the '60s."
Senator Ballast? No.
Charlie Bolden was much better and more qualified for the job.
One of the noticeable things that's been happening is NASA being whipsawed by political projects rather than being given the goal of doing good science and suggesting valuable projects as well as being the consulting agency for outside suggestions of projects in aeronautics/space.
I was recently watching a show about some scientists collecting data on the number and density of trees on the planet. Some of the technology they were using was from NASA and both space sensing and spun off tech for scanning environments on the ground. I had the opportunity to work on some projects with Dr Chris McKay who was looking for life on Mars, on Earth. He was using the technology that we have already in Earth orbit to look at the sorts of extreme environments that exist on Mars and visiting those place to look closely at what was on the ground. One location I was able to go to with him was a hill in southern California dubbed "Little Red Hill" now contained inside Ft Irwin. The rocks are coated with iron oxide and the landscape is pretty bleak. Under the quartz rocks, there can be algae growing. There's just enough light getting through and the space under the rock is protected just enough. The trick is to see if there is a hint it's there via remote sensing since astronauts wandering around on Mars turning over random rocks would be a poor use of their time unless there was good evidence they'd hit pay dirt (regolith) in short order.
Besides all of the off-world things, remote sensing from space for earthly information is a "killer-app" for NASA. It's hard, expensive and might take many years to bear fruit. If it means more efficient management of food production or a way to make better predictions of tornadoes, those are things with so much payback that it's hard to put a price on.
If we aren't going to do R&D for things that matter directly to people - like medical research... why would we then continue to fund things that only indirectly make my life better?
I've no idea what motivates the fool, but his goal is fairly obvious - destroy the USA as a superpower... and NASA is very much symbolic of the USA being a superpower... its gotta go.
(basically, it's pretty simple: take the literal meaning of anything he says and invert it - that is what he actually intends to do).
Yeah , after all, coming up with a compact waste disposal unit that seperates and cleans water, while drying,compacting and sterilizing the remaining wastes with a minimal power draw would be ideal for a space craft on a long term mission.
I cant see any other use for such a device , so lets junk it so muskrat et al can have even more tax cuts.
We need an orange cockwomble icon
"Yeah , after all, coming up with a compact waste disposal unit that seperates and cleans water, while drying,compacting and sterilizing the remaining wastes with a minimal power draw would be ideal for a space craft on a long term mission."
Sort of like the sort of thing that NASA has been working on for ages and has. Extend that to air quality and efficient HVAC. Oh yeah, they have that too. The air on ISS might smell like prison, but it's ok to breathe.
"Most improved health outcomes are the result of clean air and water and good sewage disposal."
Up to a point. There's a reason that graveyards have a lot fewer child graves for every year post 1950 than before it, even in advanced countries which had good air, water and sewage at the time
Even in the 1950's very few, if any, countries had all of good air, water and sewage at the same time. Up until fairly recently, most "advanced" were still belching out unfiltered coal exhaust around every city, cars were still inefficiently burning leaded fuel and many houses still had lead water pipes and many many sewage outlets went directly, untreated into our water systems. Hell, in the USA they still have some open "drinking water" reservoirs with fish, birds and other wild life shitting in them. (Although I believe they have a programme of switching to covered/contained storage for the treated water now and/or treating it as it goes into the pipes)
"Hell, in the USA they still have some open "drinking water" reservoirs with fish, birds and other wild life shitting in them. "
I refer you to George Carlin's rant about how he and his friends built up their immune systems swimming in raw sewage. Bent for humorous exaggeration, but it points out that long before humans gathered in organized cities, getting a refreshing drink from a stream or river was the norm. There's fewer places where that's a good idea mainly due to there being too many people spewing pathogens all over the place. We are in more danger from our own waste than bird poo.
Over time, we've learned that constant low level exposure to things like lead is a bad idea. One has to go back pretty far to find lead pipes, but copper pipes used to be joined with lead-based solder and paints might have contained lead pigments. The sweet taste of lead makes it a really insidious poison. Particulate matter from coal power plants along with various other forms of toxic emissions have also been remediated more and more over time to CO2 being the largest problem at the moment and one of the hardest to deal with economically. I can't remember who was ringing the bell over how bad tetra-ethyl lead was, but do remember they were black listed and shunted away so policy makers never heard from him and instead only heard from corporate shills from companies making big money. This is why independent government labs are important and any taint of corporation influence needs to be diligently prevented. It's too easy for large companies to cover up long-term health impacts so they can make barge loads of money in the mean time.
I mostly agree with you. I was just pointing out that 1950 and that decade in particular was not all that great in terms of "clean air, water and good sewage system" even in "advanced" countries. It's been a gradual clean-up and it's still going on. And with Trump, it's not hard to argue it's reversing in some areas, eg use of fossil fuels and reduction in anti-pollution regulations, although I also think a lot of the allergies people seem to have these days are possibly related to the aseptic environment so many children are brought up in these days. There's certainly an argument for a low level exposure to "germs'n'dirt" acting in a similar vein to vaccinations, but not "swimming in raw sewage" :-) And lead water pipes? Living memory. As a kid growing up I was always told to run the cold tap before drinking from it. We didn't have lead pipes, but my parents grew up in an era when a lot of plumbing was still lead pipes. Any house built over a 100 years ago will have had lead pipes and some might even still have them although I'd hope they don't get used :-)
"We need a "National Air and Shit Administration""
The US has loads of them with overlapping jurisdictions and functions. They all get in each other's way and encourage companies to move operations to other countries where there isn't the Gordian Knot of agencies and inconveniences can sometimes be smoothed over with a briefcase filled with cash. At least it can be possible to pay a "rush fee" on a legitimate level to get things expedited.
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