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Leaked White Paper Condemns NASA Life Sciences
WayneConrad writes "SpaceRef has a summary of a leaked Johnson Space Center white paper (pdf) that severely criticizes NASA's Life Science program.
According to the paper, science is being done without proper controls, with too-small sample groups, and is often not relevant to the ISS's stated bioscience mission (to develop countermeasures against the deleterious effects of microgravity).
The paper states,'NASA's founding fathers would turn in their proverbial graves at the sight of such a convoluted organization' and 'Voodoo science is not worth the cost. The limb of the fault tree Life Sciences is perched upon is perilously close to breaking.'"
Now really, the only real way to combat muscle atrophy in space is to exercise, or to create a stable artificial gravity, which allows the muscles to be exercised. What do they need to research?
Oh, and another straw on the camels back?
Let's get the flames out of the way quickly:
1. NASA sucks! They spend billions for nothing.
2. ISS sucks! It's just a space hotel for the Russians.
3. The Shuttle sucks! Rockets are are cheaper. My PC has more computing power.
4. Armadillo all the way 'cuz Carmack is cool and he's OSS!
5. Rutan will kick everybody's butt.
6. The Chinese and Indians are going to rule space!
meta-moderate more often
Here's something I wanted to bring up but didn't put in the original article (it's too editorial). Check out the email that SpaceRef received from the paper's author (in color on page 1). Here's an excerpt:
Perhaps the paper really is a "devil's advocate" position, purposefully exaggerating its arguments to elicit thought. But I have to wonder. I've worked at many places where management's desire to shape reality causes them to pressure authors to "reconsider," "take the broad view," "think of the big picture," or otherwise water down their statements. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board found plenty of evidence of management's desire to ignore reality; it's not a stretch to imagine the email being a direct result of management pressure upon the author (and perhaps a bit of a "I am so very doomed" feeling when he learned that his paper was on the web).
where to do so? the faq says it's on the main page, but I've never seen it, could you please tell me where?
Well, if I had to peer review the white paper, it sure wouldn't score high on the scientific and language scale...
Figures 10 and 11 speak volumes to the point. These charts read more like a plan for the invasion on Normandy [...] (p. 23)
Honestly, the paper reads more like a rant than a suggestion on how to improve the processes. I'm not sure if the "paper" was intended to be scientific (if so, it failed) - I'm not even sure what the intention of the paper really is. Maybe venting some steam.
If he wanted things to get better, ticking off the people in charge with an agressive tone won't get him anywhere. Perhaps a friendly tone would have been as ineffective, but people would be more willing to listen.
My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
The Livermore "community space suit" station was designed as an alterative to this (more usable volume AND artificial gravity), and it would have launched in ONE shot of a Titan. Rather than adopt it as a way to get the job done cheaper, the various functionaries on the gravy train quashed it rather than spoil the tens of years and billions of dollars of contracts for the non-gravity-capable ISS. This speaks volumes.
They're usually far cheaper... for the things they can do. But when you compare even the most sophisticated surface rovers with the capabilities of a human with a rock hammer, it's obvious that really serious investigations are going to require people on the scene. It's the avowed goal of these "life sciences" investigations to get us there, and we should insist that the boondoggles and pork-barrelling be put behind that rather than ahead.Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
According to the paper, science is being done without proper controls, with too-small sample groups, and is often not relevant ...
You call it "fudging the data". I call it "experimental error".
So, more taxpayer's money is being wasted on projects with a debatable purpose and bad management.
If all the effort and money that's now being poured into the spacerace and technology push were to be invested in getting our act to getter on this earth, the quality of life of millions could be improved.
We just might not have to move to Mars if we'd spend more on sustainable development of energy sources, environmental issues, etc.
Call me naieve.
--Stachel
Stachel
am i the only one that read "leaked, white, paper condoms?"...
A: The people now collecting billions from the expensive contracts to build and maintain the current systems.
Unless we do something to upset the apple cart, we will be stuck with a couple people in orbit doing nothing and going nowhere. I do not find this an acceptable state of affairs. The people now running the show are some of the biggest obstacles to progress, and they have to be shoved out of the way.
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
If this was really NASA's goal, they'd get better results by putting a research colony of monkeys in orbit.
The USA is the country that ought to have been out there years, nay, decades ago, and it worries me that we may have changed places with China in the flow of history. Once China was rich and powerful, and sent trading and exploration fleets as far as the Horn of Africa. But court politics caused the downfall of the advocates of expansion, and the fleets were recalled and destroyed, the records burned. Just a few years later Europe's explorers hit the areas from which the Chinese had withdrawn. The rest is, as they say, history. Without the short-sightedness of the Confucian overlords, huge tracts of the world might never have been exposed to Enlightenment thought and the United States might not exist.
Now the Chinese have gone into orbit, and the attitude of America is yawn, been there, done that. There is no call to pick up the job left unfinished, to refuse to cede the high ground to the forces inimical to progress. And if you think China's government is friendly to human rights, freedom of thought or anything that threatens their grip, take a look around once in a while; google for "Free Tibet".
It doesn't worry me that they'll go. It worries me that they'll use it as a way to expand the prestige of their dictatorship and extend their illegitimate powers. That would be good for nobody except the dictators.
And all because our the political establishment saw space more as pork barrel to be exploited than an essential strategy, and public was too apathetic or cynical to demand more from them. Doesn't that just suck?
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.