NASA Cancels Missions After All

jd writes "Barely a day after NASA chief Dr. Griffen swore blind that projects might be frozen but not cancelled due to the new priorities and budget constraints, news comes of a new asteroid mission that has been cancelled due to the new priorities and budget constraints - something Dr. Griffin did not mention in his earlier comments. The visit to two asteroids, short about $90 million, was completely abandoned according to NASA, with no possibility of revival. In consequence, smaller missions are reportedly feeling at much greater risk."

Comments

Re:To all the naysayers.

[bcrowell]

But isn't this exactly what government is great at.
There are many things government is great at. Government is great at putting people to the sword because they have the wrong religion. Government is great at sending people to Siberia because they speak out against the government. Government is great at building the pyramids.

Shouldering HUGE projects that no private industry in its right mind would spend money on.
I like that part about "in its right mind." In general, government tends to be an irrational process.

Ultimatly to progress science or humanity in general.
Yes, think where we'd be if Socrates hadn't been supported by a government grant. Think where we'd be if Einstein had had to invent the theory of special relativity while working at some boring job as a patent clerk or something. Think where we'd be if the Margrave of Brandenburg had rejected Bach's request for a job, and Bach had had to go on as a church organist. Think of where we'd be if people like Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway had had to make a living in the grubby world of commercial publishing, instead of being comfortably ensconced at state-supported universities.

but we would still be stuck in Europe if that was the case.
Yes, think how horrible it would have been if human beings had never been able to reach North America without support from Queen Isabella. Oops, I mean think how horrible it would have been if Columbus hadn't been able to reach the Caribbean and massacre entire populations of people who had already gotten to North America. Oops, I mean think how horrible it would have been if Vikings and (probably) fishermen hadn't discovered North America long before Columbus. Wait, now I'm confused. Oops, I mean think how horrible it would have been if wonderful U.S. Government institutions like the U.S. Army hadn't been able to capitalize on the discovery of North America in order to help the Indians.

But the really big stuff like getting people to Mars is only going to get done my NASA.
One of the most exciting scientific things that could be done about Mars would be an uncrewed sample return mission to establish whether microbial life exists there now. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen if we keep on spending all NASA's money on the shuttle (whose only purpose is to go to the ISS) and the ISS (whose only purpose is to give the shuttle somewhere to go).

Unfortunately, we're probably a century away from being able to send humans to Mars. The most recent Scientific American has a good article about the radiation hazards, and the fact that we currently don't have any way of dealing with them using forseeable technology. Fundamentally, crewed spaceflight is a technology that currently just isn't a practical way to get scientific research done.

JC

[mnemonic_]

Jesus Christ you're fucking stupid.

Re:Marketing Strategy

[Doc Ruby]

If you'd even bothered to click the link I generously provided, you'd have known that Griffin, the NASA liar^Wdirector making these announcements, used to help run the Star Wars program.

But since you're calling that accursed boondoggle "missile defense", I expect that you don't care. Just so long as Bush can pump more $TRILLIONS of US debt into multinational defense contractors. But not enough money for NASA - except in election year promises, broken ASAP. The secret Star Wars programs, though, just get bigger.