Slashdot Mirror
NASA Considers Privatizing GALEX Astrophysics Satellite
hogghogg writes "The GALEX spacecraft (surveying the Universe in ultraviolet wavelengths at which the atmosphere is close to opaque) is coming to the end of its budget life, but it hasn't finished imaging the entire sky and is still (fairly) functional. A group at Caltech wants to keep it running, so NASA is considering transfer of ownership under the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act, which 'allows the transfer of government-owned excess research equipment to educational institutions and non-profit organizations.' Many NASA missions are terminated for budget reasons at the end of a prescribed period, even while the hardware is still highly functional. Although this is the first-ever transfer from NASA of a functioning satellite, maybe this is just the start for a class of privately run astronomical and Earth-observing facilities in space?"
It's a win win situation.
Win 1. It gets NASA some money. Compared to no money at all, that's a win.
Win 2. It gets a university or other institute a fantastic toy for a bargain price. Compared to a new satellite, that's a win.
It's a lose lose situation: 1) Scientists worldwide become dependent upon private initiatives; we have seen with European universities having to collect so-called 3rd-party funding what that does to research levels 2) In the long run, it causes NASA to lose ( even more ) competence; competence and know-how loss at NASA is already going on at a dishearteningly rate
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
....under the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act, which 'allows the transfer of government-owned excess research equipment to educational institutions and non-profit organizations.
I am going to start a nonprofit and buy Spirit and Opportunity. See my crowdtilt and kickstarter projects to donate :-).
In all seriousness, this is a good idea to keep NASA tools going. I like it.
Silence is a state of mime.
On the face of it, this seems like a common sense piece of legislation that benefits everyone and not just the corporations.
How the fuck did that happen?
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
How is this any different than the surplus auctions? It has lived it planned and funded life, note I did not say it's intended life. It now becomes surplus just like any other chair, computer, or vehicle.
Don't blame me for redundant posts. I can't type very fast. Hence the user ID.
Well, "privatize" should here be taken with a grain of salt. The S-W Act only allows sale to non-profit or educational institutions. That's hardly on the same scale as selling it to, say, Koch Industries. Research institutions, in particular, operate onder fairly strict guidelines regarding what they can do with their property (for example, a university I worked at for a while had a huge scandal a few years ago when it discovered the facilities manager taking home stuff they were throwing out). Even surplus property has to be disposed of in a manner that insures it doesn't fall into private hands. So if some university is taking over the satellite, that's not such a huge degradation of public utility, or ownership.
And, if that means that more NGOs get involved in managing space hardware - particularly for exploratory purposes - I'm not terribly opposed.
I might grouse about that, too. But then I just need to remember the alternative: that it sits up there, defunct, in orbit forever (it's in a 700-km orbit), or gets incinerated in a controlled de-orbit. In either case, it's lost to us. Better someone be able to make use of it.
If I could provide input to such decisions, I would advocate that a condition of the arrangement be that the public have free and unfettered access to the data (summary, at least, available online; raw data archive upon request), and that any publications using such data automatically enter the public domain. Considering that it is going to an academic institution, some of that will happen as a matter of course, but not all.
Caltech operates a federal lab, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and receives federal money to do so. The Institute ("Universtiy") is run from that source of funding.