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?"

Comments

Win win

[captainpanic]

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.

Re:Win win

[bosef1]

The only thing you would probably want to do is make sure any sales come with a mandate that any future data collected on the satellite has to be publicly released or shared freely with NASA (you could even set it up so the private organization gets a year to use the data themselves before they release it). I would hate to see a situation where the Federal government (and the taxpayers) build a satellite (or other technological marvel), and then a senator yanks the funding, and it gets sold at bargin price to a private entitiy in the senator's neighboorhood. I know that sounds fantastical, but we have to prepare for these types of contingencies.

Re:Win win

[YrWrstNtmr]

The satellite, which could be something everybody in America gets a chance to use, is going to become the private property of not several, not a network or a special organization devoted to the satellite, but just one single university. A very expensive university in California. Why should they get it? Why not MIT? "Why not" a hundred other universities and colleges? It shouldn't be given to Caltech.

Caltech already runs it, and has since the start.

Re:Win win

[jythie]

That is a pretty big leap of logic you have there... 'average people do not understand the benefit, therefor the government shouldn't fund it!'.

I am always shocked by this type of comment.. coming from someone on a computer.. across the internet.. two technologies developed using public funds that neither private industry nor average people saw a benefit to. Oh, and the whole space program. Private companies did not start becoming 'interested' till public funds did a lot of the high risk basic development for decades.

Lose lose

[vikingpower]

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