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US Astronomy Facing Severe Budget Cuts and Facility Closures
Nancy_A writes "The U.S. astronomy budget is facing unprecedented cuts, including the potential closure of several facilities. A new report by the National Science Foundation's Division of Astronomical Sciences says available funding for ground-based astronomy could undershoot projected budgets by as much as 50%. The report recommends the closure – called 'divestment' in the new document — of iconic facilities such as the Very Long Baseline Array and the Green Bank Radio Telescope, as well as shutting down four different telescopes at the Kitt Peak Observatory by 2017."
All the rockets we want, as long as they are ordered by the Pentagon.
Science, it's now for total warfare.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
While that is totally true, we could just try a couple less wars, or raising the retirement age, or any number of sane ideas to pay for something this small.
At this point as the US gov can borrow money at negative rates, we might as well do that.
...and has throughout our history — but it shouldn't be the only thing that drives space science and other human achievement.
If you're interested in a truly insightful and inspiring speech on this topic, I highly encourage you to set aside an hour for Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson's recent talk on just this subject at the University of Wisconsin - Madison:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqJzHHkmJ-8
It's well worth your time to watch, to think about — and to discuss with your elected officials.
Typical. You have no clue how much something takes to do, so naturally you assume your share is tooo much.
Here is a clue: Tax dollars aren't yours. Ever. They are all ours, societies. DO you really want New York, Detroit and Dallas and California to be the effective determination for all tax money?
Figure this: WW II was funded by the sale of bonds. Bond drives went on everywhere and were widely supported by the entertainment industry to underwrite the massive expense of a massive undertaking. But today we don't buy War Bonds, it's assumed we are all going to pony up $5,000 (on average) for our share of the annual Pentagon Budget, for whatever they decide they need. Let. Me. Tell. You. $5,000 is probably what I could have afforded for war bonds, had I lived in the 1940's in 1940's adjusted dollars. But this has been on-going since after the war ended and is still eating up a high percentage of our GDP, for years on end, even when we are at complete peace.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The long term survival of the country is in Science and engineering. If your society doesn't do that, then you are done as a civilized society.
Thank goodness Congress was there to develop electricity, automobiles, radio, and telephones!
Oh, wait, those all happened before general income taxes when people still had money to spend on preposterous ideas.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
The NSF wants to fund more than they're likely to get, so they tell everyone that they're going to have to shut down their big, high visibility programs in hopes that the resulting public outcry will result in them getting more funding so that they can fund all the little things they want funded, but are currently unlikely to get funded.
The long term survival of the country is in Science and engineering. If your society doesn't do that, then you are done as a civilized society.
Thank goodness Congress was there to develop electricity, automobiles, radio, and telephones!
Oh, wait, those all happened before general income taxes when people still had money to spend on preposterous ideas.
It sure was a good thing those private companies built a massive national highway infrastructure for automobiles to run on, or standardized, built and maintained the telephone and electricity grids.