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NASA Gets Its Marching Orders: Look Up! Look Out!
TheRealHocusLocus writes: HR 2039: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act for 2016 and 2017 (press release, full text, and as a pretty RGB bitmap) is in the House. In $18B of goodies we see things that actually resemble a space program. The ~20,000 word document is even a good read, especially the parts about decadal cadence. There is more focus on launch systems and manned exploration, also to "expand the Administration's Near-Earth Object Program to include the detection, tracking, cataloguing, and characterization of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects less than 140 meters in diameter." I find it awesome that the fate of the dinosaurs is explicitly mentioned in this bill. If it passes we will have a law with dinosaurs in it. Someone read the T-shirt. There is also a very specific six month review of NASA's "Earth science global datasets for the purpose of identifying those datasets that are useful for understanding regional changes and variability, and for informing applied science research." Could this be an emerging Earth Sciences turf war between NOAA and NASA? Lately it seems more of a National Atmospheric Space Administration. Mission creep, much?
Seriously. The real story with this bill is that the republicans are defunding the climate monitoring programs. It will take decades to regain the capabilities we'll lose by defunding them now. There's no turf war between NASA and NOAA, just one between republicans and science.
Nice job trying to write a summary for geeks that attempts to bury the real story.
for you young whippersnappers that don't get the reference..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
From the very moment of its inception, NASA has been directed to study the atmosphere:
http://history.nasa.gov/spaceact.html
"The aeronautical and space activities of the United States shall be conducted so as to contribute materially to one or more of the following objectives:
(1) The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space;"
So? Isn't it about time that NASA grew up, and looked further into space? We already have NOAA. Every nation on earth has weather and climate scientists. WTF do we need NASA to study the weather? We need NASA to build big honking SPACESHIPS to move mankind into the solar system. Screw the weather, in 150 years, half of mankind won't give a small damn about weather on earth.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Hopefully this is a sign the space race is back on.
I agree. It's either that, or admit defeat to the Russians.
Phrased like that, no self-respecting US politician can say 'no' to it.
We have a federal agency to study dirt and rocks - the United States Geological Survey (USGS). They claim to be "a science organization that provides impartial information on the health of our ecosystems and environment, the natural hazards that threaten us, the natural resources we rely on, the impacts of climate and land-use change, and the core science systems that help us provide timely, relevant, and usable information."
We have a federal agency to study the atmosphere and the oceans - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They claim their mission is "Science, Service, and Stewardship. To understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts, To share that knowledge and information with others, and To conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. "
BOTH claim to study the Earth and its climate. NEITHER claims to advance aviation of spaceflight or exploration beyond the Earth
We HAD an agency to study and advance aviation - the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) whose mission was "to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution, and to determine the problems which should be experimentally attacked and to discuss their solution and their application to practical questions." After Russia launched Sputnik, the US government went into panic mode and in 1958 transformed the agency into a new organization which we now have called the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The 1958 law that created NASA gave it the following duties: (which I will quote directly)
"(1) The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space;"
"(2) The improvement of the usefulness, performance, speed, safety, and efficiency of aeronautical and space vehicles;"
"(3) The development and operation of vehicles capable of carrying instruments, equipment, supplies and living organisms through space;"
"(4) The establishment of long-range studies of the potential benefits to be gained from, the opportunities for, and the problems involved in the utilization of aeronautical and space activities for peaceful and scientific purposes."
"(5) The preservation of the role of the United States as a leader in aeronautical and space science and technology and in the application thereof to the conduct of peaceful activities within and outside the atmosphere."
"(6) The making available to agencies directly concerned with national defenses of discoveries that have military value or significance, and the furnishing by such agencies, to the civilian agency established to direct and control nonmilitary aeronautical and space activities, of information as to discoveries which have value or significance to that agency;"
"(7) Cooperation by the United States with other nations and groups of nations in work done pursuant to this Act and in the peaceful application of the results, thereof; and"
"(8) The most effective utilization of the scientific and engineering resources of the United States, with close cooperation among all interested agencies of the United States in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort, facilities, and equipment."
NASA's study of the Earth and its atmosphere was ONLY for the purpose of advancing flight in, out of, and back into, the atmosphere. In the 1970s as the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations were messing NASA up and trying to appeal to voters they tainted NASA with eco-related tasks that actually belong at NOAA and USGS (and other agencies) and over time various entrenched interests (like the earth-sciences employees at Goddard who SHOULD apply for jobs at NOAA) have made the problem worse. NASA spent more money studying climate change in 2014 than it spent launching men into space (NASA
NASA was derived from NACA and its study of the atmosphere was to learn how to fly through it, NOT to figure out how to regulate coal companies, limit the emissions of cars, make sure the sea levels do not rise, etc. READ THE WHOLE ACT AND THE MISSION STATEMENT OF NACA.
You will note that the statement says "phenomena in the atmosphere and space" but says NOTHING about climate, pollution, icebergs, glaciers, dinosaurs, forests, river deltas, human activities, etc. The mention of the atmosphere is in the same sentence and context as "space" and includes no mention of ANY historical study of either, human impact on either, projections for the future conditions of either, or role in formulation of policy choices related to the stewardship of either (only the job of understanding the system that exists - what aerodynamics people call "the standard atmosphere")
For the first dozen years of its existence, NOBODY at NASA thought its job included climate studies. All the eco-stuff surfaced during Skylab as a political thing to engage the public in a post-moon-landing down-scaled NASA attempting to be relevant at a time when TV was airing ads with a crying indian, the book "Silent Spring" was a top seller, Bruce Dern was doing SciFi about a future with no trees left on Earth (Silent Running), and President Obama's current science advisor (Mr. Holdren) was hanging around with Paul Ehrlich scaring the public about a gloom-and-doom future and working losing a famous bet over all the scarcities he claimed were imminent. Yup, the guy helping Obama trash NASA these days was actually one of the very people who, in the 1970s, claimed that humans were going to cause a new ice age with all their emissions into the atmosphere.... something the AGW crowd now claim was just a crackpot thing that most in the sciences never pushed (READ his 1971 book "Global Ecology" and you will see that these current global warming guys were indeed the same people pushing the imminent ice age idea and it's a LIE to say it was just one magazine cover related to one obscure guy's theory.)
NASA today is so messed-up it could not even put a monkey into space for a single orbit of the Earth (something it originally managed to do 50 years ago). If the agency cannot do even the basics, it has no business diversifying into all sorts of other junk that overlaps what half a dozen other agencies are tasked with also doing.
We have a fleet of robots on Mars that would like a word with you.
That might be true if this was some sort of dispassionate commentary on the bill. But it's not, it's a ringing endorsement of a highly partisan bill. Surely you see the difference.
For those who are serious, here's the Planetary Society's commentary, with a link to an indepth but nonpartisan analysis at SpacePolicyOnline. The Planetary Society is very happy with the planetary science numbers, not happy with the earth science numbers, and couldn't seem to care less about the funding for SLS/Orion.
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The projected defense budget for FY16 is $585 Billion, so NASA's budget of $8 Billion would be enough to keep the defense department running for 5 whole days. Just saying...
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