Thursday 8 January 2015

What do we expect of a space program? (Synopsis)

more »


“This Administration has never really faced up to where we are going in space… As a result, NASA is both drifting and lobbying for bigger things — without being able to focus realistically on what it should be doing.”

-
White House staff assistant Clay Thomas Whitehead, February 1971



What should we be doing with respect to our space program? At its peak — the mid-1960s — the US government spent somewhere around 20% of its non-military discretionary spending on NASA and space science/exploration. Today?


Image credit: OMB Historical Budget Tables.

Image credit: OMB Historical Budget Tables.



That number is down to 3%, the lowest it’s ever been. As far as our priorities as a nation go, is this right?


In an enraging talk at the annual American Astronomical Society meeting, John M. Logsdon argued that we should be happy, as a community, that we still get as much funding as we do, despite all the we could (and won’t) accomplish if our funding would increase.


Image credit: NASA / Science@NASA.

Image credit: NASA / Science@NASA.



Needless to say, I think we need to rethink this defeatist point of view. What’s your opinion?






Zazzle Space market place

No comments:

Post a Comment