Does anyone remember the Swedish colony in N.America….OH !

Isn’t it time though to solve two problems that have been raised, fiscal responsibility (hard) and neglect of science (a bit easier). Get NASA back to its core competences and transfer a lot of its earth science responsibilities and budget to the likes of NOAA etc.

That way if NASA wants to be in the satellite launch business, which is now mature and efficient, then they will have to compete on price. If they don’t then that’s OK they can concentrate on things that are a lot harder to do where the commercial sector has no competence, manned space flight and habitation.

Either way this should bring benefits and would make it more obvious that political decisions were affecting scientific research.

Yes I know this probably isn’t the place for this discussion but it’s the first time back to this site for a long time so cut me some slack guys.

Thanks. I have absolutely nothing positive to say about the Bush Administration. It will probably be discussed in history books as the worst presidency ever.

However, on space policy I see very little influence of the current administration. NASA is following a vision for human colonization that goes back to Werner von Braun and was codified in policy plans in the Apollo aftermath and at many points since. IMO, this has far more to do with iron triangles than who is in the White House.

See:

Pielke Jr., R. A., 1993: A Reappraisal of the Space Shuttle Program. Space Policy, May, 133-157.
http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/1993.03.pdf

Thanks!

It is indeed regrettable that the Bush administration is cutting useful satellite programs. However, to send people to space and back is of no use. Not until they go on one way trips to other worlds need we spend that kind of money again. The Space Station is as much a waste of money as is the Iraq war (just not quite as big). A manned settlement on the moon will waste several times what those two previous record boondoggles have cost (so far anyway).

As I mentioned, we could have given virtually everyone on Earth good drinking water for less than we spent on the Iraq war.

December 1956…Nobody had managed to get a satellite up by this point. Sputnik was 10 months away.

That aside, this is an extension of the “go as you pay” perspective that underlies the Vision for Space Exploration. That, in turn, depends on large technological systems being completed on time and retired on time. Which has happened approximately…never. Why the futility of this hadn’t sunk in from the continued problems with the failed public-private partnerships behind the next generation reusable vehicles we don’t have yet. Where are the flying cars, indeed.