July 24th 06, 02:10 AM
posted to sci.environment,sci.space.policy,alt.global-warming,sci.geo.geology,sci.physics
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NASA declines to protect the Planet Earth
jonathan wrote:
"Henry Spencer" wrote in message
...
In article ,
jonathan wrote:
It appears to me Nasa can spend fast enough
to lock in the cev, which is fine by me, but the
moon mission and beyond have to get past the democratic party.
Fat chance.
You might be surprised. Space is not a partisan issue to any great
extent. Even shuttle retirement and the Moon/Mars stuff, despite the
strong association with the Great Satan Bush :-), has largely bipartisan
support; it helps that the NASA budget has not grown substantially, and
that a lot of existing jobs are being preserved. Schedules and priorities
might change some, but wholesale gutting of the program is unlikely.
The democrats have been pretty silent on Nasa for some time.
Their 04 platform didn't even mention Nasa. But the likes
of Barney Franks, a couple of weeks ago, got 169 votes
in the House in a failed amendment to stop funding for
early moon and mars planning.
But we shouldn't worry first about how things are now, we
should always think about how things should be in the
future.
In a perfect world....our scientists and engineers would all
pull together and come up with that big fix, that one
Big Idea, that would save the future of the planet
from global warming, energy nightmares and
constant war. And all that at once.
All I know is in that Big Idea somewhere will be
the sun and space. Everyone knows that, or at least
will believe it. And that is enough. Did Kennedy
solve all the problems of going to the moon before
announcing his goal? No, of course not. He initiated
a self organizing system from the inspiring and imaginative
goal he set. And let the solutions find themselves from
all the talent, urgency and excitement the goal
set in motion.
It's the goal that matters.
If not Nasa then who? It has to be Nasa.
It should be NASA and NOAA, but these are the Bush years.
They don't give a **** about anything but their jobs.
http://cosmic.lifeform.org
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