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NASA's 1$ billion windfall
I may be kind of skeptical, but I think it will take the extra $1
billion President Bush has pledged for NASA just to keep it going at current levels. Here's why: Everything is classified now. Even technical journal articles have to be vetted before they are published. Especially anything having to do with orbital mechanics, or any other aspect of "rocket science" that applies to missiles or that is somehow related to SDI so that it's classified. The problem with high security operations is that progress is inversely proportional to security level. The higher the security, the less the competition, and the less incentive scientists have to produce high quality work. Anybody who does a very good job is harassed by his or her peers for making them look bad so, if anything, there is negative incentive. Moreover, the whole system is ratcheted so that high performing scientists will be booted out of the system leaving only the low horsepower people left. Consequently, with all the new security operations in place since 9/11 the $1 billion Bush thinks will get us to the moon and Mars will only pay for more security, lazier scientists, and an underperforming space program. Bill Clark http://home.austin.rr.com/whcii/ |
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