bridges, a quarterly publication of the Office of Science & Technology at the Embassy of Austria in Washington, has several articles in its new issue on space policy. A couple of them deal with European and transatlantic policy issues, such as a discussion of Europe’s Galileo and GMES programs and a review of US-European space cooperation.
There are also a couple of essays in the issue dealing with US space policy, with similar themes. Johannes Loschnigg, a member of the House Science Committee staff, reviews the current state of the NASA budget, noting the hard choices NASA has had to make given that the FY07 budget request for the agency fell short of the authorized amount by over $1 billion. It’s a theme of trying to do too much with too little money, he notes, that has plagued the space agency for a long time.
In a related essay, Roger A. Pielke, Jr. suggests that it’s time to reconsider the overall structure of NASA itself and divest it of some programs. “NASA has far more on its plate than it can handle under any realistic budget projection. And even under unlimited budgets, it may be that NASA simply needs institutional reform,” he writes. He makes some proposals familiar to many readers: give space science to NSF, earth science to NOAA, and aeronautics to NIST. Unfortunately, the essay doesn’t address whether those agencies would be able to take over, or even be interested in taking over, those programs. I suspect that, in at least some cases, the answer would be no.
Pielke does make one excellent point in his piece about the political forces that have been created by the space agency to support its existing programs:
NASA’s success in creating a structure of political support by spreading contracts around the nation in key congressional districts has made change difficult. Any alteration to the course that NASA is on will necessarily face opposition, if the changes result in termination of contracts and the loss of high-paying jobs in important congressional districts.
In an essay that should appear in an upcoming issue of the magazine Seed, I make a similar argument about the overextension of NASA, but argue that the political constituency Pielke describes above is a major reason for evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, change at NASA. (I don’t want to say more and scoop myself; I’ll let you know when the issue’s out.)
NASA is not overextended. The scientists and engineers simply spend all their time filling out paperwork.
Take away 90% of the paperwork, then lo and behold you’ll get a space agency back.
Somehow managed to post in the wrong thread! Apologies.
Oh Jeez … Pielke is a freaking crackpot, you know that, don’t you?
Pielke is a freaking crackpot
Considering the source of this comment, the irony level pegs the meter.
Do tell us about Global Warming and Climate Change then Rand? What are the scientific views from the far radical right?
I know, Homeland Security and the DOD have so much on their plate too, let’s break them up too, right?
Looks like someone took a big Elishitz in this thread.
Since the federal government itself appears to be incompetent, saddling us with trillions of dollars worth of unnecessary public debt, an incipient climate catastrophe, and several never ending wars, let’s break up the union. Every state for itself! Happy Independence Day!
What are the scientific views from the far radical right?
How would I know?
What are they from the demented troll community?
Let’s see, 8 trillion dollars of public debt, soon to be 10 trillion, 6.5 billion people on the planet, soon to be 10 billion, most of them religious fanatics, two seperate wars, plus the war on tourists and the war on nature, 380 ppm carbon dioxide and rising, $75.00 per barrel and $3.00 per gallon and rising, let’s see what have I forgotten, my morals? I guess that just sums it up from the loony left. Time to break up NASA I guess. Better cancel those damn Saturn Vs and those stupid moon missions, we got wars to fight. Let’s bomb Cambodia and Laos!
Hey Elishitz,
Still screwing strawmen I see. When you become incapable of intelligently continuing the arguemnt at hand, start throwing feces like a monkey in a cage.
Your posts are the most worthless and pointless I have ever read on this board, why do you even bother? Do you not realize what a complete raving lunatic idiot you come across as? Are you really that clueless?
Well, since it appears that rational discussion has broken down (again), I’m closing comments for this post.