Sequester Cancels NASA Outreach

http://www.universetoday.com/100949/sequester-cancels-nasa-outreach/

by alanmulhall • 13 years ago

44 53 13 years ago

anigbrowl2• 13 years ago

That's pretty depressing.

On a related note, air travel this summer is going to suck. More so than usual: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/us/politics/ohare-tower-ma...

Uhhrrr2• 13 years ago

From the article: the cuts are "hitting where it hurts: in education and outreach". Is that really where it hurts for NASA? What about space exploration and research? Aren't those a little more important?

nuclear_eclipse• 13 years ago

Without education and outreach, perhaps there won't be enough talented and engaged people to take part in designing, building, and operating the equiptment for space exploration?

metric10• 13 years ago

Sure. The NASA Outreach Program. Teaching our kids how to design, build, and operate spaceships. Without it they're all going into liberal arts.

Sorry, but I have a feeling education and science will survive the Sequestocalypse just fine. Although if we don't get the budget under control today, our kids won't have the money for space exploration in the future.

HarryHirsch• 13 years ago

Outreach is actually the most important part of NASA's budget - you must make a good case that it is a good idea to spend money on space research, and you must make the results available to the public. If you don't do the first bit there may not be more money in the future, politicians will put the cash elsewhere, and if you don't do the second part you have neglected your duty to the taxpaying public.

Uhhrrr2• 13 years ago

But if you don't do the 0th bit - shooting awesome rockets across the solar system and dropping rovers on distant planets* - lobbying would be useless. Do you really think this is debatable? What do you think NASA's outreach budget was in 1969?

*and acting as cover for sending up military satellites, of course

niggler3• 13 years ago

Weren't people trying to choke NASA before the sequester? Is the effect of the sequester more significant than previous efforts to slash NASA budget?

adventured• 13 years ago

The sequester is a big sick joke. A bunch of toddlers are throwing tantrums in DC right now, trying to scare the public over big bad cuts.

The truth is, America has a priority problem. We have more than enough money to spend. The toddlers in DC are used to getting their way and free spending like crazy (thus the trillion dollar deficits). Now they're being forced to make choices, and they're openly attempting to scare the public.

The best example of the sequester con is the White House tours. It's a big lie that they can't keep it open, pure propaganda.

The things we're free spending money on right now are disgusting. We have money to drone the planet and murder thousands of civilians, but not to hire teachers and fix bridges. We can keep Guantanamo open and spend money torturing people, but we can't keep our schools open. We can give the theocrats in Egypt lots of money, but we can't keep a simple NASA outreach program. We can spend a trillion dollars on the mostly pointless and highly dysfunctional F35 that will barely ever see action, but we supposedly can't keep the FAA operating at max capacity. Biden can spend a million dollars on one night hotel stays in Paris and London, but the White House has to cancel various Easter celebrations.

niggler3• 13 years ago

"The toddlers in DC are used to getting their way and free spending like crazy (thus the trillion dollar deficits)"

The great irony is that the party that was spending freely a decade ago is now talking about fiscal responsibility.

"The things we're free spending money on right now are disgusting."

I'm not partisan, but one party in particular is pushing for boosting the defense budget at the expense of the other priorities in this country.

twoodfin• 13 years ago

The great irony is that the party that was spending freely a decade ago is now talking about fiscal responsibility.

And the other party was constantly complaining that too much was being spent? No, just the opposite: They were clamoring for more, whether it was "state and local aid", a more generous Medicare Part D and CHIP, extended unemployment benefits, special education costs... The list goes on.

And, by the way, the budget deficit in 2007 was, with two wars in full swing and all the Bush tax cuts in effect, a mere $158B.

I'll take a party that at least sometimes talks and walks fiscal restraint over one that still thinks we're not "investing" enough with $1T annual deficits any day.

aaronbrethorst2• 13 years ago

> The great irony is that the party that was spending freely a decade ago is now talking about fiscal responsibility.

They control the House, which in turn controls the federal government's purse strings[1]. It's the only thing they have direct control over. Plus, the most vocal and influential wing of the party at present was elected in large part on an austerity platform.

[1] http://budget.house.gov/budgetprocess/

rayiner6• 13 years ago

It's not clear droning the planet and having overwhelming force in our fighter fleet isn't where our priorities should be. Being the top dog militarily has been working pretty well for the U.S. so far.

Also, NASA has gotten so far away from its core mission that it deserves its budget to be cut. It used to be run by visionaries, but at some point it got taken over by scientists.

whatshisface• 13 years ago

Yes, we must not pay the scientists, we must pay the visionaries! How can we have science without the visionaries to see the science and tell us about it?

PavlovsCat2• 13 years ago

Being the top dog militarily has been working pretty well for the U.S. so far.

Define "U.S.", because you surely aren't talking about the population.

anigbrowl2• 13 years ago

I agree with you to a large extent, but you're doing the same thing by making sweeping mischaracterizations.

For example, you mention 'Biden can spend a million dollars on one night hotel stays in Paris and London.' I looked into this, and indeed two one-night stays in each city totaled up to about that amount. But in each case, they booked out over 100 rooms. Now the VP certainly has an entourage of secret service agents and personal assistants, but the majority of those rooms were likely occupied by policy administrators of one sort or another there to meet their opposite numbers in Paris and London. This is why state visits are a big deal; on TV we just see handshakes and maybe a snippet of a speech, but all sorts of diplomatic work - trade negotiations, extradition discussions, etc. - takes place out of sight of the cameras. State visits are planned months in advance so that bureaucracies can coordinate the international dimension of their activities around them. A million bucks is cheap at the price if it advances economic progress.

Now you may not have noticed, but one of the more interesting things in the state of the Union speech the President gave last month was a commitment to a new US-EU Free Trade Agrreement, which would be the largest trade deal in history: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21439945 which would be worth hundreds of billions annually in increased economic activity. You bet I want the VP to take a bunch of policy wonks along with him when he goes overseas.

I think the first step in getting beyond tantrum politics is to address things on their merits and in their proper context, not in the form of zingers and stereotypes.

spikels2• 13 years ago

From what I know about Biden it would probably be better if he did not make these trips. He seems to be a very good politician but as I have learned more and more about him I seriously doubt he has the ability to make sound decisions. Not that he has a lot of competition in his profession.

How about we just send the experts next time.

reeses• 13 years ago

Having been the beneficiary of a similar event (Cheney, in this case), the hotel/secret service generally clears the entire floor for the official for security purposes. I don't know if it's policy to clear the one above and below, but I was relocated to another hotel.

harold• 13 years ago

This reminds me of the Calif. Sate Park toilet paper debacle of 2010 [1]. Since followed up with a surplus of cash the State Park did not report to the state [2]. The priorities are indeed out of whack and taxpayers are getting screwed.

[1] http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/09/california-par... [2] http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2012/07/23/whats-next-for-the-...

sliverstorm• 13 years ago

Now they're being forced to make choices, and they're openly attempting to scare the public.

This is why I'm tempted to think the right answer is to look back at the White House and say, "OK, let's keep the sequester. More cuts."

Kind of a game of chicken, and maybe a course to self-destruction, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about it. Part of me says, "so maybe there's a little collateral damage today, but nothing we can't rebuild tomorrow." It's that way with building muscle mass. Bulk up, cut down. You lose a little muscle in the cut, but you get it and more back later.

danielweber2• 13 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monument_Syndrome

riffic• 13 years ago

I guess JPL isn't doing their open house this year =(

gmu3• 13 years ago

I think it is worth mentioning that in addition to the $900 million in cuts required from the sequester since the sequester has gone into effect, Congress has proposed cutting their funding an additional $300 million this year. Therefore, pinning all this to the sequester seems a little unfair. http://www.app.com/article/20130321/NJNEWS17/303210108/Seque...

Sadly I worry these cuts are more political than practical, but then again it just says the programs are being suspended until they are reviewed so hopefully they'll still come back and maybe some waste will be discovered in the process too.

velodrome• 13 years ago

I like how the decision makers say we need to grow out of our debt problems. Then they cut programs like this? Do they think we will actually grow with cuts to STEM education? The advent of the internet, biotechnology, hell...even proprietary trading. Almost all the recent growth cycles have been fueled by STEM.

The decision makers are foolishly creating a massive technical debt.

3dptz• 13 years ago

Guess that clears enough budget to buy more F35's. Because what future needs inspired engineers right?

mchusma• 13 years ago

Don't forget about a replacement for the M4: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-19/army-carbine-progra...

Obviously the F35 is more important though. Who honestly thinks the future of air warfare will be with drones. </sarcasm>

protomyth• 13 years ago

Actually, given the program manager's comments and the Navy's sudden interest in F-18 improvements, the F-35 program looks like it will have large cuts.

jurassic• 13 years ago

The sequester is serious business in science. A scientific workforce and the equipment they need must be maintained; it's not easy to ramp up or down capacity as demand and funding levels shift. The pipeline for an individual into a high-level science career is measured in DECADES. If you screw with funding levels for a few years you're blowing a gigantic hole into the side of your already-leaky pipeline.

Science was a pretty lousy career choice before all this started, but these budget shenanigans will only drive the smartest and most capable young people out of science for better paid, less uncertain vocations.

toufka• 13 years ago

Absolutely. As a grad student about to graduate from a prestegious biomedical institution I'm looking at no new grants for the next (few?) years. The NIH is likely zeroing any new grants in order to maintain current grants. Guess what industry I cannot graduate into!

The upside I guess is that I will likely attempt to create my own company instead. A far riskier proposition. But I'm on the far end of the spectrum - few of my peers are doing that though - they're finding jobs in other industries.

zeteo2• 13 years ago

Meh. NASA outreach sucks in any case. They manage to make space look boring - ever watched one of those conversations between middle schoolers and ISS crew? Just get the kids a few sci-fi books instead, you'll get a much more enthusiastic and motivated next generation of engineers.

ANH2• 13 years ago

Have you ever watched a rocket launch on NASA TV? For me, it doesn't get much more thrilling than that. And I've seen some in person.

zeteo2• 13 years ago

So the coolest events on NASA TV are those in which the "outreach" people play no role and just let the cameras speak for themselves. I agree.

danielweber2• 13 years ago

NASA outreach is tremendous bang for the buck.

Remember, science isn't just so the scientists can learn. It's so the scientists can learn and then present their finding to the public.

Of course, NASA didn't cut outreach because they carefully looked at their budget and decided this was the 1% that produced the least marginal value. They decided to cut outreach because it would generate public outrage.

I think NASA's budget should be increased, FWIW, but I recognize when I'm being played.

ericcumbee• 13 years ago

Go to space, do cool things....outreach problem solved.

kmfrk• 13 years ago

Compromise: one-way missions to Mars for a select group of politicians.

Apocryphon• 13 years ago

Is it possible to create a Kickstarter for public sector services?

Empact• 13 years ago

Yep, for a significant period of American History, a good bit of long-distance travel was over privately constructed and managed turnpikes. Their financing was very much in the Kickstarter model:

"American turnpikes were stock-financed corporations seemingly organized to pay dividends, though acting within narrow limits determined by the charter. [F]or the American turnpikes the hope of dividends was merely a faint hope, and never a legal obligation. Odd as it sounds, the stock-financed "business" corporation was better suited to operating the project as a civic enterprise, paying out returns in use and esteem rather than cash."

http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/Klein.Majewski.Turnpikes

Sequester Cancels NASA Outreach

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