The cosmos are twitching and that’s sending everything here on Earth into full blown flux. It’s a world that heralds the death of exstacy and birth of liberal talk radio. A world where winters are once again cold and snow is brutal (so much for global warming!). A world where Mars is under attack from the Earth and the president is pimpin’ dads plan from 1989 to land humans on the surface.
It’s this last bit of sound bite fodder that I want to address. Personally, I’m all for exploration and I think revisiting the moon and going to Mars are noble goals. NASA has for far too long been spinning its wheels and the private sector is on track to catch up sooner instead of later (see the X-Prize for proof of that), not to mention Europe and China wanting in on the action. Having lofty goals will serve the agency well, will give the youth of the nation something to set their minds to wonder and interest when talking about space instead of just boredom, and will give us a whole host of new compounds, gadgets and doodads that will need to be developed for the missions and will eventually filter down and become intwined in with our everyday lives. The only phenomena I’ve seen throughout history that can spur on technological development at the same feverish rate as lofty goals such as these is war, and I’d much rather have space be the midwife of invention instead of the bullet.
But Bush’s $1 billion extra to the NASA budget is just not going to get us there. It’s the hydrogen car all over again: a token addition to the budget so he can get his positive sound bite, but never to be heard of again. In addition, the rearranging of NASA’s budget is going to come at the cost of things like the Hubble Telescope, which has done far more to promote learning about the creation of the universe then many other programs. Hubble is set to be de-activated by 2010 and this half-assed attempt to curry favor with the public is the last nail in the coffin.
I like the notion, but I’m afraid the execution is going to lack much in its current state. Another case of this administration living far too short-sighted, even with their ultra long term goals. How would I do it better? To be honest, I haven’t the foggiest at the moment, but I do know when I hear something that won’t work and this plan certainly falls into that category.