NASA CFO Robinson Leaving
NASA CFO Robinson Headed To Department of Energy, Space News
“NASA Chief Financial Officer Beth Robinson will be nominated by President Barack Obama to be the U.S. Department of Energy’s undersecretary, the White House said July 18. If confirmed by the Senate, Robinson will become Energy’s third-in-command.”
All the best to her. As for us, what does this indicate? Does her promotion mean that she simply managed the books exceptionally and that is all? Or does it also mean that she did the fundamentals and also expressed no resistance to the funding levels that the administration has handed down to NASA for 5 years now? Each year has been a step down in allocations to NASA until now we are at the lowest funding level in the last 30 years. According to Bolden, there is little more that can be trimmed and with another budget cut, we must carve out the lowest priority programs. What this promotion seems to be is that the Administration sees the progression of NASA budgets as nominal and the management of those budgets as acceptable. There is a status quo that the Obama Admin has set and management at HQ has functioned commendably. The bottom line is likely that if the NASA budget arrives at his desk beginning with $17, he will have nothing to say, except cover his political backside with hopeful words.
This transition at NASA is unlike any other that has passed. The expanding commercial sector including low cost launch vehicles has eliminated the need for NASA to build heavy lifters, costly replacements – up front or otherwise, for the last human rated vehicle (this time the Shuttle). SLS is a works program. It will be launched and fly astronauts two or three times but commercial alternatives will make it obsolete the first time it launches and the cost can be tallied. It is serving to avoid a sudden slew of layoffs and permitting some more gradual employment transition in the manned program. The federal government has had far worse “works programs”. Possibly once SLS development is spent, SLS is abandoned (Orion capsule – more likely to be kept), the Manned program will be leaned out. The NASA budget will remain flat (or with finally some inflation adjustments) and funds will be shifted to cutting edge propulsion – SEP or Nuclear-Ion, etc and the habitats to make interplanetary manned flight practical. Also, propulsion to provide more expeditious journeys for robotic missions.
NASA should recognize three prime objectives. The first being on the cutting edge of Aeronautics research that assists the commercial sector into the next great advances in our air transportation system. The second is the real time monitoring system in orbit to help manage the resources of our Planet and safeguard life and property. The third is exploration of the unknown. Commercial ventures are about to begin exploiting Space for profit in a wider array of ways. The American public, the World as a whole, cannot depend on commerce to take the place NASA to explore and discover. Sure they will begin to uncover things that have been solely in the domain of NASA but consider, for example, SpaceFlightNow. They have had no qualms with charging readers extra for the pretty launch videos or photos. Space mining ventures or LEO supported R&D will be “for profit”. We do not want discovery and exploration to be sold to the highest bidder. Industry has already exploited Space for profit and NASA doesn’t derive that much R&D from LEO activities but the third purpose for keeping NASA funded and healthy must be pure exploration. In real dollars, exploration of this type is rarely cost effective. It delivers new knowledge and observations that takes years to show its benefits. Consider the British surveys – HMS Beagle and others. And it also simply hearkens back to why “Rice plays Texas”.
Returning from my digression, this promotion of the NASA CFO is another indicator that the Obama Administration, while it can lay claim to putting another anchor point upon the end of a previous era – a troubled part of our culture, the Administration does not show the strength and ambition to spearhead the future for the young generations. Part of this must include giving NASA a new lease on life, the funds to accomplish some noble objectives.
NASA was created by the “Greatest Generation”, those that fought WWII, endured adolescence in the Depression. It served to compete against political systems that would replace us or destroy us. We needed to compete is this way but maybe more so, our society was driven by a generation that had in some sense “saved the World”. The USA was driven and people were committed to giving back through taxation to the greater Whole. I think at some level, our Society is locked up now in the selfishness of the older generations, that through physical longevity, through the institutions they put in place, retain power – in all three branches of Federal government and elsewhere. Their natural inclination is to maintain the wealth and power and at the expense of the young generations. Despite the appearance of youth, Obama’s Administration strives to uphold the past and does not show the strength to fight for America’s future and invest where it is needed, including NASA.