Get Used To Having Less Money For NASA
Trump’s First 100 Days: Space, Scientific American
“What is certain, [Bob] Walker says, is that Trump’s “space policy doesn’t contemplate any real increases in NASA’s spending.”, It will likely have to accomplish all that it is being asked to do now and in the future without significant boosts to its bottom line, and with the distinct possibility of deep budget cuts. And that, more than anything else, could be very bad news for the space agency and its programs.”
Is anyone surprised? No Moon for decades, if even that, and no Mars during our lifetime (most of us that is). And like I keep saying, another 100 thousand people in this country and 2 billion on Earth by about 2045 and we run the risk of not getting anywhere at all. All associated issues and problems to be compounded accordingly. Am I the only one to see this? Oh, and Trump and most of them likely wont even be here in 20 years so they don’t care about it. Actions speak loudest. Integrity speaks softly.
If Trump supports NASA’s public/private partnerships, we will make great strides in space exploration, utilization and settlement.
The Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) was defunded by the House of Reps during the George H. W. Bush administration. It was reanimated in a House/Senate conference committee, but was finally cancelled the next year by Congress BEFORE the first budget of the Clinton administration.
It had tripled in cost to $18 billion in today’s money.
$2.4 Billion in foreign money promised never showed.
And as an audit showed, the DOE cost estimate left out more than a billion dollars of key costs.
While Clinton (BILL, not HILLARY) wasn’t very supportive of the SSC early on, when cancellation loomed he wrote:
He ultimately had to sign its cancellation:
New York Times:
Spot on. I remember the Nobels for America promises when the key theoretical work to be tested came from British and French scientists.
Now owned by Magnablend! I remember when all of us in the physics dept were sure it would become a mushroom farm.
What’s with the “Clinton’s”? Hillary was First lady, not Co-President. She did work on health care, but was not any kind of Science Czar.
NASA’s “Faster, Better, Cheaper” was initiated during the George H. W. Bush administration, not Clinton.
The old National Radiotelescope Observatory was recommended by National Science Foundation for closure so scarce funds could be allocated to new and continuing projects.
The observatory was then set up to run as an independent entity getting a couple years of declining federal funds while ramping up private contracts.
Here is the website of the new organization:
http://greenbankobservatory…
>Remember “Faster Better Cheaper” that slashed NASA?
I do though seemed to violate the fast-good-cheap-pick-any-two-for-engineering-design rule. Oh, and TQM (ugh, I shudder to think I along with others got sweeped up in that craze). It seemed to kickstart many small spacecraft programs as previous programs were developing spacecraft so big and expensive the designers would be dead of old age by the time their item flew.. However the mindset of that decade was downsize, increase efficiency by reducing workforce, etc. including private companies and many managers got lots of praise for these actions (i.e. can they cut lower than other managers?). I felt NASA was targeted for huge cuts anyway, even the DOD was reduced i.e. BRAC. What Dan Goldin did was reduced way down to keep NASA off the targets by congress.
“TQM” was a nefarious plot hatched in the waning days of the Cold War to unleash on China in hopes it would set them back a generation. Unfortunately they didnt take the bait but we did 🙂
Cancelling ARRM would free up a big pile of money that could be applied to other efforts
Are you old enough to remember the end of the Vietnam war? That all of a sudden funds no longer being used for the war would be a huge domestic boon? Which never happened?
I remember!
And what happened to the Peace dividend after the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War ended? Anyone seen it?
Exactly what is the current budget of ARRM?
Almost nothing is being spent on ARRM. Nobody ever really took it seriously.
I have no problems with slashing SLS, it is a complete waste of money.
Regrettably Congress has shown no inclination to do so. It isn’t a waste of money when it creates jobs in your district and when some of that money comes back to you in political contributions.
Less money? No big deal since climate research funds can be spread around for Real Science!
Sigh. Not that I want to repeat myself too much but: Donald has consistently said (one of the few consistent things he has said) that he was gonna build a BIG wall and he was gonna increase the size of the military. The U.S. is gonna pay for the wall (with some idea that Mexico will one day reimburse us, but not soon) and costs have been estimated at 20 billion.
No one has said where we could cut the budget to pay for two large expenditures – even the entire budget for foreign assistance, etc would not cover all of this new spending.
So we are looking at spending cuts to other agencies and likely more deficit spending. Where might we get money to even keep NASA funding at the same level???
Fuhrer Trump’s budget cuts for NASA earn him the hatred and disdain of every intelligent citizen who recognizes the benefits of science and man’s quest for exploration. Hopefully Trump will soon contract an extremely painful, lingering, deadly disease before he takes his place in the burning fires of hell.