You Are All Paying For Dava Newman's Personal Antarctic Sightseeing Trip
Headed to the highest, driest, windiest continent on spaceship Earth. #NASA #NSF pic.twitter.com/BXMSuUnqKo
— Dava Newman (@DavaExplorer) November 27, 2016
Keith’s note: This rather shameless Dava. Really. You are required to submit your formal resignation no later than 7 December. Your desk needs to be empty by 20 January. Yet you are on a victory lap to Antarctica at taxpayer expense – and bragging about it. Why? Will you even have enough time to write up a trip report before you head back to MIT? Enjoy the perks – while they last.
Maybe Dava will inspire young folks to do “amazing” things.
I’ve witnessed so many expensive authorized boondoggles by NASA personnel that one more doesn’t really register on my “waste, fraud, and abuse” meter anymore.
Sadly so.
No personal or institutional ethics, no self-control and absolutely no accountability. And people wonder why our country, species and future is in the mess it in, and why it will not get any better with 2 billion more people on this ball in the next 35 years. Just keep those rosy glasses on and don’t worry.
Wait a sec, Keith. This doesn’t look much like a junket; more like a ‘tag-a-long’ on an already-planned research trip. Maybe, still, a little over the top, but hardly flying first class to Fiji.
It costs taxpayers money. She has to fly on an airplane that uses fuel that costs money. Why is she going? She will be unemployed at NASA a few weeks after she gets back. If she was going to do live webcasts, blog postings, other things to benefit the public, sure. But she’s not. It is sightseeing plain and simple.
While I agree that there is no NASA reason why Newman needs to go on this trip the marginal cost of sending her is close to zero.
Depends on whether she has a role in the new administration …..
i suppose sending a Distinguished professor in biodynamics and survival systems to one of the harshest environments on the planet might be useful field experience.
And what does she do with whatever information she gains from the trip? Can she impart that knowledge back at NASA? No. She is out of a job in a few weeks. They should have sent someone who can take the information gathered on this trip and spread it across the agency.
you assume she won’t go back to her field as a research scientist, working on space suit design. I suspect with that experience she may help make better spacesuits for Mars. Not every person who helps the space program works as a civil servant.
That’s just silly. By definition fuel can cost no more than an economy class air ticket.
Why do people want to incessantly support bad human behavior? Everything is probability. What are you assigning the probability to this example? 90% worthwhile, 64/40, 50/50 or less. Where do you draw the line at bad behavior and bad examples from people in positions of power and influence and who don’t have to pay for what they do themselves? Like I said previously in this post. Sorry for the rant Keith, but!
Taxpayer expense, perhaps, but aren’t all US Antarctic science costs paid by the NSF? NASA might be in it for the mileage or taxi to IAD, but I expect that from there on out, it’s the Foundation’s nickel. And why should we make the distinction when it’s all really the taxpayer’s nickel? Because Prof. Newman is a scientist, and the Foundation may have reasons for wanting her to visit Antarctica that have nothing to do with her NASA job.
It costs taxpayer dollars – NASA and NSF. . She will be leaving NASA in a few weeks. Why not send someone who will still be working for NASA weeks from now such that they can impart the value of the trip to others in the months and years ahead? This is just a sightseeing tour for a departing NASA employee.
Any chance you think she might be working on spacesuits at MIT on a NASA grant in the future?
Are you sure this is useless Keith? Do you know how much it costs, if anything for her to go? Is she taking the spot of someone else? I’m sure she’ll write a report on her experience for NASA.
Seems to me like a lot of morale indignation on your part for no real purpose.
If I were to file a FOIA request for her trip report I can assure you that NASA would reply that no such document exists.
Go ahead and file the request, please. PS: yes, she has to submit her resignation. When she actually leaves is another matter, indeed. Dan Goldin stayed through a change of administration. And, based on reports, Dr. Newman is not considered to be a politico.
Mal you are demonstrating an amazing lack of knowledge. Dava Newman is a senate-confirmed presidential appointee. She is only there because of politics – she was screened for political compatibility before she was even nominated.
This gets a little weird. NASA versus NSF funding aside, the aircraft she is standing in front of has the name and logo of the _Italian_ Antarctic research program on it.
I’d go to if offered the opportunity. I am surprised the airplanes are all white. Sure makes them easy to lose if they disappear along the way. What happened to the days of fluorescent orange?
One non-scientific discovery of the International Geophysical Year was that things (traverse vehicles in particular) on the Antarctic ice are very hard to see from the air. I don’t remember if they tried orange, but black paint didn’t make much of a difference. Radar, on the other hand, was very effective.
Does anyone know for certain that she’s doing this on official travel, as opposed to paying for it herself? Most NASA execs get near the end of the year with lots of use-or-lose leave built up. Also I notice that the aircraft that presumably took her there belongs to the South African tourist outfit that takes tourists to Antarctica. I believe that NASA employees would be required to use US flag carriers.
Its official business – see https://www.facebook.com/13…
Distinguished visitors to receive an overview of the NSF-managed U.S. Antarctic Program
A delegation of visitors prepared to depart last weekend from New Zealand to visit U.S. #Antarctic Program stations and field camps.
Pictured are (left to right): Deborah Ball, of the National Science Board (NSB); NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman; Kelly K. Falkner, head of the NSF-managed U.S. Antarctic Program; Robert Groves, NSB; Amanda Greenwell, head of NSF’s Office of Legislative and Public Affairs; Victoria Chandler, NSB; and C. Suzanne Iacono, who heads the NSF’s Office of Integrative Activities.
Well, that raises slightly different questions. The rest of the group looks like a fairly vanilla group of managers. The sort I’d expect the NSF to send down every few years to look over and review the facilities they run. I’m not clear why they would put a NASA deputy administrator on such a review panel, but a non-NSF member would be reasonable, and she’ll have some free time to write a report in January.
John Kerry just did the same thing…totally criminal
This was also a waste of time. He’ll be packing up as well. He should have sent a career employee from State Department.
“criminal” is a poor choice of a word, IMO. Can’t we just be civil when discussing things.
It is not “criminal” – just ill advised. Besides Kerry has a system in place to relay information gathered to career State Department employees who will implement policies based (in part) on the trip -even if it was symbolic. Dava Newman is just on an adventure vacation at taxpayer expense and will be gone from NASA shortly after she returns.
I just saw on his Facebook page that Buzz Aldrin is going to Antarctica? Would he be going with this lot?
Different group…and he got medevac’d back to New Zealand.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/…