This Is NOT How You Inspire The Next Generation

1. It is amazing that even when these people talk out loud they still cant hear how amazingly ignorant their own statements are.

2. The fact is we have limited resources as a country and are borrowing tens of billions of dollars from China annually to fund our deficits. Something has to give. We cannot afford to do everything we used to do. In my opinion, NASA’s priority should be manned Mars exploration, with or without SLS. All else, including Muslim outreach, earth science, public relations, telescopes, robotic missions, airplane R&D and education are secondary. Keep assets already paid for like Hubble, ISS and Webb, but focus on Mars. We are not presently spending enough to finish SLS, just to keep the program around until it is shut tens of billions of dollars and a decade from now. If NASA does not start achieving great things again, there will be nothing to educate the public about except how this once great institution fell into disrepair and was closed just like Ringling Bros. Circus. We cannot launch humans anymore and the ISS will be splashed in seven years. There are plenty of organizations in America who can handle education. But only NASA can land humans on Mars and continue humankind’s great exploration of the universe.

   1. But we keep upping the military budget. I keep wondering when we could possibly be invaded by a foreign power to need the largest military budget on Earth; I just keep asking why? Supposedly we’re the most ethical, moral and just nation on Earth.

   2. The US national debt is held mainly by US citizens.

      And debt is not an intrinsically bad thing. Spending borrowed money foolishly on operating expenses is, however, beyond foolish. Equally, talk bandied about specifying ‘waste and fraud’ as a large portion of national expenses is equally foolish. And wrong.

      Our great country has the means and wealth to retire debt, to keep citizens healthy, to fund infrastructure, and to participate meaningfully on the world stage.

      We are not short of wealth. We are short of wisdom.

      1. When the national debt gets too large, paying the interest on it sucks up a large fraction of the government budget. I can’t see that as a good thing. I once looked up what it takes for a European country to start using the Euro as their currency. There are a couple dozen requirements for financial responsibility. Somewhat appallingly​, the US fails those criteria when it comes to government debt and deficit as a fraction of GDP. Not that we’d ever want to adopt the Euro, but it does mean we fail the test more liberal and pro-social-spending nations have set for financial responsibility.

         1. The annual interest expense on the national debt is about $250 Billion dollars. That is a scary amount of money, for sure, especially considering the paltry $19B± for NASA.

            For a budget approaching $4 Trillion, the set aside for interest payments is about 6% of the annual budget, a number that feels a little more manageable.

            The discussion about the debt is largely about what government expenditures are driving the debt, a discussion that naturally focuses on one’s conceptual goal of government.

            An oversimplification:

            Some will posit that military spending is the chief exemplar of wrong-headedness, the result of a tilted and incorrect worldview.

            Others complain that any sort of safety net exemplifies giving away our “hard earned dollars” to shiftless people too lazy to get jobs and take care of themselves; that policy is being made with emotion, not with simple logic.

            And it must be said that the debt is entirely vulnerable to reasonable and sane policies; the Clinton-Gingrich agreement, for instance, left us with no debt and money in the bank.

   3. “NASA’s priority should be manned Mars exploration”

      I disagree. Putting humans on Mars is always 20 years away as it has been for past 50 years. NASA’s priority should be develop and/or enable technologies, i.e. have people work on various things that may or may not work (like what NACA did). Also award private companies contracts (but not too much) and maintain major facilities for companies to use.

      Regarding education, have the means to share what it really takes (the hard work of getting an education) but not at expense of being forever in debt. Have something awarding, i.e. job opportunities they can choose. And programs they will feel a sense of accomplishment (instead of having it cancelled with nothing to show for it).

      Looking at the picture reminded me someone on this list said three things are needed to people to Mars. First is the Farmer, you have to compensate him to travel through his property. Second is the Committee, each member must get something of their satisfaction. Third is Tinkerbell, she will wave the magic wand and bing a few billion dollars in cash will appear.

      1. Would you agree that moving the Agency towards a goal naturally encourages the development of new technologies? That without reaching for something not immediately attainable, nothing new is invented?

         1. Goals are good but a specific goal like Journey to Mars is a strategy like Apollo. Worked great in mid 20th century but so many have tried repeating that and so far not much to show lately.

            Overall it can be difficult to say what NASA does or what it should do (rockets, astrobiology, sensors, solar radiation, flow visualization, microgravity effects on living organisms). There was a time when nobody had to ask what NASA does because everyone knew what that agency did (even if they don’t know). Like nowadays everybody knows what Google and Facebook do even if they don’t know so nobody asks what they do or what their goals are.

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