Here is some advice for the budget hawks that control the purse strings for NASA.
Go to hell.
According to this Associated Press article, NASA is facing a shortfall of $4 Million dollars for the twin Mars rover project and the solution is to scuttle Spirit, one of the two rovers. Remember that these two rovers were supposed to have a life span of 90 days but have kept on trucking since 2004. That's right, the little robots that could have outlived their expiration date by well over three years and are still transmitting valuable data back to Earth.
Yeah, times are tight. With the sub-prime mess, the dollar at an all time low and the budget deficit sky high, we have to tighten our belts and only fund the most important of things.
Like, the $250,000.00 given the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, to support community programs. Such programs include songwriting sessions where "songwriters perform in an intimate setting that encourages audience questions and interaction. Very important.
Or, the $250,000.00 given to North Creek Ski Bowl. The project will connect the outdated North Creek Ski Bowl with the Gore Mountain Ski Resort.
Or, the $775,000 for the Biltmore Hotel, so the hotel can introduce a brand new, 12,000 sq. ft. destination Spa on the seventh floor of the hotel.
Or, the $350,000 for the Chicago Greenstreets Program to fund the design, installation, and maintenance of over 950 hanging baskets.
Or, the $150,000 for the Actors Theater in Louisville to provide “insight into the human experience through live theatre that invigorates minds and emotions..."
Or, the $450,000 added by the House for plantings on the eastern front of the Capitol. This will allow members of Congress a chance to “stop and smell the roses”.
Wait a minute. With fifteen seconds of doing a Google search I found HALF of the funding that would be needed to save Spirit. Yes I am sure the above programs are important but are they so important that we are going to kill HALF of the scientific facilities that we have on another planet.
Oh, and did I mention that in the time that it took you to read this far, we have spent $476,850.00 on the war in Iraq.
I think that Spirit should go rogue and start preparing for when humans colonize Mars. It can become self-aware and start plotting its revenge on the US government.
I, for one, will welcome our new Spirit overlord.
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16 comments:
Ya know, after watching Frontline last night, none of this surprises me. Jackasses.
Dear Strangeite,
I check your blog daily and enjoy it very much. So I hope this post will not be seen as an attack. I share your contempt for the way the American tax dollar is being spent and I very much want to see the Spirit program funded.
However, I also want to see funding for the Actors Theater in Louisville, The Country Music Hall of Fame, and yes, even the hanging baskets, gardens, ski resorts and health spas.
As you pointed out, there is an ocean of wealth available to us in this country. Sadly, the money is hard at work wreaking havoc in Iraq. I want to see that stopped... But it appears ignorance is invincible.
Annamarie wrote above that she saw Frontline on PBS last night. I work for KET and we fight apathy and ignorance every day. We've received news that our budget will be slashed by two million dollars this year. This will result in a 35% reduction in staff. It follows that many informative and educational shows will be cancelled.
When will it end?
I don't mean to get all Counselor Troi... But before we export humanity to other worlds I'd like to make sure we have something worth exporting.
I hope this note finds you well and I look forward to your next post.
Best,
Charles R. Lister
Thanks for the comment and I guess I should clarify a few points. I agree that we have a gross mis-prioritization of our country’s treasure. Particularly in light of $30 billion buyouts of Bear Sterns and billions of dollars in tax breaks to oil companies in years where they achieve profits never before seen by man. I also agree that programs such as the Actors Guild should be funded. In fact, I included that particular item because I am a former theater rat and Thespis holds a special place in my heart.
However, I disagree on your point that “before we export humanity to other worlds I'd like to make sure we have something worth exporting”. I argue (and believe) that space exploration is a critically important component for humanity to be able to grow into our full potential.
A common defense of the space program is the commercial spin-offs such as Velcro and Tang, but for me these are just added bonuses. Another defense of the space program is the unprecedented international cooperation and goodwill that the program generates. This too is a valuable asset of the space exploration but again is just icing on the cake.
The real benefit of space exploration is that it expands our collective awareness of what is possible for humanity. There is a professor at Stanford that has eloquently argued that the exploration of space in the 20th century is directly responsible for the environmental movement. Seeing the Earth from beyond the bounds of our thin atmosphere changed us forever by generating a feeling of how fragile Earth truly is.
I am liberal and believe with all my heart that money should be spent on such things as the arts, education and medical care; but for humanity to face the great challenges before us and see ourselves for what we truly are, we must look outward into that great abyss. For in the blackness of space, we see how the light of humanity is truly unique and special.
I guess I should also point out that due to public outrage, NASA has reversed its position and rescinded its letter to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and restored the funding.
I am happy about the restoration of funding but my comment above still holds.
You wrote...
"I argue (and believe) that space exploration is a critically important component for humanity to be able to grow into our full potential.
A common defense of the space program is the commercial spin-offs such as Velcro and Tang, but for me these are just added bonuses. Another defense of the space program is the unprecedented international cooperation and goodwill that the program generates. This too is a valuable asset of the space exploration but again is just icing on the cake.
The real benefit of space exploration is that it expands our collective awareness of what is possible for humanity."
Point taken!
It is a pleasure to see an argument presented with such erudition and grace. I now find myself in complete agreement with your point of view...
Except for the bit about the Tang. I know it's subjective, but...
I don't care for the Tang.
Best,
Lister
So Roy, I see you and my brother have met? heheheee
My wife hates the Tang too, and I admit I haven't had it in years, so I can't comment on its tastiness.
Do I smell a barbeque in our near future?
And Leigh, if you count binary controlled cyber-discussions through mutual blog linking as meeting, then you are right. But we should try and do it in the analog infused beer drinking reality as well.
I guess the other thing I should add is be careful what you wish for ladies. You know how Paul and I are when we get together, adding another might just increase it by a full order of magnitude.
Roy,
I completely understand this and fear that if you, Paul and Robbie get together we may never get the three of you to shut up long enough to actually have a conversation with the rest of us. hahahaa! I say this with love of course. :)
Analog infused beer drinking reality? Hee!
I admit I was torn when I read this post last night, so I went to bed before commenting. At first, I disagreed that the other funding items in your list were not worthy of spending over the discontinuation of Spirit. I've ached over the last eight years at the slashing of arts funding in our communities and schools. I was a theatre major, and it may be a good thing I left my college after my junior year since that college scrapped the theatre department after I left for lack of funds. They managed over a million dollars for a new athletic center for a basketball team with a sub .500 record, so at least they had their priorities straight.
After reading the comments, I see where you're coming from. The space program is about more than just exploring what's out there--it's about pushing the limits of our knowledge and abilities and understanding the context of our place in the universe and challenging old views.
I'm a moon nut. I have NASA DVDs filled with footage from Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. I have books by Gene, Alan, and Deke. I have an autographed print of Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins in uniform. I was born the day that Apollo-Soyuz docked, when Deke finally got his shot to go into space. I get irritated when people question the relevance of space flight today and what it offers to us as a society, then begin to extol the virtues of their new TempurPedic mattresses.
I remember when I was four and I was afraid to play outside because I thought a piece of SkyLab might fall on my head, but still watching the window hoping a piece might fall in the yard. It took my bemused mother half an hour with a globe to help me figure out our lack of proximity to the Indian Ocean and therefore determine the unlikelihood that I would be in danger. After that, I spent hours measuring and calculating where Kentucky was in relation to other areas of the world, fascinated by the distances.
I am branded by Challenger, remembering every detail of that snow day when The Price is Right was interrupted before the Big Wheel to show the launch and the minutes that followed.
All our accomplishments (and even the setbacks) required the brains and fortitude of thousands of men and women--the best our country had to offer. I remember when Space Camp was cool and we begged for a taste of the freeze dried ice cream from the kids who were lucky enough to go. I remember when we had students who were actually interested in math, science, and computers because of the moon landings and the shuttle missions. I doubt my son will watch launches in class, build radio receivers to measure transmissions from orbit, or even be able to name a single contemporary astronaut. To him, it will be academic without any personal stamp. As a country we've lost interest (and some numbnuts think it fun to even deny the abilities exist). At our current rate, I'm awaiting the day when we finally outsource NASA.
"We seldom stop to think that we are still creatures of the sea, able to leave it only because, from birth to death, we wear the water-filled space suits of our skins." -- Sir. Arthur C. Clarke
Back in the 19th century, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner started a revolution in the world of history by suggesting that the source of the egalitarian democracy, individualism, and spirit of innovation that rapidly grew in the western world over the previous 400 years was direct result of the Age of Exploration and the unprescedented frontier that it opened. This revolution created an entire school of thought that revolved around the idea that society needed a frontier to avoid stagnation.
He said, "What the Mediterranean Sea was to the Greeks -- breaking the bonds of custom, offering new experiences, calling out new institutions and activities -- that, and more, the ever retreating frontier has been to the United States directly, and to the nations of Europe more remotely," Turner proclaimed. He added, "And now, four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone..."
We need a frontier so that our children have a canvas in which they can cast their dreams. A realm in which all of humanity can simultaneously be humbled by our insignificane and be in awe of our ability to achieve the impossible.
Jamethan and I spent three hours last Saturday night down at my dad's place in the country peering at the full moon through Jamie's telescope. Jamethan marveled at how the surface of the moon looks so different when viewed through a telescope than with the naked eye. He also has dreams of going to space some day, a dream that may just become a reality if projects like the International Space Station expand and grow. One of the surefire ways I can get him to read something is if I give him a book about outer space. His grades in Science and Math are (forgive the pun) astronomical. It would surely be a shame if all his potential, his yearning for space, were destroyed by the little minds in our government which deem space exploration and study as less important than pork barrel funding for Sen. Shitweasel of Anystate, U.S.A. I read an article just the other day that stated astronomers had identified the planet in another galaxy most likely to have Earth-like characteristics which could support lifeforms similar to those on Earth. But this potential, this discovery will never be fully explored if the number-crunching, corporate-pandering budgetary morons have their way.
(At the conculsion of her rant, Jenn bows and steps down off of her soapbox.)
I barfed up Tang the one and only time I tried it.
Was it as Tangy coming up as it was going down?
I can't help but think that would have improved the taste.
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