Transterrestrial Musings

Front Page
Archive

Reader's Favorites
Media Casualties Mount

Administration Split On Europe Invasion

Administration In Crisis Over Burgeoning Quagmire

Congress Concerned About Diversion From War On Japan

Pot, Kettle On Line Two...

Allies Seize Paris

The Natural

Gore Book Sales Tank, Supporters Claim Unfair Tactics

Satan Files Lack Of Defamation Suit

Why This Blog Bores People With Space Stuff

A New Beginning

My Hit Parade
Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds)
Tim Blair
James Lileks Bleats
Virginia Postrel
Kausfiles
Winds Of Change (Joe Katzman)
Little Green Footballs (Charles Johnson)
Samizdata
Eject Eject Eject (Bill Whittle)

Space
Alan Boyle (MSNBC)
Space Politics (Jeff Foust)
Space Transport News (Clark Lindsey)
NASA Watch
NASA Space Flight
Hobby Space
A Voyage To Arcturus (Jay Manifold)
Dispatches From The Final Frontier (Michael Belfiore)
Personal Spaceflight (Jeff Foust)
Mars Blog
The Flame Trench (Florida Today)
Space Cynic
Rocket Forge (Michael Mealing)
COTS Watch (Michael Mealing)
Curmudgeon's Corner (Mark Whittington)
Selenian Boondocks
Tales of the Heliosphere
Out Of The Cradle
Space For Commerce (Brian Dunbar)
True Anomaly
Kevin Parkin
The Speculist (Phil Bowermaster)
Spacecraft (Chris Hall)
Space Pragmatism (Dan Schrimpsher)
Eternal Golden Braid (Fred Kiesche)
Carried Away (Dan Schmelzer)
Laughing Wolf (C. Blake Powers)
Chair Force Engineer (Air Force Procurement)
Spacearium
Saturn Follies
JesusPhreaks (Scott Bell)

Science
Nanobot (Howard Lovy)
Lagniappe (Derek Lowe)
Geek Press (Paul Hsieh)
Gene Expression
Carl Zimmer
Redwood Dragon (Dave Trowbridge)
Charles Murtaugh
Turned Up To Eleven (Paul Orwin)
Cowlix (Wes Cowley)
Quark Soup (Dave Appell)

Economics/Finance
Assymetrical Information (Jane Galt and Mindles H. Dreck)
Marginal Revolution (Tyler Cowen et al)
Man Without Qualities (Robert Musil)
Knowledge Problem (Lynne Kiesling)

Journoblogs
The Ombudsgod
Cut On The Bias (Susanna Cornett)
Joanne Jacobs

The Funny Pages
Cox & Forkum
Day By Day
Iowahawk
Happy Fun Pundit
Jim Treacher
IMAO
The Onion
Amish Tech Support (Lawrence Simon)
Scrapple Face (Scott Ott)

Inadvertent Comic Relief
Warblogger Watcher (Cowardly Anonymous Idiotarians)

Space Policy Links
Space Future
The Space Review
The Space Show
Space Frontier Foundation
Space Policy Digest BBS

AWOL
USS Clueless (Steven Den Beste)
Media Minder
Unremitting Verse (Will Warren)
World View (Brink Lindsay)
The Last Page
More Than Zero (Andrew Hofer)
Pathetic Earthlings (Andrew Lloyd)
Spaceship Summer (Derek Lyons)
The New Space Age (Rob Wilson)
Rocketman (Mark Oakley)
Mazoo

Site designed by

Biting Commentary about Infinity, and Beyond!

« Israel Is Figuring It Out | Main | NASA's Culture Of Denial »

Ad Astra, Sans NASA (Continued)

I haven't really commented on C. Blake Powers' proposal to abolish NASA. I don't necessarily disagree, but I don't think that it's politically realistic. However, he's certainly not alone, and Leonard David has a report from the Telluride Tech Festival a couple of weeks ago, at which apparently many people called for it.

Part of the problem is that many who are calling for it now (e.g., Bruce Murray, Lew Branscomb) have always been opposed to the Shuttle and station, and the manned spaceflight program in general, so their calls look like simple political opportunism. Freeman Dyson has a little more credibility, as a long-time proponent of space settlements. But they're all scientists, and we need to get out of the mode of relying on scientists for advice about space policy. Unfortunately, we remain mired in the false association of civil space with science exclusively.

The real problem, of course, is that the political imperatives behind NASA have very little to do with actual accomplishments in space. Abolishing, or even restructuring the agency would break many rice bowls, in the districts and states of very powerful congressmen and Senators.

The most frustrating thing to me, of course, is that we continue to discuss what to do with NASA without having the more fundamental discussion of what we're trying to achieve. Everyone (including the scientists in Leonard's article) simply assumes that they already know that, and are just trying to come up with a solution, when they're not even asking the right questions.

Posted by Rand Simberg at August 26, 2003 09:39 AM

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.transterrestrial.com/mt-diagnostics.cgi/1645

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference this post from Transterrestrial Musings.

CAIB Report on Colombia
Excerpt: Ad Astra: and if we rely on NASA, we will have to walk. The CAIB report concludes that while NASA's present Space Shuttle is not inherently unsafe, a number of mechanical fixes are required to make the Shuttle safer in...
Weblog: e-Claire
Tracked: August 26, 2003 11:52 AM

CAIB Report on Columbia
Excerpt: Ad Astra: and if we rely on NASA, we will have to walk. The CAIB report concludes that while NASA's present Space Shuttle is not inherently unsafe, a number of mechanical fixes are required to make the Shuttle safer in...
Weblog: e-Claire
Tracked: August 26, 2003 11:53 AM

Comments

CAIB report completely failed to touch on fundamental questions.
Their main recommendations according to CNN:

"A national commitment to manned space flight"
Like national commitment to build elevators .. to go where ?

"Adequate funding of NASA's safety system to ensure a higher level of reliability"
Oh yeah, throwing more money at the problem will definitely help.

"Creation of a new overall safety program"
Like giving a new name to a program ? OSP vs SLI ?

"Development of an orbital space plane to replace the shuttle"
Now that is going to open the skies. At a minimum launch cost of 100+ million due to ELV launch. All while russians are offering 20M rides _right now_.

In short, nothing about whats really wrong with space policy. Patch the embarassing stuff ASAP, otherwise keep going as usual.

Posted by at August 26, 2003 01:52 PM

To be fair, I think that a restructuring of space policy is above the CAIB's pay grade. That's something for the White House and Congress (and in an ideal world, the American people) to decide. But I do still hold out a slim hope that the release of this report will result in a serious discussion of why we have a space program, and what NASA's purpose is. That's a conversation that hasn't really taken place since 1958.

Posted by Rand Simberg at August 26, 2003 02:04 PM

"But I do still hold out a slim hope that the release of this report will result in a serious discussion of why we have a space program, and what NASA's purpose is. That's a conversation that hasn't really taken place since 1958."

You're an optimist. I see no reason why the report would change anything, after all it doesnt bring anything new to the table. This discussion hasnt come to pass in past months, xcept on some forgotten corners of usenet, why would it now ?
My projections: reformatted bueraucracy, some changed logos and names in some departments, some budget shuffling. Return to business as usual ASAP. Perhaps "safety" as an added buzzword in each press realease and internal document. 'Til next time.

Posted by at August 26, 2003 02:56 PM

xpbcoj qyak tmzn hstu mouhjxk rjgoif ijvokr

Posted by tregq rlbpym at November 10, 2006 07:07 AM

xpbcoj qyak tmzn hstu mouhjxk rjgoif ijvokr

Posted by tregq rlbpym at November 10, 2006 07:07 AM

zfpbmqv apev imzbeln cajo axwtv zmyurf fxwt

Posted by wrcyikvx ycaitrmwu at December 1, 2006 03:24 PM