Category Archives: politics

The Money Isn’t Spent on Mars

It’s Spent Right Here

NASA workers at JPL, awaiting results from the Stardust-NExT mission. Courtesy NASA/USTREAM.

Take a look at that image on the left. What do you see? Yes, you see people. They are working at and FOR NASA on a space mission.  They are educated. They spend their paychecks on their homes, groceries, cars, electronics, clothes, and all the other things they have in their daily lives. They also pay taxes, which go for things like fire protection, police protection, education, street paving, and all the other things that government provides with our tax money.They aren’t in jail. They aren’t causing trouble.

I think this is a point lost on Democratic Representative (NY) Antony Weiner, who is proposing to raid NASA funding to pay for a community policing program. His thinking?  He said that the money he wants isn’t going to get spent on Mars. And so, he wants NASA to pay for a program that has nothing to do with science or exploration. This isn’t about whether policing is important — clearly it is. It’s about mugging NASA to pay police.

I have news for you, Representative Weiner. There isn’t any money being spent ON Mars.  The money NASA gets IS spent right here on Earth.  It pays people’s salaries. It boosts R&D. It boosts EDUCATION.  NASA technology gets recycled into things like medical advances and communications devices. Some of the money that NASA people get paid is recycled into property taxes, income taxes, and other fees that should be coming back to things like community policing — which are important parts of what COMMUNITIES need and do.  Isn’t community policing something that is funded by the community?  If so, why are you taking FEDERAL funding and funneling into something your community should be paying for out of its tax revenues? If your community policing program isn’t getting the right kind of money, perhaps it’s time to look at how the money that should have been coming to it from taxes, etc. is being spent.

NASA is not the place to gouge out money for such things. I suggest that the more you cut NASA, the LESS there will be in tax revenues coming in from people whose salaries come from NASA, from the educational programs that NASA inspires. And, when education fails and tax monies don’t come in… well, I suspect unemployment will cause crime rates to soar and you WILL need that community policing program. And a lot more stopgap measures to deal with an underpaid, undereducated population. Is that what you want? If so, it’s the consequence you are choosing by taking the action of nibbling at NASA’s budget for something your own state and city should be paying for.  Because, take away NASA and science funding and you’re taking away one of the few things that inspires children and adults to further their education and lot in life.  Yes, NASA is all that and more.

It’s understandable that the “gentleman” from NY wants to get a bigger piece of the pie for his constituents.  In the absence of any leadership from the White House (or the Democratic Party for that matter) in terms of saving NASA funding, it’s easy to see why he and the packs of budget dogs are nipping at NASA. It’s low-hanging fruit. It’s easy to gut. It’s easy to make fun of. It’s easy to stir up the masses who are afraid of science by pointing at NASA and its accomplishments and calling them “ungodly” or anti-religion or anti-human or the other things that wingers usually use to demonize what they don’t understand.

But, that low-hanging fruit is the seed corn this nation needs to move forward technologically and scientifically. Oh, and medically. And financially. Cutting NASA is like a family stopping car payments for ideological reasons, thus leaving the breadwinners unable to get to work anymore to earn the money to feed the family. They may feel like they’ve made a political point, but they had to cut off their nose to spite their faces. Makes NO sense.

When NASA is gone, where will Weiner and the bi-partisan jackals turn next for money for their pet projects?  I shudder to think, but I can surmise that defense, faith-based “initiatives” and other right-wing boondoggles will not suffer the same cuts.

So what, you say.  Well, think about this. NASA gets less than 1 percent of the federal budget.  It costs you, me, everybody, a few pennies PER YEAR. And for those pennies, we get an incredible amount of science, education, medical, and developmental stimulus.  NASA money comes back at a rate many times what we pay into it, from investment in new products, educational achievements, to  increased access to technology that powers our nation. NASA grants to research are spread across all states, paying the salaries of people in universities, colleges, education centers, and many other places.  So, it’s not just at a few NASA centers. It’s across the country. And we all lose when NASA is gutted by snarling jackals tearing at it for a few pennies to fund their pet projects.

Where is the leadership on this?  I am reasonably certain that the Republicans will NOT be leading us to improve science, R&D and education in this country — given by the evidence of their current actions to gut NASA. That such raids on NASA are now coming from the Democratic side of the aisle is a disappointing development.  They’re forcing us to eat the seed corn, and when it’s all gone, we’ll have nothing left to show for it.

We’re Losing Our Skies and our Inspiration

and our Future Scientists

I got to go out and see the Perseids last night into the wee hours this morning.  We saw about 100 meteor flashes and flares in the sky suring the 2.5 hours we were out there gazing up at the starry sky.  Not only were the flashes spectacular in many instances, but I just found the whole experience of staring at the stars to be inspirational and touching.  I wonder how many other people got to do the same thing?  I hope a lot of you did, but knowing how the weather has been in some places, and the great amount of light pollution that a LOT of people have to contend with, it’s a sure bet that a lot of people didn’t get to look up.

Let’s talk about that light pollution for a little bit.  Below is a map of the region where I  live.  You don’t need an advanced degree in physics or rocket science to see that light pollution is oozing across the landscape like a disease. I’m on the edge of a yellow zone, meaning I have some sky glow to my east.  People in the red and yellow are inundated with unnecessary light. It’s robbing them of the stars, affecting their health, and costing them a LOT of money to light up the sky.  That’s money that could be better spent on other things — but humans seem to insist on lighting up space to show that we have money to burn.  I don’t get it.

The ooze of light pollution over Colorado. Courtesy Dark Sky Finder.

Now, look at the next map. It’s a light pollution map on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Specifically, it’s centered on Arlington, Virginia.  You will see pretty quickly that people living near the seat of power in this country also have brightly lit skies. The white areas mean an almost whited-out sky.  A view of the stars is pretty rare out there — I’ve been there, and sometimes we were lucky to see the brightest ones. You can imagine what growing up in such a star-less environment does for people who might be interested in the science of astronomy.  Not much.

Light pollution oozing over the Virginia area in the Eastern U.S. Courtesy Dark Sky Finder.

Do we need all this light?  Are we such a wealthy species that we have fed and clothed everybody, that everybody has a great place to live with fresh water and abundant educational opportunities that we can NOW afford to burn oil and electricity to send megawatts of light energy to space?  I think you know the answer to that.

Can we learn a way to harness that light and direct it to WHERE it’s needed and away from the skies?

Of course we can.  It is a matter of using light properly — and efficiently to guarantee our safety at the same time we save money and the environment.

This is something that the International Dark-Sky Association is dedicated to teaching about.  Not only can cities and towns — and yes, even individuals — save money by using proper lighting, but we can make a stab at getting our skies back.  All of us need those skies — for inspiration, sure — and for science — but also for our health.  Check out IDA to find out why.  You might be inspired to take action.  If you’d like to see what the light pollution levels are at your place, check out the Dark Sky Finder page. It will amaze you at how much light is “oozing” out across the landscape and skies in YOUR area.

So, speaking of inspiration, I mentioned above that watching the skies last night and this morning was inspirational.  I got my start in astronomy as a kid because I COULD go out and watch the sky — and wonder about those pinpoints of light and the vastness of space.  It’s a heritage that we all deserve. But, some kids aren’t getting that heritage anymore.  This is, in fact, why I chose the Arlington, Virginia area as an example.

The David Brown Planetarium is threatened with closure -- denying students in light-polluted Arlington, VA, the inspiration of a starry sky.

It’s in the center of a huge area of light pollution.  Worse, the school administration in that area is threatening to close the Brown Planetarium — a center of excellence in science education, particularly in astronomy. This is a place that has been an inspiration to students who can’t study the stars from their backyards — a place that encourages students to study science with an eye toward helping them understand more about their world and the cosmos. Yet, for reasons that are vaguely stated about “saving money”, this place is being threatened with closure because administrators don’t seem to think that the inspirational aspect of a science education is important.  The planetarium has been reduced to begging for money on a Facebook page.

In addition to being inspired by the real stars when I was a kid, I had that inspiration rekindled when I visited the nearby planetarium facilities.  I ended up working in one for a while before going back to study astronomy in college.  But, while at the planetarium, I learned a valuable lesson:  our mentor, the late Jim Sharp, inculcated in us that the planetarium is a medium of inspiration… and of course, it needs to be said again and again that inspiration often is a powerful motivator of education, as well. Closing planetariums in order to hire more adminstrators or teach to tests is cutting off the inspiration that feeds education for a short term gain. In the long term, school districts that omit inspiration (and music and art) are only feeding their own future failures. And have no one to blame but themselves.

This sort of thing inspires me to ask just what the heck the administrators of that district are spending taxpayer dollars on — if not for education, and science education in particular.  Perhaps they only see “teaching to the test” as “education”… but generations of us who grew up KNOWING that science can be fun and inspirational know better.  We were inspired by the sky — and our visits to planetariums. We helped expand NASA and science outreach and science education as we grew up. In my work over the years, I’ve talked to countless astronauts, scientists, engineers, and even doctors, who cited their interest in astronomy and visits to the planetarium as one of the factors that influenced them to stay with science and contribute to our country’s scientific advances.

So, why are watching a new generation of administrators, bowing to ignorance and political pressure, shutting down planetariums and science centers (and music and art programs) to “save money”?  (Interestingly, they always seem to find enough money to hire more administrators, send administrators on boondoggle trips, fund sports programs that don’t exactly lend themselves to education, and so on).  Why do we have a generation of leaders in Washington, D.C. who don’t seem to “get” that science and inspiration go hand in hand?

Where’s the inspiration in a closed planetarium?  In teaching to the test? In closing programs that actually HELP students learn?  We’re losing our stars in the sky — is this why administrators in Arlington are now actively working to shut down the stars on a dome?  Not very inspirational, is it?

We are facing a huge gap of science-literate people in the United States. Every day I read comments online from people who don’t have a clue about basic science principles — and who demonstrate just why our educational system needs MORE science teachers and science inspiration, not less.  We have just heard today about pathways for astronomy and astrophysics exploration in the next decade. Yet, I wonder who’s going to do that work?  Who are the people who will be the doctors and physicists and trained technical people that we as a society need to help us advance?  If we keep closing off avenues for science education and inspiration, where are our future leaders going to learn these things? Will we even have home-grown science and technology experts?  Good questions.

As Neil deGrasse Tyson put it in his closing remarks about the 2010 Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics this morning, “Who are we to complain later that STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields are not being populated?”

We can’t, if we keep closing the avenues of inspiration  — access to our skies, NASA, our museums, and our planetariums — that feed our future scientists.