It’s the End of the Shuttle Program
And WE Are Responsible For Our Scientific Future
I’ve seen a lot of bemoaning the fate of NASA the past few days in various places online, now that the end of the Shuttle Program is nigh. It’s natural, I suppose, to be sentimental about the passing of a very visible part of NASA’s many projects. The shuttles are proud reminders of what CAN be done if we stick our minds to the idea and work of getting humans to space. But, as many of us who have grown up watching this program mature, the seeds of the end of the shuttle program were planted decades ago, with the idea that while that program grew and bore fruit, NASA would be funded enough to start working on replacement programs (like the space plane and others).We all knew that this was one step of many that it would take to explore space and the near-Earth environment — and to reap the scientific rewards that always benefit any such endeavor. And, many of us know today that the next steps are going to involve not just NASA, but the private sector working WITH the space agency, and even some overseas partners. But, it still takes funding for each leg of the tripod that holds up space science and other science research.
Well, that funding hasn’t exactly materialized. NASA’s budget is under attack from the anti-science crowd in Congress (particularly among the extremists of the right). In fact, much of the funding for science programs in our country (NOAA and others, as well as science education) is under attack from what I can only observe is an ignorant bunch intent on gutting science in favor of lower taxes for wealthy people and bailouts for Wall Street bankers who may or may not pay those back. Some of that attack is politically motivated, under the rubric of “We don’t like what the science data are telling us about global warming (or some other science), so we’re going to vote to defund weather satellites and NASA and all them other things that give us inconvenient truths.”
That’s really short-sighted and ignorant, but the folks who vote and think like this are proud of their ignorance. The rest of us are ashamed of it. Those of us who know that investments in R&D and basic science research all know that these things pay the country back in increased employment and higher standards of living for many citizens.
Voting down science research and choking the rest of its funding is a very risky strategy that will only serve to put the U.S. further back in some very important areas of science. And, it may serve to endanger U.S. citizens. The vote to defund NOAA weather satellites came just as Joplin, MO was ravaged by tornadoes. Without the satellites we have, MORE people in Joplin and surrounding areas would have died or been injured due to lack of warnings provided by our aging fleet of weather satellites. It takes a spectacular kind of science-hater and cynic to vote against something that saves lives. I hope that the congressional Republicans who voted against the satellites are in Joplin to explain their vote to the folks who suffered so much. I’d just about pay cash money to be there and watch as they try to tell the people who lost their loved ones just why predicting bad weather is something they don’t think is important, but funding tax cuts is. A tax cut benefits a few wealthy folks who probably just bank the money. A weather satellite benefits millions of people who depend on it for accurate forecasts so they can protect their lives and property. Sure seems sensible to me.
In the international arena, the votes to defund science research are hurting our standing in international-cooperation science projects. Already, some U.S. scientists have had to pull out of some vitally interesting and important projects due to lack of funding, after the U.S. promised to be a part of them. The defunding, again led by Congressional extremists, amounts to a sort of bait-and-switch action that will further erode our prestige in the world. And, I suspect that when the hue and cry FINALLY raises in the U.S. over our scientists being shut out of discoveries they worked on in the early stages, only to be yanked out of them when the going got tough, the people who voted to rescind their funding will be nowhere to be found. Or, more likely will be sitting on their verandahs sipping gin and appreciating the good money they got from lobbying against science research.
That’s what I think on my cynical days. Other days, I sigh and think that we’ve got to find people to represent us who have an ounce of sense when it comes to science and reality. I say this because, ultimately it comes down to who WE send to Washington, D.C. to represent us. And, if WE don’t care to find and send people with brains and an understanding of science and how it works, then WE are ultimately responsible for the cuts to NASA and other vitally important science and technical programs (and science education). It isn’t one president or another that has gutted our space program and funding for increased weather satellites and so forth. It’s the people WE elected to represent us, and by extension — US. Therefore, in a very real sense, it’s WE the PEOPLE who have failed our science and technological dreams, hopes and aspirations. And our children.
And so, WE have brought ourselves to this point in history where one important and special part of our space program is ramping down. We should be sentimental about it, and praise the people who built, flew, and maintained these shuttles for longer than the program was originally thought to last. But, we should also look to the future, to newer vehicles and better chances to explore our environment. It’s OUR job as voters to bring that about. If we don’t, then we get the space program we deserve.
In the meantime, I want to thank the shuttle teams and astronauts. They represent the best and brightest among us, a shining example of what Americans CAN do when we want to do it.
I stayed up late to watch the landing on my iPad. It seemed like Commander Kelly tarried a long time on the last item on his checklist. Why be in a hurry? I can imagine him sitting there thinking to himself “This is it for me. I’ll never again have this experience. Nothing can ever top this.”
They’d have to drag me kicking & screaming off the flight deck! “Rich? Are you OK? Listen, we have to go home soon, can you finish it up? Rich? Hello?”
Interesting you chose to bash a set of politicians (mostly on the right) to vent…..when in fact it was the current president perhaps more than anybody else who is responsible for gutting the latest dreams for space travel. I guess some would argue it was necessary to keep costs in line….I wouldn’t argue that point, but I can see why the president made that decision. In my mind it’s the scientists and the community they represent responsibility to articulate better to a very skeptical public what it is they are trying to achieve with these all important dollars…..I haven’t seen anybody since Sagan get out there and talk to us…the people about a passion for space and all the wonders and mysteries we want answers too. Are all of our vaunted scientists afraid to put themselves out there and be heard? Is anyone out there, shouldn’t be simply a question to the cosmos, it should be directed at perhaps this blogger and many others. I’m 45 years old with many passions about space, space travel, the science etc…I don’t work in this field but I’m very interested in the fields….I cannot say with more disappointment than I feel about what has happened to the lack of adventure those in the decision making process have for the advancement of the human race to the outer reaches of this planet….I am indeed…what you would call ‘to the right’….I probably don’t know as much about these fields of study as yourself….but I guarantee you there are millions of us on the right and left who want to see a mission to mars….a human mission to mars and beyond in our lifetimes. For you to essentially put the argument along left/right lines does this endeavor no good. Tell your fellow scientists to get out there….articulate a message….do something instead of sitting behind a keyboard and complaining about it. I’m not just talking to you…I’m venting to the whole community, your a good writer with good insight….just using your forum to…..well….complain….lol
Sincerely
Mark
Thank you for writing.
The current president inherited a huge mess from the past president and his ilk, plus the faint-hearted dreams that Bush had of “going to the Moon” (without requisite funding), not to mention a couple of wars that began in Republican administrations, but were left for the rest of us to pay.
But, getting back to space: in my “rant” I point out that the loss of the shuttle program was pre-programmed from the beginning; we knew it wouldn’t last forever. Every president since Ford, essentially, could have done something to move along a replacement program. But, they didn’t. Including Clinton.
I am casting the aspersions on the right wing, mostly, because it seems to have the highest number of “leaders” who cannot see beyond narrow partisan and theistic politics and who are gutting our science reseach programs (NOT just NASA, but many others) out of some perceived hatred (or fear) of the results of learning more about our planet and our universe. The record is pretty clear.
And, it’s not just up to scientists and engineers to push our politicians toward some sensibility. We are ALL culpable and complicit in the downward spiral of research and science education in this country because WE the people keep voting in these folks who have a narrow agenda against science and FOR forced religion and other social-agenda things that have no place in a free and expanding society. If you want some action, you as a voter, as a citizen in this country, have the opportunity and responsibility to make it happen. Don’t wait for a Sagan or me or whomever to step up. That’s a losing game.
BE the action you want to see happen.
Otherwise, you and I and anyone else who hangs back and waits for somebody else to take action is contributing (negatively) to the future we want to see.
I am not exactly a lefty — I am moderate to somewhat conservative in financial matters (comes with being a business owner, I suppose). But, I am fairly to the left socially. Not exactly a progressive or a libertarian — I do think that our social contract means that we take care of those in need, but we don’t favor the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and poor, and we don’t reward stupid action on Wall Street (gutting our pensions, for example), with bonuses. That’s as bad as the “government handouts” the righties keep whining about when someone who needs help looks to government FOR help. (And, I always find it interesting that when something bad happens in their districts, those same folks who whine are the first ones to line up for government help.)
If it’s okay to help corporations with tax cuts and let churches go scot-free and not pay taxes on their massive real-estate holdings (while jacking up everybody else’s to compensate), then by golly, it’s okay to help people with the same health care that our vaunted representatives get, it’s okay to help people at the low end of the wealth spectrum. It’s okay to decently fund education FOR ALL, and it’s okay to be a bit more liberal and understanding that our society is a free and open one and not one where one theocracy and one narrow political agenda reigns and oppresses all others.
I may be bashing one set of politicians, but their records and actions are clear: they deserve the oppobrium they get from me and anyone else who sees the hypocrisy they promulgate in the guise of “representing” us. If it were Democrats doing as much as the Right has done, I’d be equally disgusted. I am not a registered party member, and I used to say that I’d vote for good people of either side, but I’ll be darned if I can find anyone to like on the right side of the aisle. There may be some good ones, but they’re not raising their heads above the fray these days… and who can blame them? The extremists have taken over their party.
I agree with you about the disappointment in the timid decision-making that goes on, etc. I want that mission to Mars, too, more than you can possibly imagine. The benefits that would flow from the R&D that it would generate are probably imagineable, but barely. It’s the act of moving forward into the future with boldness, instead of clinging to the outmoded thought patterns of the past that attracts me. And, those bold moves pay off big for whomever makes them.
When I spoke of science programs in the U.S. being lost, and taken up by other countries, I know of at least two in astronomy, but I am sure they are across the board. It is a huge disappointment to those scientists to see their work go overseas, to be built upon by others who didn’t do the groundwork, but who will benefit from it in terms of research rewards and acclaim. I know some of these people personally — they didn’t deserve to have their life’s work go away on the whim of a right-leaning Congress… members of whom yell about jobs, but don’t realize that their actions are gutting future jobs from the market. How American is that? Letting your best and brightest languish due to fear of science? To ignorance? It’s a waste. And, it disappoints me that more Democrats and left-of-center politicians do NOT stand up for a brighter future. Some do — many more so than the right — but not enough.
I’ll echo your closing sentiments — and challenge YOU to tell your fellow righties and lefties and whomevers — to get out there and articulate what you want to your senators and congresscritters. Again, don’t wait for me or anybody else to do it. You have a role in getting us to Mars, too. You (general you, not just to you personally) have only yourself to blame if we don’t get where we need to be. Change doesn’t start just with a Sagan or me or whomever. It starts with you, too.
Thanks for writing. I don’t think you and I are terribly far apart on many things.
A lot to respond to, again though much of your response is an opinion about why the funding isn’t there currently, not exactly new to anyone concerned with the bit and pieces of history, it’s your blog and I will not want to pollute it with political argument any more, suffice to say there is in fact another set of opinions to counteract yours about how much was inherited and in what manner…I’ll leave it at that because clearly their will be no minds changed from this endeavor. The fact is since Apollo (and maybe a few bits of time in between) there has been no grand vision, no clear cut goals, other than perhaps the construction of a space station, that for me at least was not as bold as we should have gone. Bush (and let’s be clear, I’m no big fan of his) at least set a goal (or at least that’s what I got out of it) of achieving something along the lines of human adventure to mars. Kennedy did the same, he didn’t fund it personally obviously since he never made it to see it’s fruition but he at least put it out there. We all know why, it wasn’t some sort of passionate plea to eventually reach the stars…it was a race with the soviets to see which govt was better….bush’s outline was born out tragedy, no visionary himself….to me it doesn’t matter how ideas are developed or quite frankly who does it….but somebody with great oratory skill needs to take a leadership role in the science community and be that household name. It wont be a politician in this political climate…and nor it should be in my very humble opinion. Anyway, I don’t really know what I was trying to start with my post to your article, just reacting a little, I certainly didn’t intend to start a poitical firestorm. Really what you and I think about politics is pretty irrelevant to the points being made…which I guess I believe we are in agreement on. Just as an aside…and in response to your msg from your last post…I do actually take into consideration a person views on these types of issues before voting….I do my best in attempts to support people who could do something about giving the ‘astonomic’
Sorry, the iPad went crazy there and completed my thoughts for me…..
“community a nibble”
Mark
I don’t have an iPad, but I do have a PC that sometimes completes thoughts for me, especially when the cat sits on the keyboard. 😉
A space agency that shifts to robotic exploration rather than human exploration can save lots of cash. NASA didn’t get stripped, it got restructured.
There’s no hiccup in the space agency.
I didn’t say there was. However, NASA is being eyed for more gutting by budgeteers, and some of that robotic stuff you love may also get gutted.