Larry Dighera wrote:


Well, if some Texas cowboy hadn't squandered the federal surplus he
inherited from the Clinton administration, there'd be adequate funding
for science and education. :-)


This is an utterly ridiculous statement. The amount spent by NASA is tiny -
miniscule. Double tiny and you still have tiny.

Bush, through the Fed coordinator, just submitted a request for 4.2 billion
for Katrina:

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=5426

And he'll most likely get it. All of which shows that if the will exists to
spend the money, the money can be found. This is true for the Space program
and science and as well. $4.2 gig is about a quarter of the NASA budget.

There's a whole flamewar all unto itself regarding the dollars spent for
education but I point out one fact to you:

the US spends the most per student and we get the mediocre results.

Fact is that there isn't the political will to spend 20, 40 50 billion more
on the space program. Neither in the public nor the government.

Besides, NASA isn't the place to spend that. And as a Disclaimer I work on a
NASA project: The CHANDRA X-Ray Orbiting Observatory. I don't work for
NASA, but the Smithsonian Institution Center for Astrophysics.

NASA was at it's best when it was NACA - researching, Demo'ing, and
proofing technological ideas and hardware. Then letting other institutions
(including private) use the technology. This was synergistic: private
capital wasn't sunk into risky technological research, and NASA wasn't
managing projects more efficiently managed by private institutions. But I
admit, this is my opinion only.

No sensible business would have kept the Shuttle going after it failed, at
the outset, to deliver the performance. And especially not the safety.

So spending billions on a NASA-based space program is, in my opinion,
wasteful. And I'm talking as one who would like to see Constellation-X fly
someday (project just got stretched out).

There's hope though:

We are seeing a replay of the 20's and 30's. there's work on rocket powered
air racing; the X-prize was won and Diamandis is working on another more
lofty (pun intended) goal. This is one way aviation technology leaped
ahead in the past, and how space technology may leap ahead in the future.
Note that these are private enterprises.