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Has NASA lost its way?


Ed Cesnalis

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When NASA's mandate changed its primary objectives to include "... to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science...and math and engineering."  I was beyond skeptical

 

Fast forward to today:

 

NASA is supposed to build machines that launch into space, not structures that stay grounded on Earth and send spending into the stratosphere.

But that is exactly what is happening this year as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration  completes the $350 million rocket-engine testing A-3 tower at its research facility in Mississippi. There is just one problem: The space exploration agency doesn’t want it.

 

“Because the Constellation Program was cancelled in 2010 the A-3’s unique testing capabilities will not be needed and the stand will be mothballed upon completion,” NASA’s internal watchdog, the inspector general, said this month.

 

Instead, NASA is forced to complete the project — which now won’t be put to use — because of legislation handed down from Congress in what critics say is a classic example of earmarking.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/30/golden-hammer-350-million-nasa-project-to-be-compl/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

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Nasa's individual projects are activated, overseen, and funded by US congress. Right now, they have no interest in space as there are problems in our own country that need to be fixed first, and while space exploration is paramount to the future, decades of mismanagement by our elected officials have drained resources instead of working towards that goal.

 

NASA does more than space exploration too. They develop the technologies required for it. That is where they shine. An unimaginable amount of technology used today has had nasa involvement in one form or another.

 

Also, the muslim world has been a contributor to mathematics, in particular the founding principles of algebra, in ancient times. Really though, this is more of a marketing thing. Everything is about popularity these days.

 

Do I also think NASA has lost it's way? Yes. Is it their fault? No. Is it Congress fault? Some of it. So what's really the problem? Our society right now. Our SOCIETY has lost it's way, and it is showing in our policies. No one can agree on anything.

 

Hate to say it, but that's one of the good things about wars. It gets people to focus on common goals. If we could harness that ability without resorting to shooting each other, that would bring one hell of a golden age.

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 No one can agree on anything.

 

 

Both left and right can agree that spending $350,000,000 on a tower that serves no purpose is a waist of our money.  Building to fulfill an earmark and then mothballing is the kind of behavior that needlessly contributes to our $17Trillion debt.

 

I would even bet that both left and right would agree that NASA's objective should be space related and not related to the self-opinions of dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science...and math and engineering.

 

When it comes to our current NASA and its current objectives the population can agree but the current leadership has set nonsensical objectives for our space agency, I guess at least they found a shovel ready job.

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Maybe too political, but I think I would expand the thread topic to ask if the country has lost its way.

 

I suspect it has.

 

If China puts a man on the moon and establishes a base and takes the lead in space exploration, it will be just another marker in this country's slide - not only from world leader in many things, but maybe even as a first world nation.

 

But it is what it is, and nothing lasts forever.

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As someone directly involved, impacted by this topic, and still in touch with friends of mine who still work for the agency, I would answer "yes" to the overall question.  The failure is one of leadership at the executive level, both inside and outside the agency.  Garver, who has thankfully left the agency, instituted a direction that was a bastardized version of that suggested by the Augustine committee and showed a fundamental misunderstanding of the agency, its mission, and capabilities. It also was founded on a naive reading of the political situation (i.e., what they and the Congress could and would do), which has resulted in some of the problems they are still experiencing.  The current Administrator (whom I personally worked with when he was an astronaut)..from all the information I have..has not shown his own vision nor have I heard he is advocating for a direction but simply salutes whatever the Administration has asked for or in the direction the political winds blow.  It will take several decades to undo the damage that has been done or something to wake up the country to what risks we are taking and what we are truly losing.

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As someone directly involved, impacted by this topic, and still in touch with friends of mine who still work for the agency, I would answer "yes" to the overall question.  The failure is one of leadership at the executive level, both inside and outside the agency.  Garver, who has thankfully left the agency, instituted a direction that was a bastardized version of that suggested by the Augustine committee and showed a fundamental misunderstanding of the agency, its mission, and capabilities. It also was founded on a naive reading of the political situation (i.e., what they and the Congress could and would do), which has resulted in some of the problems they are still experiencing.  The current Administrator (whom I personally worked with when he was an astronaut)..from all the information I have..has not shown his own vision nor have I heard he is advocating for a direction but simply salutes whatever the Administration has asked for or in the direction the political winds blow.  It will take several decades to undo the damage that has been done or something to wake up the country to what risks we are taking and what we are truly losing.

 

Well said! The problem , I think , is that polititians have forgoten what NASA, stands for, (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), and are using the agency for political aims, instead of what it was created for.

 

Cheers.

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Lets see

  1. New mandate to make muslim majority countries feel good about their history
  2. New tower ( $350Million ) that has no purpose
  3. Repeatedly fudging Climate data - instead of reporting the amount by which sea level is rising in the real world, the Sea Level Research Group has begun adding 0.3 millimeters per year of fictitious sea level rise to “compensate” for rising land mass.  http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2011/05/13/NASA-Gets-Caught-Faking-Climate-Change-Data-AGAIN

Conclusion:

  1. NASA has diverted our tax dollars and its purpose to support foreign members of a religion, the religion of peace no less.
  2. NASA now intentionally waists hundreds of millions of tax dollars on busy work instead of giving us something of value in return for our tax dollars.
  3. NASA changes data to report falsified conclusions so that we believe in AGW.

I would prefer a real space program and if we are not going to have one I would prefer to shut down NASA in stead of using our taxes and debt to fund this nonsense, deception and waist.

 

I was a very proud 16 year old in 1969 when our space program was real and we, the USA accomplished something extraordinary.  Even then I didn't agree with our leadership on many issues but at least we accomplished this real objective that awed the whole world.  Why have we become hitch-hikers that would rather do busy work, and create deceptions?  We have abandoned our honor.

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Well said! The problem , I think , is that polititians have forgoten what NASA, stands for, (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), and are using the agency for political aims, instead of what it was created for.Cheers.

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Congress only has politics.

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It's heyday was created by the desire to beat the Soviets. We did that. The current mission is a harder sell. So maybe it will be commercial interests in this country that accomplish what comes next.

 

 

US ready to return to moon ..

America is preparing to land a robot on the moon for the first time in four decades.

Nasa is looking for private partners to participate in the project that will see a new generation of rovers wandering across the moon’s surface... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10614953/US-ready-to-return-to-moon.html

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This is the random thoughts section, can't it be used for something other than airplanes?

 

I have tried to teach my youngest son that it takes 2 to fight or argue. I know some here wear the political views on their sleeves, and become quite offended when their views are challenged. If you don't like something that is said that is fine, it is your choice. When you challenge the views and argue the point, to me it is almost worse than having the opinion posted in the first place. Like I tell my son, if you let it slide by and say or do nothing most of the time it becomes a non issue. If you say or do something it just fuels the fire until someone gets burnt.

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I don't sit still for racism.  If you guys want this to be a racist, right-wing forum, I don't need to be here.

 

Its hard for me to see what you are talking about.  I oppose amnesty and think Obama is the worst president ever, is that what you are talking about? That kind of racism?

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Forgive me, I re-read the thread, but... I'm confused. I know that everything is a stone's throw away from being racist, but we have stayed nasa centric in the thread, maybe reaching a little into politics. I don't think charlietango meant to bash a race, just highlight that a space agency's mission needs to focus on space, not politics.

Can someone enlighten me to what I am missing?  :)

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Tom said it best,

 

"I have tried to teach my youngest son that it takes 2 to fight or argue. I know some here wear the political views on their sleeves, and become quite offended when their views are challenged. If you don't like something that is said that is fine, it is your choice. When you challenge the views and argue the point, to me it is almost worse than having the opinion posted in the first place. Like I tell my son, if you let it slide by and say or do nothing most of the time it becomes a non issue. If you say or do something it just fuels the fire until someone gets burnt."

 

 

Let's not let this go any further. It's getting out of hand AGAIN. Talk about NASA all you want here because it's random thoughts, but we all know the difference from information exchange, healthy debate and sharing of views verses out right name calling or personal antagonistic verbiage. Any furtherance of this and YOU WILL force admin to lock this out or delete post. There is zero reason for this.

 

Come on guys it's time to be good examples of the civilized world and not be the bad examples.

 

Don't make Tom show his son what bad examples we are. 

 

I hope we don't have to issue suspensions to get a few peoples attention!

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I agree.  What does attacking the belief system of approximately 50 percent of Americans have to do with flying?

 

Once again you lost me.  I don't see the racism that you twice called someone out on and I don't see an attack on the belief systems of 50% of Americans either.

 

What was attacked in this thread is the intentional waist of $350Million building a tower that was orphaned years ago when someone decided to kill our space program.  Changing NASA's mandate to supporting majority Muslim countries self worth was attacked and changing climate data repeatedly was attacked.

 

I don't think 50% of America wants to be lied to, or have their taxes abused or to support majority Muslim countries with our space program's money.

 

Doug says 'only one side attacks' but we are attacking waist,deceit and misappropriation in our aeronautical administration not left vs right. In the 1960s the left was in charge of NASA and I could feel proud of our efforts, why can't that be the case today?

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Jerry Seinfeld is currently being attacked for featuring too many white comedians.  Seinfeld responds by saying he's not about race and gender he is about funny.  He see's no need to have his cast reflect the pie chart of races that is America in stead he sees a need to feature good talent regardless of gender or race.

 

Those here that are calling for silence find racism and extreme-ism where none exists.  The subject at hand is a great example in that the decline of our space agency is a relevant topic to this forum and if the only politically correct thing to do about the decline is keep silent then we as a group decide to support that decline.

 

Obviously some of us think government is to big and others support govt solutions to everything.  We are not going to solve that but can't we at least agree that our tax dollars be used for real and honest purposes?  Can't we agree that the old configuration at NASA made more sense?

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Why is anyone even bringing politics that isn't directly related to our own flying here anyway? Whomever starts these types of threads knows it has no good outcome, not relevant to our type of flying and just stirs the pot for heated animosity laced arguing.

 

We have been over this too many times and there is no one here any more that doesn't know the difference when they post.

 

Let's get back to the way we used to be  prior to 2012. It was almost always fun, friendly and informative.

 

 

I have a small green lawn off the back porch. Sometimes it gets a few weeds. To make it nice again I have to get rid of the weeds. Weeds have a place in the

ecosystem, just not in my yard and I usually don't miss the weeds when they are gone.

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 Whomever starts these types of threads knows it has no good outcome, not relevant to our type of flying and just stirs the pot for heated animosity laced arguing.

 

We have been over this too many times and there is no one here any more that doesn't know the difference when they post.

 

Let's get back to the way we used to be  prior to 2012. It was almost always fun, friendly and informative.

 

 

I have a small green lawn off the back porch. Sometimes it gets a few weeds. To make it nice again I have to get rid of the weeds. Weeds have a place in the

ecosystem, just not in my yard and I usually don't miss the weeds when they are gone.

 

 

OK Roger,

 

I hear you loud and clear, its your forum and my contribution is no longer appreciated.

 

Thanks everyone for your companionship and wisdom.

 

Garden weed signing out.

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I agree.  What does attacking the belief system of approximately 50 percent of Americans have to do with flying?

 

I don't sit still for racism.  If you guys want this to be a racist, right-wing forum, I don't need to be here.

 

You sure seem to have an active imagination.

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Why is anyone even bringing politics that isn't directly related to our own flying here anyway? Whomever starts these types of threads knows it has no good outcome, not relevant to our type of flying and just stirs the pot for heated animosity laced arguing.

 

We have been over this too many times and there is no one here any more that doesn't know the difference when they post.

 

Let's get back to the way we used to be  prior to 2012. It was almost always fun, friendly and informative.

 

 

I have a small green lawn off the back porch. Sometimes it gets a few weeds. To make it nice again I have to get rid of the weeds. Weeds have a place in the

ecosystem, just not in my yard and I usually don't miss the weeds when they are gone.

 

Roger, NASA has done many things that have a dirrect effect on our type of flying. They are not just a send them to space agency. To see them taken in a dirrection that changes their intended mission is heart breaking.

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