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Planetary Society testimony to Congress on the 2009 NASA budget

Posted by Far_view on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 12:13:15 AM
Good commentary here in a statement to Congress by the Planetary Society on the proposed 2009 NASA budget. They point out that the new budget essentially guts the Mars exploration program. The statement is also a good summary of why Mars should be the primary focus of our planetary exploration program.
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The biggest threat yet to Spirit and Opportunity

Posted by Far_view on Monday, March 24, 2008 10:29:53 PM
The two Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars three weeks apart in January 2004. They were designed for a nominal 90 martian day (or sol, to distinguish them from Earth days, a martian day is called a sol) mission. Over the weekend, the Spirit rover passed 1500 sols. Over the course of their missions, Spirit and Opportunity have survived software glitches, getting caught in sand drifts, two martian winters, and a global dust storm that nearly cut off all their solar energy. The biggest threat yet though comes from the government agency that built and launched the rovers. Where NASA once had a solid commitment to Mars exploration, Mars gets short shrift in the latest budget. Those dollars that are being allocated to Mars exploration are largely going to support the next Mars rover, the Mars Science Lab (MSL). MSL has gone over budget and to support that mission, in NASA's zero sum budget game, dollars are being diverted from the operational budgets of existing missions- the orbiting Mars Odyssey and the rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Recently, NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) has been informed that $4 million will be taken out of the operating budgets of both Mars Odyssey and the rovers (story here). This would essentially cripple both missions and could lead to one of the rovers being turned off. This would be incredibly pennywise and pound foolish. These spacecraft are all still operating and providing excellent scientific returns. Just in the past year, the Spirit rover uncovered a patch of silica-rich soil which was certainly concentrated through the action of water- possibly in hot spring similar to those in action at Yellowstone. The fact is though that the origin of those silica rich soils is still a mystery. Further exploration of the broader area surrounding where they were discovered could uncover further clues to the early history of Mars. That chance might not come though if these NASA-ordered budget cuts come to pass. Write your members of Congress- ask them to restore operational funding for the Mars Exploration Rovers and Mars Odyssey- don't let these valuable assets be wasted.
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Reviewing Arthur C. Clarke's predictions

Posted by Far_view on Sunday, March 23, 2008 11:53:38 AM
Nice piece here on some of Arthur C. Clarke's predictions. He really was a visionary who will be sorely missed.
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Mark Steyn on Obama and the Rev. Wright

Posted by Far_view on Sunday, March 23, 2008 10:33:10 AM
Once again, Mark Steyn hits the nail on the head and does so wittily in describing Obama's response to the Rev. Wright controversy. Just about the best line, in my opinion, is:

"You can understand why Obama is so anxious to meet with President Ahmadinejad, a man who denies the last Holocaust even as he plans the next one. Such a summit would be easy listening after the more robust sermons of Jeremiah Wright."
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R.I.P. Arthur C. Clarke

Posted by Far_view on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 7:42:41 PM
I just read that Arthur C. Clarke has passed away.  He was one of the first science fiction authors that I got into in a big way.  Of course, I loved "2001: A Space Odyssey" and I vividly remember reading the serialization of "Rendezvous with Rama" in the now defunct science fiction magazine "Galaxy".  When I was an undergrad I was involved with Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (which is apparently still around as evidenced by the link!) and got to meet Mr. Clarke and get him to sign my copy of "2010".  It is sad to hear about the giants of science fiction going away.
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NASA Administrator Mike Griffin speaks at Lunar & Planetary Science Conference

Posted by Far_view on Thursday, March 13, 2008 9:14:45 AM
I am down south of Houston this week at the Lunar & Planetary Science Conference. On Monday night, NASA administrator Mike Griffin spoke. The ballroom where he spoke was packed beyond standing room only, it was really crowded. He had about a 15 minute speech and took about 45 minutes of questions. Among the things that he said in his prepared speech that caught my attention, he said that the opening statement of "Star Trek" ("to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!") is a better mission statement for NASA than its actual one. He cited a surprising statistic: that approximately 50% (50%!!!) of the people in a poll thought that NASA consumed 24% of the U.S. budget! Can you believe it? (the actual amount is less than 1%). There were several questions related to the drop in funding in the Mars exploration program after MSL is launched. I am biased on this and believe that no matter how you slice it, Mars is getting the shaft at the expense of outer planets and the Moon. Griffin tried to explain it away by saying that budgets go up and down based on which program is getting a flagship mission. He said there were "no entitlements at NASA". Oh yeah? What about the engineers who have to come up with a new design for every mission when tried and true designs (such as the MER rovers) get relegated to the scrap heap. Anyway... there was also a question about NASA support of a COTS style program for lunar robotic spacecraft. He said that if COTS is successful, then there might be a COTS style program for planetary programs. I think that would definitely be the way to go. He had a great line in response to a question about whether he's gotten any insights from politicians with respect to NASA's education program, he said "I don't get many insights from politicians." I loudly applauded that line. Since most of the people in the room are big libs there were a few questions about international participation and "why can't we leverage other nations resources for our programs?". The response being that other nations don't want us to leverage their resources, the U.S. has to lead, not be a follower.

I think Griffin did a good job in front of a semi-hostile audience. He did point out several times that under Bush NASA has had stable funding with moderate growth and no real cuts, where under Clinton it did have real cuts. Again, that is something most of the people in that room would like to ignore.
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Fred Barnes on McCain's VP pick

Posted by Far_view on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 8:52:13 AM
Fred Barnes runs down the list of possible VP picks for John McCain and comes up with Mitt Romney as being the best pick. I would be very happy with Romney as the VP pick. They'd just have to win then...
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Delicious

Posted by Far_view on Monday, March 10, 2008 10:42:11 PM
I know that everybody must be blogging about this, but I just can't help but write about how great it is to see NY Governor Eliot Spitzer exposed for visiting prostitutes. This guy is about as big of a skunk as they come. It is good to see him exposed for the rat that he is. I just had CNN on for a bit and it just was amazing to see how glum the CNN reporters were when they were reporting on this story. You just know that if it was a Republican politician that they would be reporting the story with glee (as indeed they did with the Larry Craig and Mark Foley stories), but since Spitzer is a Democrat they're all bummed out.
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forget Godzilla, watch out for Hillary!

Posted by Far_view on Friday, March 07, 2008 10:05:29 AM
This is great. Someone in the Obama campaign called Hillary "a monster". These guys are just realizing this now?
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Active landslide imaged in motion on Mars!

Posted by Far_view on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 7:30:06 PM
This is really amazing.  The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) imaged a landslide in action (dust in the air and everything) on the north polar scarp of Mars (the north polar cap rises in elevation above the surrounding plains).  Very, very impressive!
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Obama shows what an ignoramus he is on space policy

Posted by Far_view on Monday, March 03, 2008 12:18:13 AM
Good grief! Check out this post from spacepolitics.com... At a campaign stop in Texas, Obama extemporizes on space policy and demonstrates that he is a complete ignoramus on the issue... pretty telling about his grasp on more than just space policy I'd say.
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the liberal corruption of superheroes

Posted by Far_view on Sunday, March 02, 2008 10:40:41 AM
There's a column in today's Sunday Denver Post by David Harsanyi entitled "Where have all the superheroes gone?" It's a good column. Harsanyi points out how in the 1940s comic superheroes supported the war effort and were all about beating the Axis powers and in the 1980s movie heroes such as Rambo were all about beating the bad guys. In today's comics, Marvel (may they be forever cursed) have killed off Captain America for pete's sake. Harsanyi views this as reflecting the moral ambiguity in modern society. I have a different take on it, I see it as the comic industry being taken over by liberals. I mean there's a storyline currently running in DC's Justice League of America about the government sending supervillains to some kind of prison planet (not following due process) and other supervillains seeking sanctuary from the JLA. This is obviously a thinly veiled commentary on Guantanamo Bay. There are lots more examples such as this. I think getting some idealogical balance in the media should extend to the comics industry!
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R.I.P William F. Buckley

Posted by Far_view on Thursday, February 28, 2008 8:35:44 AM
It was sad to hear about Bill Buckley's passing. I remember when I was growing up, Buckley would periodically be a guest on the "Today" show, very often in debates with Kenneth Galbraith. I remember that my mother liked watching those debates too and I'd call her down "Bill Buckley's on!". I was always impressed by his clarity of thought and his huge vocabulary. Later I enjoyed reading his columns and I've read a lot of his spy novels as well. He will be sorely missed.
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forget global warming, get ready for the next ice age

Posted by Far_view on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 2:53:40 PM
Just from looking at global temperature trends over the past 120 years or so, I've thought for some time that there is an approximately 30 year sinusoidal trend over the gradual warming trend and it looked to me like we were on the cusp of a downward trend. There is evidence that backs this up.

Here is an article from the National Post of Canada which notes that this winter has been a really bad one. Some key lines from the article:

"Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966."

With regards to Arctic sea ice which had supposedly "disappeared", this year it is 10 to 20 cm thicker than last year.

Also, things might be worse than a small down-turn in temperatures- supposedly sunspot activity is at a very low ebb. The article states:

"The last time the sun was this inactive, Earth suffered the Little Ice Age that lasted about five centuries and ended in 1850."

I'd say that the only thing we know for sure is that we don't know what is going on with global climate trends.
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You know the NY Times has gone too far when...

Posted by Far_view on Saturday, February 23, 2008 9:47:08 AM
You know the NY Times has gone too far when even NPR has a story about how other newspapers didn't back them up, or run, the hit piece they did on John McCain. Yes, I was laying in bed this morning listening to NPR for a bit (I actually do listen to NPR sometimes) and they did actually have a story about how other newspapers didn't run the NY Times story. I think it is a pretty big indicator that the NY Times story was REALLY bad journalism.
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