Big Cuts Coming to NASA?

[sojourner]

^Thanks Saquist.

Racism plays a very large role in the rejection of President Obama by the right wing. You can dismiss this, Sojourner; however, every time I see our president depicted as a monkey, I can't ignore the very ugly and grotesque paintings of the 19th and 20th centuries that depicted blacks as being akin to monkeys. The racism may not be as blatant as it was, yet it exists. Furthermore, Sojourner, if you are unable to see the racism, I must consider the possibility that you may be bigoted toward blacks.

Lol. what are you talking about? Presidential policy towards the space program has nothing to do with race.

The first and only person that has attributed anything to racism in this thread or in any of the articles linked has been you, throwback.

Robert Zubrin, who wrote the original article linked in the first post of this thread is one of the last people anyone would accuse of racism. Especially when it comes to space policy considering his views haven't changed in over 30 years, never mind the rise of the current administration.

The funny part is that I don't care who the president is. (go ahead, look at the over 5000 posts I have made on this board, see how many pertain to politics, nevermind racism. If you find anything even remotely interesting, let me know) It's the legislature that screws up NASA.

If you want to play at throwing around the racist label I suggest you join the TNZ forum. We don't care for it here.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Racism plays a very large role in the rejection of President Obama by the right wing. You can dismiss this, Sojourner; however, every time I see our president depicted as a monkey, I can't ignore the very ugly and grotesque paintings of the 19th and 20th centuries that depicted blacks as being akin to monkeys. The racism may not be as blatant as it was, yet it exists. Furthermore, Sojourner, if you are unable to see the racism, I must consider the possibility that you may be bigoted toward blacks.

Let's not go around accusing people of being bigots. Let's talk about NASA, not who may or may not be a racist.

I have never had any reason to think sojourner is racist, either.

 

[B.J.]

Racism plays a very large role in the rejection of President Obama by the right wing. You can dismiss this, Sojourner; however, every time I see our president depicted as a monkey, I can't ignore the very ugly and grotesque paintings of the 19th and 20th centuries that depicted blacks as being akin to monkeys. The racism may not be as blatant as it was, yet it exists. Furthermore, Sojourner, if you are unable to see the racism, I must consider the possibility that you may be bigoted toward blacks.

He's been depicted as a monkey because he has big ears that stick out from his head like a monkey's. Prince Charles has similar features. Besides, I've seen George W. Bush depicted as a monkey *far* more times than I have Obama. I'm not saying that everyone that likens him to a monkey isn't racist, but you can't say everyone that does is racist either.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Racism plays a very large role in the rejection of President Obama by the right wing. You can dismiss this, Sojourner; however, every time I see our president depicted as a monkey, I can't ignore the very ugly and grotesque paintings of the 19th and 20th centuries that depicted blacks as being akin to monkeys. The racism may not be as blatant as it was, yet it exists. Furthermore, Sojourner, if you are unable to see the racism, I must consider the possibility that you may be bigoted toward blacks.

He's been depicted as a monkey because he has big ears that stick out from his head like a monkey's. Prince Charles has similar features. Besides, I've seen George W. Bush depicted as a monkey *far* more times than I have Obama. I'm not saying that everyone that likens him to a monkey isn't racist, but you can't say everyone that does is racist either.

Okay, that's really enough about this subject. I'm normally pretty tolerant of political sidebars in SciTech (I often enjoy them, myself), but this is so far removed from the original topic I'm going to have to draw a line. Let this monkey business go!

 

[Squiggy]

Have any sources come out yet? No.

I'm sure the droolers who commented on the Times' page are still treating this as teh infallible word of God.

 

[Maverisms]

The Washington Post has piece. The administration is trying to figure out what it can and can't fund. It isn't advocating any cuts at this time, just planning on how to deal with whatever budget passes the House. Right now the repubs in the House are aiming for about 1 billion less than passed the Senate.

With the SLS mandated by law, the administration is going to have to cut something. They are debating an ax against a couple of Mars missions, but I think they'd rather not cut anything. The Mars missions are touchy, because there are international agreements involved, but they may not be fund-able. It would be bad politics to cut them.

I haven't figured out if Obama has something against space. It doesn't seem like it. I live in Huntsville. I have friends who worked on the shuttle program. Constellation was a giant stinking turd. SLS could work, if NASA can be restrained to something like the DIRECT plan, but NASA isn't good at things like that. DIRECT is practical, workman-like. NASA likes experimental systems. Every shuttle launch was an experiment. That attitude is not conducive to lowering surface to orbit costs. I expect the same to apply to SLS.

I honestly think the administration was right about private industry. If the Falcon-9 heavy can fly for even 200% of what Space-X claims we'd be able to launch 9 of them for the same cost as 2 shuttle missions. If it can be man-rated at the claimed cost, that's 9 manned flights for the cost of 1 shuttle launch. We'd be better off with that.

I'm against cutting NASA's budget. I just think they need to stop experimenting with lift systems that we already know work. Spend that money expanding the possibilities, or on more missions.

 

[Squiggy]

NASA has been funded for FY 2012, but with almost a billion dollars less than what Obama wanted.

Of course, Obama will be blamed.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Congressional Supercommittee? More like Congressional Stuporcommittee, amirite?

 

[FordSVT]

• $3.8 billion for human space exploration, which is $30 million below the 2011 level.
• $4.2 billion for space operations, which is $1.3 billion below the 2011 level. That funding account includes the international space station and the space shuttle, which flew its final mission in July.
• $5.1 billion for science programs, or about $155 million above the 2011 level. This includes $529.6 million for the over budget JWST, which House appropriators had proposed cancelling over the summer

Actually, when you look at it this way, it's not a terrible budget if you're only comparing it to last year. A $30m cut from a $4b budget is pretty small. Overall spending is down, but there is no more space shuttle to operate which probably accounts for most of the $1.3b there. An increase in science programs, which is probably where they should be spending their money right now anyway.

I hope this (along with the JWST funding) convinces some of you that the Democrats are not interested in gutting the space program. I can only imagine what cuts some Republicans were asking for behind closed doors.

 

[Lindley]

I was kind of hoping they could use that Shuttle money for R&D on the next thing, rather than just losing it.

 

[adamconway]

The problem is that we do not actually need every country to have permanent manned space flights. It is as useful as a certificate that allows you to go fishing on the moon. That is interesting to some but not so interesting to others.

 

[sojourner]

^The problem with that idea is who gets to decide which country can spend money on manned space flights.

 

[B.J.]

^And then you get into politics, which should stay as far away from the space program as possible.

 

[Cmdr_Blop]

John F. Kennedy has to be vomiting in his grave.

Oh well.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

^And then you get into politics, which should stay as far away from the space program as possible.

As long as the space program is funded with taxpayer money, it will have a political aspect.