At NASA, Clouds Are What You Zoom Through to Get to Mars -NYT

[Rose Siding]

Until a few weeks ago, James C. Wilson, a professor of engineering at the University of Denver, thought he would be spending the summer using high-altitude NASA aircraft to carry instruments into tropical clouds to measure the movement of water vapor and particles like soot.

Understanding these clouds is critical to understanding and predicting climate change. But the project has been canceled, Dr. Wilson says, a casualty of accounting changes at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and of the Bush administration's emphasis on sending people to the Moon and Mars.

While NASA is best known for its spaceflight programs, it has long financed other scientific research, including the study of the atmosphere and of components of the universe. Until this year, that research was largely shielded from cost overruns in the shuttle and space station programs.
...
In an editorial in the current issue of the journal Science, its editor, Donald Kennedy, called the mood among NASA scientists "an odd combination of confusion, gloom and struggle." He added in an interview, "Something major is happening with a redistribution of NASA's resources away from science."

http://nytimes.com/2005/03/21/science/21nasa.html

[Zuni]

1. Bush is supporting a faith based Space program now

[daleo]

2. Militarization of NASA too.

I recall the guy he just appointed as head of NASA was a big wheel in the Star Wars/Missile Defense/Space Weapon program.

Most NASA scientists probably want to be involved in true science, i.e. space exploration.

[Zuni]

4. I was just kidding

but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if suddenly we found out that NASA had to be in line with biblical theology.

My family has a number of good friends who work for NASA. One is a fellow Russian immigrant like my mother, who she has known since she was little and another was a major player in the Hubble Space Telescope design.

[daleo]

6. I figured you were kidding about the faith based thing.

Although who really knows in Bush world. I just wanted to reiterate the militarization of space angle.

[Dave Reynolds]

5. "If Jeebus wanted us on Mars,

he would have his daddy reach his big ol' hand down and pluck us up there".

[soothsayer]

14. No, I think it's space-based faith initiative

[punpirate]

3. This is all about putting...

... much more money in the pockets of defense aerospace contractors and the rank-and-file scientists at NASA know it.

In an age of war, excessive defense spending, rampant deficit spending and egregious tax cuts for the wealthy, this moonbase/Mars program is insane. Stark raving bonkers.

And, I believe, it's a backdoor means of funding preliminary work for STRATCOM's offensive weapons in space program.

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. They will say they are going to the moon and mars in order to

provide an excuse to cancel those other programs. However, they have no intention of funding those trips. They used the same excuse to cancel the Hubble, which is now quietly slipping away to oblivion.

[lapfog_1]

8. Yup

In particular, all programs related to the environment... such as
the EOS program. Scientists won't be able to "prove" global climate
change if there isn't any global data. The vast majority of global
environmental data was collected by remote sensing.

(speaking as a former NASA scientist doing work related to EOSDIS)

[dbt]

9. Of COURSE we can't have NASA studying the clouds!

They just might reveal something about the artificial clouds that someone is generating day and night over much of the Earth. And perish the thought that NASA might also look into the movement of particles in those clouds!

[shadowknows69]

10. does this say to anyone

that someone knows we're already screwed and we need new real estate quick. At least for the privledged few and a million mexican slaves to do all the space jobs that regular americans won't ;-)

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. Bush is doing a great job

killing two birds with one stone. He deals another lethal blow to good science, while he continues the militarization of NASA.

[SoCalDem]

12. Republicans have ALWAYS hated NASA..

every legislative session has been full of attempts to cut funding, and yet complain about the "ineffectiveness" of the agency..

A scientific comuunity like NASA MUST have a certain leeway and room for dreamers and builders.. Science is like that.. It takes as long as it takes..

The "good v evil" ..black v white crew are not thinkers..

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. NASA has been "militarized" ever since the Cuban Missile Crisis

.
.
.

That "Race for Space" that put them on the moon in the 60's was the cover for the $$$$ they took off the taxpayers to develop inter-ballistic missiles

Putting the "Man on the Moon" was to entertain the peasants as they glee-fully watched their well spent dollars succeed.

Heck, if one researched it enuf, they would find that the Gov't back then had HOLLYWOOD "produce" the launch that the public would see, and gave them such latitude that the gov't even RELOCATED THE LAUNCHPAD on the suggestion of the Hollywood execs.

They knew that it would be more spectacular if the ocean was in the background rather than a bunch of buildings . .

Hmmm - they gave CNN a birds'eye view of the so-called "shock n awe" thing . .

and back to NASA

I'm still not quite satisfied with the explanations for the Columbia disaster . . .

NASA in my mind is the unwilling, maybe even unknowing appendage of the BFEE and the Military.

[soothsayer]

15. Feh! NASA always was