Spaceguard Under Fire: NASA’s New Woes
It looks as though politics always rears its ugly head in the end. Science and innovation draw the short straw again as the focal point of irate critics, screaming that NASA should focus more attention on keeping earth safe than on experiments to advance scientific research and innovation.
The main issue up for debate surrounds NASA’s Spaceguard Survey, which plans to identifying 90% of potential earth-impacting asteroids larger than 1 km by the end of 2008. Critics demand that this simply is not good enough and instead want to reduce the cutoff point to asteroids a mere 140 meters large.
So who’s at fault here?
To begin with, it’s a sad fact that NASA’s budget has remained relatively constant for the past two decades (after accounting for inflation), and space programs certainly aren’t getting any cheaper. Politicians simply refuse to provide NASA with the budget they need to progress with great strides. It seems ridiculous that Congress and critics of NASA can continually strap them of cash and then expect them to work miracles at their beck and call. I’m not even sure if their critics understand the difficulties involved in spotting these asteroids and what a giant undertaking
NASA hasn’t helped their own cause by failing to create a successful public image campaign over the past decade (they could start with a website for their Spaceguard project, I couldn’t even find one under NASA’s name). It seems that whenever NASA makes the news, it’s for a negative reason, though a lot of that blame might fall on politicians’ shoulders.
What I can say is that the results of NASA are just too great to ignore. They’ve contributed technology behind CAT scans, MRIs, water filters, fire fighter equipment, smoke detectors, and shock absorbing padding, to name a few. The sad thing is that most people don’t recognize how important this type of innovation is to their everyday lives.
How about this simple solution: Congress gives NASA additional budget to implement the plan necessary to detect the smaller asteroids, NASA makes it happen, and everyone goes home happy. Sadly, things never work out that easy.
Balance must be achieved between innovation and safeguarding our future so we’re all still here to benefit from that innovation. Theoretically these should go hand in hand, but it doesn’t always play out that way. That’s why compromise must occur, because in the end, we all want the same thing.
Quick Side Note: There are many myths floating around out there when discussing items that NASA invented. While it is absolutely true that they have contributed numerous technologies, rumors about some technologies have taken a life of their own. For a quick and humorous list check out the Urban Legends of NASA.
