LPSC: The natives are restless
The result of the day at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference here in Houston undoubtedly came from the Stardust mission to catch dust from the tail of comet Wild 2. You can read more about it on news@nature.com in a few hours when the story goes live, but I was impressed by the healthy turnout of around 600 scientists who came to watch this comet’s life history start to unfold.
But that was nothing. The end of the day saw more than a thousand of the 1,500 or so conference attendees pack into a room to hear Mary Cleave, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, defend the agency’s recent budget cuts in the sciences. And boy, did she have a tough crowd. As the Shuttle and International Space Station eat up more and more cash, scientists are seeing their projects cancelled – sorry, “deferred” – in ever greater numbers.
Cleave and her colleague Andy Dantzler, who oversees Solar System research, made a really good try at mollifying the crowd. A $1.8 billion research budget was not to be sniffed at; it was a temporary blip; don’t forget we love the science program too … all to no avail.
One by one, scientists expressed their outrage. Referring to Stardust’s recent success, one said: “When you’re sitting around your conference table at NASA headquarters, in your science vacuum, you might consider the value of a sample return mission.”
Gerhard Neukum, who is in charge of the hi res stereo camera on ESA’s Mars Express, is normally a pretty jovial guy. But not today. He railed against the decision to defer the Dawn mission to Ceres and Vesta, the two largest asteroids, saying NASA had reneged on international agreements without any consultation of its European partners. “This is not the way NASA should treat these things if you want continued international cooperation,” he said. “Things are really degrading in terms of cooperation, and I’m not the only one who feels that way.” Huge applause from the room.
Another scientist introduced themselves as an American who spends a lot of time working with Europeans. “There’s a growing feeling in Europe that NASA is becoming an unreliable partner,” he said.
Earlier, I’d spoken to planetary scientist Jonathan Lunine of the University of Arizona, Tucson, who told me: “As far as NASA goes we have no strategy for the outer Solar System any more – it’s in a complete shambles.” He worries that the astrobiology program, which has seen some of the most significant cuts, will really suffer.
This comes up again in the meeting, with Cleave countering that astrobiology was not being killed, “just slowed down.” An audience member disagrees, saying that it is the biggest threat to their science in a generation. Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society stood up to announce that they were launching a 'Save Our Science' campaign.
At one point, Cleave became so frustrated she said, “I don’t understand why you’re so angry.” The response was gales of bitter laughter.
The last scientist to speak seemed to sum up the community’s feelings: “We feel like we’re just not getting a dialogue with NASA.” This one may take a while to sort out, I think …
[Posted on behalf of Mark Peplow]
Comments
If NASA is reneging on international agreements it should cancel the International Space Station and ground the Space Shuttle. Since international agreements are the only justification for continuing Station construction. It would be cheaper to pay off our partners for their investments than to continue the Space Station and we will gain just as much useful data.
The Bush Administration claims that the Station is needed for the New Vision for Space Exploration but only in their minds. The Station provides nothing useful for a return to the Moon. A Mars mission will need better ways of dealing with long term weightlessness but this could more cheaply be done as part of an on going Lunar/Mars program.
At this point science is being sacrificed while Moon Mars planning is still born except for the launch system which is better for the Station than anything beyond.
If NASA is willing to cancel programs despite international agreements then the International Space Station should be the first on the chopping block.
Posted by: Karen Cramer Shea | March 16, 2006 12:10 PM
Karen, et al
I was in the room at the LPSC and I share the misgivings concerning the direction of the Science directorate at NASA. However, that being said, Manned spaceflight, including ISS has value to the nation, now and for the future. Space science tells us how things developed in the solar system. Space exploration, especially the manned exploitation of the resources of the inner solar system, is a key factor that will allow our civilization to continue forward so that we can continue to afford space science.
ISS is a key beachead in the sky for commercial operations to gain a foothold to begin to break the socialist space exploration monopoly held by governments in the near term. Without the development of a commercial space enterprise beyond the comsat industry, space will continue to wither as a domain for science and manned spaceflight.
Also, don't forget that if you erased the science account deficit caused by the JWST overruns there would not be this problem today.
Dennis
Posted by: Dennis Wingo | March 17, 2006 05:46 PM
The problem is the shuttle and space stations have sucked the human space flight budget dry for 37 years now and yeilded us nothing.
I have sympathy with aspirations of commercial human space flight but I don't beleive in make work programs.
We want real space commercialization we need real products and the only place in space to get those is on the Moon.
On the Moon we can do real science, so space will not wither. If we do the Moon right Astronomy, Physics and Geology will be making Noble Prize worthy discoveries regularly.
Karen
Posted by: Karen Cramer Shea | March 19, 2006 08:47 AM
Space exploration, especially the manned exploitation of the resources of the inner solar system, is a key factor that will allow our civilization to continue forward so that we can continue to afford space science.
Posted by: Felix | October 11, 2007 02:25 PM