From the Hill, it sounds as if the environmentalists have taken over everything, including making NASA about earth science instead of space exploration:
About $4.5 billion is requested for exploration, meanwhile, including development of rockets to be launched into deep space. Another $4 billion is slated for space operations, including support of the International Space Station.
According to Cruz, that represents a 41 percent increase in earth science funding since 2009, compared to a 7 percent decrease in funding for exploration and operations.
“Are we focusing on the heavens in NASA or are we focusing on dirt in Texas?” asked Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.).
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the head of the Commerce Committee and the Senate’s No. 3 Republican, is similarly concerned that some research may be “redundant with activities being undertaken at other federal agencies and may actually reduce the availability of funds for research related to the traditional sciences, aeronautics and space exploration,” his spokesman said.
in a democrat government, all departments and resources have an overt stated function, and a covert political function. face it, stars and planets don’t vote.
Back before we spent billions on science education, we spent billions on science exploration. The exploration is what sparked a generation of scientists and engineers to pursue the fields that they did. Sending a manned mission to an asteroid just beyond lunar orbit is not exactly the type of mission that really gets the imagination in kids going, certainly not at the pace we are going about in accomplishing it. You should see the look on my students’ faces when we cover material about pasted human exploration to the Moon. There is a surreal feeling to teaching about accomplishments of 45 years ago that we are no longer willing or able as a society to accomplish today.