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This argument could go on forever without changing
anyone's position. Both arguments have considerable merits, and I doubt if
cancelling the ISS would actually free up any funds for more "worthwhile"
projects, "worthwhile" being defined as whatever one thinks is
important.
The main point is that even tho NASA may have
screwed up royally in their administration, the Congress is still the bunch that
hands out the $$. The budgetary process is still a political process whereby the
legislators vote according to their perception of what will look best in the
eyes of them what keeps them in office, including the special interest groups
that keep their warchests full. If the legislators don't think space
exploration, space science, or space travel is attractive enough, it doesn't
matter what Dan Goldin, Bruce Moomaw, or any of us tell them. There is never
enough money to fund all the projects proposed, whether real or pork barrel, so
decisions are made on the basis of what's sexy this budget cycle. I don't think
this analysis is any more cynical than suggesting that the NASA administrators
deliberately falsified their estimates just to pursue some hidden scheme of
their own.
Can we get back to talking about
Europa?
Watch the skies!
G. B. Leatherwood
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