The Rich Get Richer

Congress recently approved the federal budget for the fiscal year of 2007, and amidst all the hubbub about Homeland Security and the War in Iraq, a great tragedy was overlooked. As we all now know, freedom has its costs, but so does science. And the new budget completely ignores true scientific endeavors for the sake of gallant space pipe-dreams. I don't like to mix politics into my posts (around the Susbuck house we call that "postitics"), but both parties are to blame here. I'm an independent, I let each side have its say, but when you get right down to it, they're both a bunch of idiots.

NASA got all the money that it was asking for, pushing its budget up to $16.8 billion! When the country is experiencing such an enormous deficit, we should not be increasing any agency's budget! We've got to cut back and get back on top of this deficit thing. A quick perusal of NASA's budget request reveals exactly how they want to spend our money. Once you get through all the corporate-speak, you can really start to see where the money goes. More money for constellation exploration, less money for education, more money for the International Space Station, less money for human systems research and technology. It doesn't make any sense to me!!

If even a fraction of this money went towards space geology, we would be much better off as a country. Meteorites and asteroids fly by the planet everyday, only missing our planet by inches. We need to learn what they are made of so that we will be better prepared to spot and stop them. I know that the movie Armageddon is fiction, but it is also a heady warning about our future. If we wonder if there is life elsewhere in the universe, we should look at the rocks that the universe throws through our window (the atmosphere)! We can find the answers to these questions, we just need to learn more about the geology of space!