The future of NASA

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Alex

But it is also saddening that CP and others look at the manned space program and thinks "why doesn't the government do more science funding." It makes me wonder if manned space flight promotes actual science funding or instead gets the government off the hook to a degree from funding real science since we're all oohing about people living in low earth orbit for a few months at a time and the beautiful photos of a shuttle launch against a pre-dawn sky.

To me what promotes science funding is having a population interested in science, and a scientific community made up of bright people excited about science. Sure an expensive scientifically substanceless program may funnel short term money away from hard science, but if the brightest members of the next generation is uninterested in science, all the money in the world won't matter. Marketing is a valid expense. The number of kids that said "I want to be an astronaut when I grow up!" who actually became astronauts is nil. But some percentage of them did take that excitement and turn it toward science of some sort.

I'd be happier about the move if there seemed to be an effort to come up with a suitable replacement, something big and ambitious to excite the population. The stupid public service announcements saying we need scientists aren't cutting it for me. Until then, I'll mourn the loss of a proven winner.