[EAS] Faith in Space

[pjk]

Subject:   Faith in Space

(from WHAT'S NEW -- Friday, April 30, 2004)
<http://www.aps.org/WN/>

NASA SCIENCE: IS THE SPACE AGENCY BECOMING JUST A THEME PARK? 
For a million years our species was confronted with a world we
could not hope to understand.  Now, almost within the span of a
single human lifetime, the book of nature has been thrown open. 
We aspire to solve the great mysteries: dark matter, dark energy,
why there is mass, the big bang, and the origin of life.  We long
to know.  Instead, according to the New York Times, experiments
to unravel these great mysteries have been assigned low priority,
along with anything that has to do with global warming.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/27/science/space/27NASA.html>.
This will allow NASA to focus its resources on human exploration,
pandering to a public weaned on Star Trek.  NASA's priorities
will delay real exploration by decades, vastly increase costs,
and put lives at risk.  You might suppose NASA would hold off
until the President's Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond makes
its report in June <http://www.aps.org/WN/WN04/wn041604.cfm>. The
Moon/Mars Commission, was apparently mere window dressing. The
only appeal open to scientists is to members of Congress.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
The planned demise of the Hubble space telescope still appalls me.
What is given priority instead are more faith-based initiatives.

   --PJK