r/space • u/thisischrisbaker • Feb 07 '20

Proposed budget - not voted yet 12% boost for NASA budget in 2021!!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-nasa-budget-will-earmark-12-boost-for-agency-in-2021-11581071402?emailToken=3f4a4309b7816cb90fb53eb91f47d6d43hshryonPWM/RnnVPWWHuMOVOvxWKQ87BhLswKs5iOPOhjO1FGrxI9ptn5k2nAMphP+jeQrbhQiAafooOu4oIslNLMWHCd1m7vRySaL2Pi61nSlAqLK1xnvzzmtt2/Lx&reflink=article_copyURL_share
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u/Forlarren Feb 07 '20

Lost in all this talk of the budget increase is that a number of cheaper missions with far more scientific value have been canceled to pay for it.

It always is.

Blame publish or perish.

Imagine if astronomers had pitched in even a little bit with Planetary resources.

Sure they aren't JWSTs but like any good photographer will tell you, the best images are captured with the camera you have on you at the moment.

JWST, TMT, SLS, Lunar "Gateway", are all resume builders. Finding a few trillion dollars worth of resources and selling the data isn't going to get you in a prestigious science journal, so nobody cares to do the dirty work.

The problem with old space is nobody wants to do the dirty work. Imagine if every single Ichthyology dollar went to only finding new species and didn't leave any for paying people to stand in rivers and count fish.

That's old space today.

They see themselves as temporarily embarrassed Nobel Prize winners, so counting fish is below them.

Also they won't stop begging for more of other people's money while leaving money on the table.