Mike Griffin’s presentation
Published on Jan 8, 2008 at 3:05 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under NASA, conference blogging.
A couple hours ago, Mike Griffin gave an interesting presentation at the American Astronomical Society Meeting being held in Austin. It was interesting, but also a bit sobering. He talked about many of the wonderful things that NASA is doing. But, he also pointed out that NASA is seriously underfunded for what they need and want to do. There has been talk for some years in government circles about how important space exploration is. NASA has been charged with returning to the Moon. The only problem is that the last time we went to the Moon, NASA was given a large budget to do just that. This time, they are not. In fact, the budget has remained steady, with only cost of living increases. That is not the way to expand what you do.
A case in point is the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM). This is a mission that astronomers have wanted for some time. It has progressed to the point that NASA is about ready to start seriously designing and building the spacecraft. It would be a wonderful tool if they did. Such a mission would be able to detect Earth sized planets orbiting Sun-like stars at about Earth’s distance from the Sun. A while back, Angelle Tanner at JPL computed that SIM would be able to find a planet in the habitable zone around the nearby star 40 Eridani. Serious Star Trek fans will recognize that as the star that the planet Vulcan orbits. OK, so that is just scifi. But, one of the goals of astronomers is to find out if Earth is unique or if there are other planets like Earth out there. SIM can do that. It may even be able to tell us not just that the planet exists in the right place, but whether or not it really is somewhat Earth-like. Cool!
The only problem is that SIM is very expensive. It would be a flagship mission. NASA already has a flagship mission in the works: The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is to replace the Hubble. JWST will consume 60% of the money that NASA has available for astrophysics. SIM might take up about 25% of the budget. Hmm. That leaves 15% for everything else. That means that if SIM is built, other programs will have to lose money, and may even be scrapped, unless NASA gets more money. Now, that is a not a nice thought.
Now, Griffin also pointed out that astrophysics is not the only part of NASA to be losing out. Nearly 1/3 of the human spaceflights to the ISS have been done away with (leaving problems with fulfilling out international commitments to support ISS research).  In fact, NASA plans for the ISS are now contingent upon private space enterprises being able to take up some of the slack. New technology development is at a low. Aeronautical research is at all time lows. And, NASA has more things to do! So, you might say, could we postpone SIM? That is Griffin’s recommendation. There are other missions that can also detect Earth-like planets. Albeit, they can not do all of the things that SIM can do, nor do things as well. But, they can still be funded along with JWST. Unfortunately, NASA has to do what it is told to do. Congress has mandated that SIM go forward. The only problem is that they have not appropriated more money. It’s still too early to say that all sorts of other programs will be cut, but the reality is that if nothing changes, that will have to occur. There is only so much money, and too much to spend it on.
-Astroprof
The Latest AAS Meeting, So What? on January 9, 2008 at 10:05 pm: 1
[…] Right now, all the cool kids are playing astronomical kickball in Austin this week without me. Sure, they get lots of stuffs to post about, new science discovery-thingys to regurgitate. They even get to podcast. I didn’t see AstroProf in the photo guys, he’s there too lurking behind a laptop at the talks furiously typing away, you should include him in your reindeer games. Me? I’ll be OK. Really. I’m fine. They all met up and talked to each other. I’m not sure what I’d say to a fellow blogger face-to-face. […]