[meteorite-list] Fwd: The Next Five Big NASA Failures [Editorial]

From: Francis Graham <francisgraham_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Nov 16 09:15:29 2004
Message-ID: <20041116141343.48077.qmail_at_web54706.mail.yahoo.com>

  Bob Verish's forward does have some good critiques
about NASA. One book of NASA critique is Lost in
Space: The Fall of NASA and the Dream of a New Space
Age by Greg Klerkx (Pantheon Press), now available for
$6.95 from Edward Hamilton, bookseller, Falls Village
CT 06031. (+ $3.50 S&H of course!)
  I saw the CRAF spectrometer exhibited at the '87
Planetary Science Conf. I wonder what happened to it.
  But the critiques of NASA, although some are valid,
do not detract from the fact that NASA is better than
no NASA or a greatly reduced NASA. It is still the big
space money powerhouse. They provided funds, for
example, for me to help build the Observatory here at
Kent State University (with J.D. Keller, the primary
team leader, and T. Koontz). It's not a big research
observatory. Just a little teaching observatory, but
NASA helped! Made a big difference in what we could
offer students and local high school folks.
  Is NASA managed at optimum with respect to the goal
of exploration of space and development of space
technology? Probably not. Few things are managed at
optimum, though.
  Could NASA do better? Probably. The critiques must
center on a popular discussion on what can be done to
improve NASA for its stated mission. But to downsize
NASA any more or replace it with another agency is
unthinkable, IMHO.
  One thing NASA might do more is reach out and
interface more with other groups such as amateur
astronomy groups (Astronomical League) and amateur
rocket groups (Tripoli Rocketry Assn.) and even
amateur collectors (IMCA)with lots of internships. Now
that the internet exists, internships can be remote,
and take the place of a second job, except for preset
orientations and meetings at fixed dates at some
location. Hmmmmm. Maybe I should write this idea up,
d'ya think?
  
Francis Graham



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Received on Tue 16 Nov 2004 09:13:42 AM PST