A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT ABOUT NASA SCIENCE

[Lionel Mandrake]

Following is an excerpt from the newsletter WHAT’S NEW
by Robert L. Park, Friday, 3 Apr 09, Washington, DC

Dear Mr. President:

Last month you said the space agency is drifting and
needs a mission "appropriate for the twenty-first century." The new
Administrator, you said, should think about "the next great adventures and
discoveries under the NASA banner." I know you’ve been busy with G20
stuff and haven’t had time to name this visionary, so in an effort to help
What’s New did the thinking for whoever it will be:

1) Astronauts are a
relic of the 1960’s "space race" and a major obstacle to the continued
exploration of space. Therefore the ISS, which serves no useful purpose
anyway, should be given to China and the crew sent home on the Soyuz.
Maybe astronauts could be awarded medals for courage in fighting the Cold
War.

2) Global-warming critics insist climate change is the result of
solar variations and is not anthropogenic. Therefore, NASA should move
with due haste to locate DSCOVR at the unique Lagrange-1 vantage point to
resolve this question.

3) The greatest quest in science is to find life
to which we are not related. Therefore, NASA’s robotic exploration of the
solar system should be expanded to include the ocean moons of Jupiter.
There should also be a ban on human visits to any planet that might harbor
life; we’re crawling with bugs.

4) The great discovery of this century is
the existence of planets around other stars. The bad news is that we
can’t get to an exoplanet. The good news is they can't get here. Therefore
we should employ the huge advances in optical technology to develop a new
generation of advanced space telescopes capable of examining exoplanets
for evidence of life.

http://www.bobpark.org