16 Responses to “Editorial: NASA wastes millions, discovers water”

1. Victor says:

   November 15, 2009 at 11:34 pm

   Spending money on NASA provides economic stimulus. It creates business when we build rockets, manufactures need to produce parts which puts factory workers to work. Spending money on NASA projects also, puts high paying individuals back to work such as engineers and project managers. These highly paid individuals will then turn around and contribute a portion of their pay check to uncle Sam every pay period. If we as a nation are spending money building roads to put people to work I don’t see how spending money on space research is any different.

   The work done in space over the years has improved the quality of life back here on Earth. Advances in satellite (i.e. weather, phone, GPS etc.) and medical equipment/techniques would not have been possible without space research/exploration.
2. Meng Bomin says:

   November 16, 2009 at 12:23 am

   I really can’t tell if this is a serious editorial or a parody, because the lack of reasoning is astounding.

   In order to train the next generation to make great discoveries in space, we should cut funding to NASA, lay off a raft of scientists, losing their expertise and dispersing them into other fields because we need the relatively small amount of money used for NASA to add a bit to the already rather large pot spent on education.

   Apparently, the important factor in how effective NASA will be in the future is not that the expertise gets passed on through a contiguously functioning organization, but rather the gross amount of money thrown at education.

   As well, the sarcasm toward the discovery of water on the moon betrays a lack of serious thinking on the part of the writer of this editorial. Water reserves on the moon have little to do with shipping it to Earth, but rather with obviating the need of shipping it from Earth. If you set up a permanent moon colony, it would be helpful if it wasn’t required to lug huge shipments of water.

   Furthermore, it would be helpful to understand that the science that NASA does right now is important. At a time when understanding human impact on our planet is more important than ever as the world population approaches 7 billion, NASA provides useful data that wouldn’t be available from any source other than satellites.

   If we’re going to have big dreams of moving humanity and life outward from Earth, we’ve got to know what we’re dealing with. Scientific missions like LCROSS give us very valuable data that helps us plan how to approach space. Other missions tell us important facts about the Universe and about the Earth that broaden the knowledge available to our children. Continuing these missions probably has more educational value than the dollar amounts that you’d advocate stripping from them.

   It’s nice to throw around US Budgetary figures, but if you don’t mention the overall size of the budget, you can easily deceive people. $17.6 billion isn’t even 1% of our almost $3 trillion federal budget. A sense of proportion is important when assessing our options and it’s clear that the writer of this editorial lacks it.
3. Stewart Peterson says:

   November 16, 2009 at 8:03 am

   Great idea! Ensure that people get an education to go into science and technology by sending the message that they won’t have a job when they get there!
4. Donald Stevens says:

   November 16, 2009 at 8:53 am

   The author’s proposal is understandable but seriously flawed from an economic standpoint. NASA’s budget is virtually microscopic – - less than 1% of the entire budget. The work of NASA is one of the few things in government that actually works well and has a focus on the very long term. Other efforts, which are much more expensive, are focused only on short term goals. There is so little in this country that “..takes the long view.” Further, an enormous amount of money for education and health care could be culled from stopping the $60billion in Medicare fraud which occurs EVERY SINGLE YEAR!! Let’s not rob the nation of a space agency without first looking to stopping waste and fraud in so many other areas.
5. Victor says:

   November 16, 2009 at 9:42 am

   One other add on I would like to make that I believe others have more or less made. Even if NASA’s small budget was too be taken away and given to education or other social programs we still would have uneducated and poor people in this country.

   If we are worried about money I think it would be a good idea if NASA got some of that unused stimulus money. NASA work does stimulate the economy. If I am not mistaken NASA has business partners/contractors in every state. What NASA does impacts a lot of communities in this country.
6. Jim says:

   November 16, 2009 at 10:08 am

   This editorial embarrasses me to admit to being an alumnnus of CSUF. This country spends more annually on bottled water than the NASA budget. I have a great job that partially supports NASA missions, so of course I am biased, but the money spent on NASA is not spent in space. It is spent here on earth employing thousands of really smart people. Grow up!
7. Brian D. says:

   November 16, 2009 at 11:21 am

   Just to add, our Space program is about the only program that is still ahead of other countries, and even that is fast changing. Countries like China, India, Japan, and the European Union (not a country but still), are all preparing for ambitious space missions in the near future, and to cut funding to our program would have negative implications.
8. Mike says:

   November 16, 2009 at 11:35 am

   I can tell the editorial team did little to no research before espousing their opinion. Did they even bother to look at all the educationally-focused projects NASA currently does, including astronauts visiting schools, donations of special image, contests, internships, grants, etc? Do they even know there is an experiment on the shuttle launching right now that involves 100s of schools around the country? No. It may be easier to just write whatever comes to mind in a snarky editorial but this does the community a large disservice.
9. Priyanka says:

   November 16, 2009 at 12:19 pm

   This is full of shit. NASA found jack shit. It was India who found water like 2 months ago. How disgraceful …
10. Sean says:

    November 16, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    The discovery of water on the moon was made months ago by images, this recent LCROSS mission only confirms it. To degrade this historic feet on behalf of the human race is a disgrace. I mean what is the editorial writer thinking? This discovery puts us only one step closer to finding whether there is life, other than on Earth, which we have been debating for centuries, and you are so ready to dismiss that as being insignificant? I suspect that there will be more information released from NASA as it becomes more available to the public such as there were large deposits of sodium detected as well, according to Richard C. Hoagland. Everything is not only about money, as long as the fed is writing out blank checks, i.e. the federal reserve. It’s what the world thinks of us that creates a better economy which space discovery is a big part of. If our country was based solely on economics then why waste time in going into a field of your choice, you should be so lucky.
11. J says:

    November 16, 2009 at 12:50 pm

    Wow, really terrible editorial – ignorance at its best. I was hoping for a serious critique, maybe something NASA did wrong. Maybe you should suggest cutting the department of defense budget instead? The water on the moon isn’t for drinking water, it is for fuel and various future projects. Without it, the next stage of space travel is nearly impossible. This was really stupid.
12. So awesome says:

    November 16, 2009 at 1:59 pm

    Satire is hard, guys. =(
13. anonymous says:

    November 17, 2009 at 9:59 pm

    The daily titan’s editorial staff once again proves just what terrible journalists they are.
14. Jeff H says:

    November 18, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    As a CSUF grad (Communications, ‘99) and a former Daily Titan editorial board member, I am saddened by the quality of the editorial and the lack of thought behind it. The country’s space program has been an easy and convenient target for the uninformed and misguided since the end of the Apollo program in the 1970s. As has been said above, NASA’s budget is minuscule compared to the rest of the federal budget; it’s less than 1 percent. With that shoestring budget, look at all it has accomplished and all it is tasked with. Whether you agree that the space shuttle, the International Space Station, or space exploration in general is worth the cost or the risk, you have to admit that the technological advances — to say nothing of national pride and human advancement — brought about by our exploration has been worth it. This is more than cell phones and microtechnology. It’s about inspiring new generations, about pushing the human race into even more frontiers. Every year, the naysayers point out that NASA’s budget could be spent on “better things.” You in fact point to education. Do you not realize that NASA has a very respected education component in its charter? Did you not realize that teachers from across the country are sent each year to NASA-sponsored conferences and educational workshops to learn new programs and procedures that help them better educate their students in math and science? Are you really comfortable allowing the United States to fall even further behind other industrial (and emerging) countries in these fields? And, finally, with the sheer bulk of the federal budget, do you honestly believe that NASA’s space exploration budget will make any sort of measurable dent?
15. Rakim says:

    November 23, 2009 at 11:47 pm

    Look whitey’s going to the moon again! How about you pay my tuition and buy me a tv instead of going to the moon?
16. Anon says:

    November 25, 2009 at 12:26 am

    How about you work for it filth.

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