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The space shuttle itself will be retired in 2010, so why stop there? President Obama, during the Democratic primary, suggested that he would cut NASA funding. Instead he's raised the budget by 5 percent. Limiting NASA's ambitions to Earthbound lab research could save roughly $8 billion—a small percentage of the federal budget, but a sum to purchase computers for millions of disconnected children, or boost the salaries of tens of thousands of teachers. It could vaccinate 20 million girls against the HPV virus or fund the construction of light rail lines in Albuquerque, Charlotte and Washington. Most importantly, redirecting the skilled labor of our aerospace engineers could, perhaps, create opportunities and technologies that save the planet beneath our feet.
Legislators and activists have frequently compared the race for environmental sustainability to the Apollo program. “We still have the ability to launch a technological revolution, as we did in 1961,” says Congressman Jay Inslee, who authored Apollo’s Fire with Bracken Hendricks in 2007. “We need a New Apollo Energy Project to spur economic growth, reduce carbon emissions and break our addiction to foreign oil.” This ambitious project will rely heavily upon the same skills profile on tap at NASA, where investments in research satellites, sensors, models and analysis have already expanded understanding of climate change and its effects. The American Clean Energy and Security Act, recently passed by the House of Representatives, calls for investments in biofuels, next generation batteries, electrical and mechanical engineering models and solar nanotechnology. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act did the same.
It is, of course, dangerous to engage in these zero-sum hypothetical scenarios. But the human spaceflight program is up for review in August—and Major Bolden could take the agency in a bold new direction. It’s clear by now that he must solve the agency’s inefficiencies and find ways to deploy the scientific capital at NASA in ways that will best serve America. Why not give the world’s best engineers a mission to Planet Earth?
Dayo Olopade is a Washington reporter for The Root.
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But is the agency’s continued quest for outer space good for America? free games
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this reaction gates had was to be laughed at.....crowely should hv
said fellas lets go this old man has gone crazy he varified this is his
house..and started to laugh listen guys he still yapping ha ha..and
called it a day..now gates don't drive now I understand because he
really don't know under any other circumstance he would hv found
himself getting up off the ground or worse..that man had a gun his friends
had guns..not me
............just a comment first I'm glad obama didn't literally say I'm sorry you kidding
me...also gates needed that obviously he's been sheltered..like robert johnson..with his
deep dark disrespectfu statement campaign..I hope I'm not the only
black man that didn't see the irony the familiarity between the richie case and these
campbrige cops..demanding obama say he was sorry..and isn't funny not one
black man..I mean not one..passed that firefighters test..are you seeing whats
really going on these white folks are beside themselves a BLACK PRESIDENT
we better stop drinking boys and leave this obama alone as he said 'I AM THE
PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" the most powerful man in
country...and that goes for all those so called...master you sick then I'm sick chumps
but they hvn't figured it out yet this man obama isn't nobodys fool you're about to see
something happening right before our eyes don't blink I know no race has been
hated an mistreated..lied to..beaten..jailed..denied..life itself..
"NASA is part of the Department of Defense..."
When did that happen? NASA is listed below as an independent agency of the federal government.
http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/Executive.shtml
http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/Independent.shtml#N
"Retired Major General Charles Bolden" is not a "Major" as referred to on page 2; he's a General, or a Major General ret., but Major is below Lieutenant Colonel.
Even in an opinion piece such as this, things put forward as factual really ought to square with the verifiable facts. Some things are still grounded in objective truth, even in this "make it up as you go along" relativistic age.