This was one of the topics on today's science Friday. Maybe it was me but when the president's representative (a former astronaut) tried to defend the president's budget she seemed somewhat less that sincere. Others interviewed were even less so. Science Friday: http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2006/Mar/hour1_031006.html Podcast of today's show: http://media36b.libsyn.com/podcasts/sciencefriday/scifri-2006031011.mp3 Chuck Hards wrote:
I heard a story and interviews pertaining to this on NPR Friday afternoon:
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1691_1.asp
One wonders if the MRO data will be of any practical value by the time another lander- robotic or manned- touches the Martian surface. It seems that planetary science will be in the doldrums for a decade or two, in order to fund a shuttle that's only a few years from the scrap pile, and the ISP.
But hey, that space station sure is spiffy, eh? We'll have a place to send a few wealthy space tourists on Russian and Chinese rockets.
It's just as well there are no astronomy-related science-fair projects. There won't be any jobs for young astronomers anyway.