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Should NASA’s Earth Science Budget Come from Crowdfunding?

May 4, 2015

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May 4, 2015 – The current United States House Committee on Science and Technology would rather have NASA get out of the science business and just focus on technology for human missions to space. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone considering the “I’m not a scientist” Senator Ted Cruz is at the helm.

In the new appropriations budget the Earth Science Division of NASA has been gutted. The money NASA wanted to use to study Earth from space is now going to the Orion spacecraft and the SLS or Space Launch System, the gargantuan rocket that will be used in missions to asteroids, the near-Moon environment and then on to Mars. Of course that’s assuming we can send humans on these types of missions without frying their brains.

Senator Cruz is of the opinion that Earth science is not a real science. That the satellites used for Earth observation and the metadata collected by the space agency doesn’t cut it for him. He wants rockets that go to asteroids and Mars. He doesn’t want to study the changes to the Earth’s atmosphere. He doesn’t want to hear about climate change. Sounds like a Florida governor. And this man wants to be president.

Charles Bolden, NASA’s administrator, when asked about the slashed Earth sciences budget stated that the authorized budget “guts our…program and threatens to set back generations worth of progress in better understanding our changing climate and our ability to prepare for and respond to earthquakes, droughts, and storm events.”

This decision by a committee of Congress reminds me of the Australian government’s decision under Prime Minister Tony Abbott to dismantle its Climate Commission and Climate Change Authority. The end result of that decision was a public reaction leading to a crowdfunding campaign which funded a not-for-profit Climate Council which continues to do the work once thought to be a government’s responsibility.

So my suggestion to the American people, as well as to all the rest of us on this planet, who value the contribution NASA makes to Earth sciences and our understanding of the planet, let’s start a crowdfunding campaign to ensure the space agency can continue to do its important work. Please spread the word.