Time to get myself a telescope

Posted on January 15, 2006 by Gene

There are two remarkably amazing things about NASA lately: first off, the Stardust mission. Can you imagine the incredible amount of engineering and math that make it possible to launch a probe from Earth, rendezvous with a comet, collect samples, then return to Earth and land it just where they planned? How about the fantastic engineering that put not one, but two robot rovers on Mars, where despite all odds they have exceeded their expected life by more than a year? Perhaps these “cheap” missions are the way things should be done more often at NASA, because their expensive boondoggles like the space shuttle and the space station are pretty much devoid of wonder, excitement, or even real science.
The second thing? NASA shares it all with us. When they get pictures, we get pictures. When they get data, we get data. These days it seems very rare to have a government agency — funded by the American people — that gives their product to those people. With the Bush administration agencies seemingly in the pockets of corporations and sticking it to the very people who fund it, the people they are supposed to serve; this open flow of information from NASA is astonishing and refreshing. And inspiring.