“NASA Industrial Complex” New Twist on Eisenhower’s Warning
Dr Jerry Krause offers a personal scientific insight into NASA’s burgeoning budgetary demands after we posted Andrew Follett’s ‘There’s A Huge Glacier On Mars, And It Once Covered Most Of The Planet.’ Read below (from his posted comment):
In his farewell speech (1/17/1961) President Eisenhower raised the issue of the Cold War and role of the U.S. armed forces. He described the Cold War: “We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method … ” and warned about what he saw as unjustified government spending proposals and continued with a warning that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence whether, sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” (Wikipedia)
The Magellan spacecraft was launched by NASA (5/4/1989) to use radar to map the surface of Venus. This ended an eleven year gap in U.S. interplanetary probe launches.
I attended the International Colloquium On Venus, August 10-12, 1992 and over-heard an informal, early morning, conversation between a representative of the major aerospace contractor Lockheed Martin and a representative of NASA. The topic of the conversation was about the large (huge) cost of the Magellan radar mapping project and what NASA might be planning to get more funding from the U.S. government.
It seems NASA-industrial complex has replaced the military-industrial complex as seeking “unjustified government spending proposals” of limited value to the general welfare of the USA.
“This discovery of the glacier on Mars is more evidence that the Red Planet may contain habitats that could potentially support life.
“Geologists from Yale University and Brock University found in September that hydrogen, a critical component necessary to support life, could be produced by some kind of “Marsquakes,” removing another major barrier to life.”
How is it that some scientists seem so obsessed with ‘life’ at other places, than the earth, in the universe? I believe one might find the answer in Eisenhower’s farewell address.
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