Neal Degrasse Tyson and NASA

This past Friday, Neil deGrasse Tyson was on Science Friday.

Prior to that hour of radio, I had no idea that Dr. Tyson was on a campaign to educate Americans about the importance of continuing space exploration.  Boy, do I know that now.

It's not clear how much success he's having on that mission but it is clear that he's passionate about it, and perhaps more importantly, he's a great ambassador.  He's like a good professor: he communicates well, he listens to questions with interest - and then answers them!, and he gets excited about his subject matter.  If you asked me prior to the show whether I wanted to listen to an hour-long podcast about raising money for space exploration, I would have said "no way."  But I listened to the whole thing, and enjoyed it!  (Hear Dr. Tyson talk about the most astounding thing in the universe here.)

During the show, someone asked whether we shouldn't be focusing on the problems here at home rather than worrying about outer space.  Dr. Tyson responded by pointing out that the federal government spends 50 times as much on domestic social programs as we do on the entire NASA budget.

I have no idea how much of that money spent on social programs I actually see.  My first instinct is to say, "not much," but it's probably more than I would think.  Regardless, I'm certain that, penny for penny spent, the amount of enjoyment or satisfaction or whatever you want to call it which I get from NASA projects far outstrips that from federal social programs.  (For evidence, see here, here, and here.  And look!  Even in that last post, I was in agreement with Neil.  I just didn't think I'd want to hear him talk about it.  Lesson learned.)

Now, I grant that when things go wrong at NASA, they can go so spectacularly, disastrously wrong that they put other government missteps to shame.  However, given their relatively paltry budget, NASA seems to do a darn good job avoiding those disasters, or at least taking them seriously when they do happen.  I bet lots of politicians could learn something there.

On a related note, WU professor Ray Arvidson is the science advisor to NASA's Curiosity Project (aka the Mars Science Laboratory).  He was written up recently in the St. Louis Business Journal.

Long live my little rovers!

[Aside: have you seen NASA's most recent satellite photo of Earth?  If not, you can check it out here, and the story includes a link to download a high-res copy for your own self.]