Asteroid Incoming!

In her post, Here I am sitting on my tin can far above the Moon; Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do, my classmate, Cheri Morris makes the argument that cutting NASA's budget is very, very dangerous to our future, because of the ever-present danger that we face from a possible asteroid impact.

She begins by pointing out that the government is cutting NASA's budget, and then proceeds to argue that we should give them more money for finding asteroids and protecting Earth. While I agree with both the fact that asteroids are incredibly dangerous to us (not just as people, but as a species), and that we should not be cutting NASA's budget in any way, I also disagree directly with some of the conclusions she reached in her post.

First, while NASA's budget is indeed being cut, they are shuffling money around. As noted in various articles around the internet, such as this one from Slate, NASA is actually spending more money on asteroid detection and collision prevention this year than they did last year, so that budget is not being cut.

I think that the true issue here is the programs that NASA is going to have to cut to be able to keep funding in areas deemed critical, such as the asteroid program. The article I listed above does a nice job of outlining the various areas that have been cut that should not have been.

These areas include planetary science (Trips to Mars, etc.), crewed missions (You know, actual humans in space...), and most importantly of all, education.

Cheri points out very directly that one of the biggest issues, one of the reasons that there's not more backlash against this cut, is that the public is uneducated. I completely agree on this subject. I subscribe to the belief that "Space is the final frontier", and that it is one of the most important topics to educate people about. Education funding should be critical, and one of the very last things to get cut in any circumstances.

Thus, while I agree that the budget cuts are bad, and that they are hitting NASA, I do not think the biggest issue is the danger of an asteroid strike--in part because the budget in that area was not actually cut--but rather education.