By jonathan, Section Commentary Posted on Mon Aug 07, 2006 at 02:33:59 PM PST
NASA stance that removing the sentence" to understand and protect our home planet" takes them away from the core scientific values it was founded under.
It is reported in the Sunday New York Times ("NASA's Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet" [ed: link]) that NASA last week revised its Mission Statement to exclude the words "to understand and protect our home planet". The revision is being interpreted as an administrative effort to reduce NASA's involvement in the global warming debate after Dr. James Hansen of NASA's climate group claimed the administration was attempting to stifle his work. The revision should not have been made. From the vantage of a company that supplies advanced materials to NASA and its varied programs, it is clear that there is a significant interdependency between the work being done at NASA and America's efforts to monitor its own biosphere for a whole host of reasons. For example, American Elements has provided materials for optical research in programs that are intended to improve the quality of both satellite tracking and weather pattern advanced mapping. The current Mission Statement would preclude this second task. Yet there is no other government agency with the capability or capacity to do this research and the U.S. agricultural industry is the chief benefactor. This program would have failed to achieve its potential if this essentially already funded collateral benefit of improved weather mapping were not one program goal. In order to take full advantage of the efforts already being funded by NASA, the Mission Statement should be returned to its original message.
Jonathan M. Brooks
American Elements Academic & Periodicals Dept.
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