It appears to me NASA is very, very good at deep space exploration and science. They have hit the ball out of the park in countless ways: Pluto probes, Mars landers, solar probes, even going way back to the Voyagers, Vikings, etc, not even to mention their atmospheric research, biological research, and everything else they do. It's sweet!
However, it also appears to me that NASA gets its chain yanked hither and fro by politicians. "Build this!" "No, never mind! Build that". "No! Here's a third thing...but you can't have any money!" They are at the whims of non-scientific politicians and political processes. However, inside NASA, they have experts who decide which upcoming missions should be undertaken, and those experts come from a scientific POV, not a political POV. (Or if there's politics, it's at least "science politics", not "professional politician politics").
I feel that NASA would be better served if it had more independence of direction. Its budget could be decided by politicians, but it would set all of its own goals. I'm sure there would still be cost and time overruns (lookin' at you, JWST...) but the vast sums which get spent only to be 180-redirected one political cycle later might end up used better.
Submitted May 25, 2019 at 12:07PM by NoGreenMachine http://bit.ly/30L4yib
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