NASA No Longer Protecting the Planet?
Posted on August 1, 2006
The New York Times recently reported that NASA's mission statement has been changed to delete the phrase "to understand and protect our home planet."
From 2002 until this year, NASA's mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: "To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers ... as only NASA can."The Why Files reports that some NASA scientists are skeptical of the move.In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase "to understand and protect our home planet" deleted. In this year's budget and planning documents, the agency's mission is "to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research."
David E. Steitz, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said the aim was to square the statement with President Bush's goal of pursuing human spaceflight to the Moon and Mars.
But the change comes as an unwelcome surprise to many NASA scientists, who say the "understand and protect" phrase was not merely window dressing but actively influenced the shaping and execution of research priorities. Without it, these scientists say, there will be far less incentive to pursue projects to improve understanding of terrestrial problems like climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
Although Hansen will no longer have the mission statement to justify his research on global warming, on July 29, Griffin assured The New York Times that the change does not reduce NASA's commitment to Earth science. "The strategic plan states that one of our strategic goals is to "study Earth from space to advance scientific understanding and meet societal needs."It does seem like a suspicious move considering the Bush Administration's opposition any science that suggests global warming is a manmade problem. It is worth noting that just a couple months before the phrase "to understand and protect our home planet" was dropped from NASA's statement this editorial ran in the Boston GlobeBut skepticism remains. One scientist (who did not want to be named for fear of retribution from NASA) questioned the motivation behind this recent change. "It's really curious to see these changes coming during the Bush Administration � perhaps the most science-unfriendly administration in recent history. From having White House flunkies doctoring scientific reports on global warming, putting political 'minders' in charge of science communication, and slashing budgets for Earth and environmental science, you have to wonder if this is all politically driven."
SOMEONE SHOULD sit NASA's leaders down and have them read the part of the agency's mission statement that says NASA will work to "understand and protect our home planet." Budget cuts, commitments to the International Space Station, and President Bush's plan to send astronauts to the moon by 2020 have forced the cancellation or postponement of projects aimed at better understanding what is happening on Earth.