[AR] Re: OT economy booster
- From: Edward Wright <edward.v.wright@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2015 18:13:09 -0600
On Dec 30, 2015, at 3:33 PM, Henry Vanderbilt <hvanderbilt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I'd say that means that activists who focus primarily on defunding SLS/Orion
should be ready, if they actually succeed, to see the bulk of the money
simply go away from NASA's overall budget rather than to some other project
those activists may support.
Perhaps, but history suggests otherwise.
I remember when Chaz Miller said that Constellation was NASA's last chance. "If
they didn't succeed this time, Congress might turn their back on them."
But it didn't turn out that way at all. There's a tremendous inertia in the
NASA budget, and Congress never seems to tire of giving them "last" chances.
I think it's very likely that if SLS fails, it will be replaced by a new
program with a new name (which is more or less identical to SLS in every other
respect). Just as Ares V was replaced by SLS.
The realistic activist position (IMHO) is to vigorously attack SLS/Orion
coalition efforts to hijack additional funding (current and future) from, and
otherwise hinder, *useful* NASA programs,
Vigorous attacks on an entrenched enemy with superior resources are likely to
be expensive. At the same time, the activist community ignores targets of
opportunity which could be easy victories.
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