Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ames.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!amd!dual!ames!eugene From: eugene@ames.UUCP (Eugene Miya) Newsgroups: net.misc,net.politics,net.space Subject: Re: SPACE Issues in the Election Message-ID: <626@ames.UUCP> Date: Thu, 8-Nov-84 17:43:13 EST Article-I.D.: ames.626 Posted: Thu Nov 8 17:43:13 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 11-Nov-84 19:41:43 EST References: <882@ihuxp.UUCP> <203@mouton.UUCP> Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA Lines: 30 Hum? Funny, I don't feel like I got slapped. That's okay, it happens everyday. Others have given a pretty good defense on space issues. I won't repeat them. First, NASA is not part, and never was part of the DOD. We are the civlian space agency, and sometimes we bend over backward to prove it. [I like the road-defense analogy.] Second, a lot of people formerly with the DOD do work for NASA, but I can assure you that I would not be working with NASA if there were not people like Carl Sagan and their ideal. I have begun working with Tom Ackermann (one of the five authors of the Nuclear Winter study). NASA potentially gives a lot of hope, and a technological alternative to working with the DOD. In recent years, our budgets have been cut heavily. There is also talk of putting NASA and NIH, USGS, NIH, and other science-oriented offices into a single Cabinent office ala MITI. This could be bad for NASA (I am uncertain, too many variables). As for the candidates: I voted for Mondale/Ferraro [grudgingly]. Mondale could no more abolish NASA that Reagan could disposed of the DOE (although he came close). I am concerned about the future of the country as well as the world, but with inflation and the cost of living in Si Valley going up as well as the budget deficit, I have begun considering taking a position in Japan [perhaps with MITI, or ICOT, or the Japanese space agency]. Hell! what's the purpose of idealism anyway? --eugene miya NASA Ames Res. Ctr. {hplabs,ihnp4,dual,hao,vortex}!ames!aurora!eugene emiya@ames-vmsb.ARPA