A group of scientists are complaining because NASA isn’t spending enough money to study the earth.

This is another symptom of how screwed up our space policy is. Why should it be NASA’s job to study the earth? I thought that was what NOAA was for? Why not put more money into their budget? Yeah, I know, they don’t have the internal R&D capability to do build and launch satellites, but there’s no reason they couldn’t develop it, or even do something innovative, like managing the overall program while farming out some of the work to Goddard or JPL. Or even, heaven forbid, Ames.

For that matter, this seems like a great application for data purchase. Stipulate what kind of data you want, how much coverage in what lighting conditions, in what spectra, and then purchase it on the market.

The fewer things that NASA has on its plate, the more effective it might be in actually executing them, and not getting into all these pitched battles on the Hill over its budgeting priorities. For that matter, I suspect that both space and aviation would be better off if a separate agency were set up for the latter. The Japanese actually used to have the right idea of separate agencies for science and development (unfortunately, they recently combined them).

[Update a few minutes later]

I hadn’t looked at the Space Act lately, but looky here:

(e) The Congress declares that the general welfare of the United States requires that the unique competence in scientific and engineering systems of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration also be directed toward ground propulsion systems research and development. Such development shall be conducted so as to contribute to the objectives of developing energy- and petroleum-conserving ground propulsion systems, and of minimizing the environmental degradation caused by such systems.

(f) The Congress declares that the general welfare of the United States requires that the unique competence of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in science and engineering systems be directed to assisting in bioengineering research, development, and demonstration programs designed to alleviate and minimize the effects of disability.

Noble goals, to be sure. But again, why NASA?