SPACE SCIENCE: NASA Chief Blasts Science Advisers, Widening Split With Researchers -- Lawler 313 (5790): 1032a -- Science

SPACE SCIENCE: NASA Chief Blasts Science Advisers, Widening Split With Researchers -- Lawler 313 (5790): 1032a -- Science: (subscription required).

"'The scientific community … expects to have far too large a role in prescribing what work NASA should do,' (NASA Administrator Michael) Griffin wrote council members in a blistering 21 August message. 'By 'effectiveness,' what the scientific community really means is 'the extent to which we are able to get NASA to do what we want to do.''

"The outside engineers, scientists, and educators on the council traditionally offer advice on the agency's policies, budget, and projects. Placed in limbo for nearly a year after Griffin took over as NASA chief in spring 2005, NAC was reorganized this spring under the leadership of geologist Harrison Schmitt, a former U.S. senator and Apollo astronaut who is very enthusiastic about President George W. Bush's plans to send humans back to the moon and to Mars. Schmitt replaced Charles Kennel, director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, who resigned last week from his post as chair of the council's science committee. Two other NAC members--former NASA space science chief Wesley Huntress and Provost Eugene Levy of Rice University in Houston, Texas--resigned last week in response to a direct request from Griffin that they step down.

"Schmitt and members of that committee have clashed repeatedly in recent months over the role of science at the space agency. In a pointed 24 July memo to science committee members, Schmitt complained that they lacked 'willingness to provide the best advice possible to Mike,' refused to back Griffin's decision to cut research funds for astrobiology or recommend an alternative cut, and resisted considering the science component of future human missions to the moon. 'Some members of the committee,' he concluded, 'are not willing to offer positive assistance to Mike.'"

I don't know the details of this public controversy. We had such high hopes for Griffin when he was appointed, and I suppose there is always a tension between the engineers and astronauts (who may tend to be interested in space technology per se) and the scientists (who may tend to want to use space platforms to gain scientific knowledge.) But the politics of NASA make me suspicious. The Bush Administration gets a lot of negative publicity due to the environmental community's reaction to new NASA science results, and a safe technology development program (which will have to be paid for mostly by future administrations)doesn't pose much threat.