Elections and Space Missions | StarTalk

eighty-eight percent of Congress stands
for election every two years
eighty-eight percent president stands
for election every four years space
missions require planning budget cycling
planning rd development and execution
that lasts way longer than these
political cycles these political winds
and so we need a way to assure a
continuity of mission statement for NASA
regardless of what happens in the white
house or outside of the White House and
that’s a challenge it means now a
president might want to promise
something in the future 20 years from
now but is that President still
president 20 years from now know is
there a budget line corresponding to
that now no so what does it mean to
promise it these are the challenges of
NASA and had been that like forever so I
think in the end the mission of NASA
rests with the electorate because if we
all want to go into space for reasons
that you would I think have to justify
for yourself I can help you do that but
i’m not going to twist your arm i’m not
i’m just going to alert you of the cause
of the consequences of inaction the
consequences of action and what that can
do for us but then you decide it’s a
free country you decide it won’t matter
what one president thinks relative to
the next one will be elected people into
power who all share this vision so it’s
not gee i wonder what this president
thinks about the vision i will know what
that president will think about the
vision because we voted for that person
to enter office on a platform that
embraced space exploration from the
beginning