Scientists, especially astronomers, are starting to feel more than a little angst about the willingness of governments to fund big science projects in an era of huge budget deficits. Space projects are particularly vulnerable in the current climate.
Why are astronomy projects so big and expensive?
A story in Space Review suggests space-based telescopes that seek to answer long standing questions about the universe are inherently expensive. Building instruments large enough so that they can peer to the edges of the universe, image other worlds and other celestial with increasing clarity, while sustaining themselves for years in the harsh environment in space is not a cheap endeavor. The government's tendency to stretch projects out to cut the annual expenditure on them while exploding their lifetime cost is also not helpful.
The James Webb Space Telescope Example
The prime example of a big science project mired in funding politics is the next big space based astronomy project, the James Webb Space Telescope. According to NASA, the JWST is the very definition of big science, with a 21.3 feet mirror and a sun shield the size of a tennis court. It has suffered cost overruns and had a near death experience last year when the House attempted to cancel the project. The funding was restored in conference with the Senate, but astronomers will not feel entirely secure until the telescope is safely built launched, scheduled in 2018.
How Funding Big Science Works
Within the NASA budget, programs compete for funding from a finite amount of money that most do not expect to grow while the budget deficit is so huge. Robotic space missions compete with crewed space flight. Big science like the JWST competes with smaller space science projects. The smaller projects are going to have to give up some funding to keep the JWST going.
This results in a great deal of predatory budgeting in which supporters of one project try to get other projects cancelled in order to free up more funding. This has started a revival of the robots vs. humans controversy that has roiled through the space agency since its beginning. Supporters of projects such as the JWST believe that if larger, more expensive programs like the Space Transportation System and the Orion space craft were defunded, more money would be freed up for their favorites.
What does the future hold?
A story in Space.Com suggests some pessimism in the space science community. There is a belief that big projects like the JWST may only be affordable every 20 or 30 years. In any event, the budget pinch is likely to continue until national governments get their books into balance and the current economic downturn goes into full recovery, increasing tax revenues available for government spending.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker . He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.
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