Warning Issued on Satellite Maintenance

[YankeyMCC]

(snip)
The nation’s ability to track retreating polar ice, shifting patterns of drought, winds and rainfall and other environmental changes is being put “at great risk” by faltering efforts to replace aging satellite-borne sensors, a panel convened by the country’s leading scientific advisory group said.

By 2010, the number of operating earth-observing instruments on NASA satellites, most of which are already past their planned lifetimes, will likely drop by 40 percent, the National Research Council of the National Academies warned in a report today.
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(snip)
Several prominent scientists welcomed the report, saying that while the overall tightening of the federal budget played a role in threatening earth-observing efforts, a significant contributor was also President Bush’s recent call for NASA to focus on manned space missions.

“NASA has a mission ordering that starts with the presidential goals -- first of manned flight to Mars, and second establishing a permanent base on the moon, and then third to examine Earth, which puts Earth rather far down on the totem pole,” said F. Sherwood Rowland, an atmospheric chemist at the University of California at Irvine, who shared a Nobel prize for identifying threats to the ozone layer.
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(snip)
The report is the latest in a string of findings from such panels pointing to dangers from recent disinvestment in long-term monitoring of a fast-changing planet.

“This is the most critical time in human history, with the population never before so big and with stresses growing on the earth,” Dr. Anthes said. “We just want to get back to the United States being a leader instead of someone you can’t count on.”
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The committee identified significant gaps in instrumentation or plans for satellites orbiting over the poles, around the equator, and positioned so that they remain stationary over spots on the rotating earth.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/science/space/15cnd-nasa.html?ex=1326517200&en=2677804f8ddb0720&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[phantom power]

1. defunding climate/weather satellites is a deliberate part of BushCo's agenda.

[bananas]

2. FEMA Deputy During Katrina Now at NASA

"Bush Administration Incompetence to Expand Scope Past Atmosphere"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=228x26571

[Dead_Parrot]

3. So they've dropped the "more research needed" line?

Figures. :(

[crikkett]

4. we have to pay for the war somehow

china can't fund it all.