Mike Griffin Report

I hope you all go over to our Slacker Extra feed and take a listen to what the current director of NASA, Michael Griffin had to say.

On Tuesday, NASA administrator Michael Griffin addressed the AAS. This is actually a rarity. Astronomy is in some ways the redheaded bastard stepchild of NASA. We generally send cute little robotic science platforms to space rather then rough and rugged men. We like satellites more than the shuttle, and would rather launch telescopes than pieces of the International Space Station. When we get near a NASA administrator, we fight to defend our small chunk of the NASA budget. We are like the child that fights to get attention of the parents.

Griffins talk is one of the most poetic talks I’ve heard in a while. I felt like I was hearing a classic book reading – something written by Peltier perhaps, or something written under the inspiration of Peltier by Levy. Griffin is someone who is clearly passionate about what he does, and who became a scientist because he was driven by heart not by pride and ambition (that's not to say he isn't, just that those things are beneath a passion that can't be surpressed)

His talk was a breath of frankness in a city where most things are hidden under a layer of political mumbo jumbo. Someone of what he said bugged me, but at least he was honest. Among his announcements: he wants to save Hubble, but it can't be done without the shuttle. No robot will miraculously be designed. Either the shuttle will work before Hubble loses its gyros, or it won't. Those are our options.

He also surprised many people in the audience when he presented Neta Bachall an award memorializing the outstanding contributions of her husband, John Bahcall, up until his death last year. Coming to the stage, Neta had her hair dyed jet black, and she speaks with a soft European accent. She had stops between sentences that could have been part of maintaining her perfect composure or they could have been part of making sure she accurately reads her notes. I felt, as I listened, that both these gossip columnist type impressions are part of what controls the metronome of this singular scientist's presentation. How many speeches has she had to give, accepting awards on behalf of the husband with whom she shared her life and so often shared the authorship of well referenced, cutting edge science papers? Bahcall and Bahcall is a scientific partnership that will be missed.

When Nita was done, Griffen returned to his talk, projecting the future. He alluded to his desire to make space exploration a manned enterprise. He did acknowledge that human space exploration scares us scientists who like to send our robotic instruments to other worlds because manned space flight tends to steal our budgets. He stated that he doesn’t want to hurt our work, but acknowledged that everything can’t be done in the single, small NASA budget – things will be canceled. The question is what? GLAST seems safe – he sees it as part of the bright future. The Space Interferometry Mission was also mentioned, along with James Webb Space Telescope as part of our future. Only time will tell if they actually live. Budgets are tight. And they are getting worse.

During the question and answer session one thing that came up that really frustrated me was the phrase "NASA is not the department of Education." This sentence was used more than once by more than one NASA administrator. It refers to the idea that while NASA does fund educational initiatives (it has both a NASA education department and education and public outreach initiatives associated with many space missions), its main focus isn't education, and they are looking to reduce the money they expend on teaching. This is something that is going to be discussed bye a well known state university faculty member in an upcoming Phantom Astronomer, so for now I'm simply going to say I'm annoyed, and this faculty member can articulate all the ideas behind my annoyance better than I can. What the SA-Extra feed. Things are about to get interesting.

The internet keeps going down in the hotel. I would have posted this yesterday, but the while I could download anything I wanted, I couldn't even submit a web form. The problems at this conference are unending. Someone is going to be written a letter, but for now I'm just going to write to you, gentle reader.

There is more coming. More is stored and waiting to be written. Tune in tomorrow, and I'll some up the final day of the conference (which was admittedly today, but since I'm posting yesterday today, I'm going to post today tomorrow. Make sense?)

AND tonight is the press dinner and the after hours party. . .
-Pamela