Astro Hobo

So, mid-term elections are in a few days. I'm in Europe at the moment, but I voted before I left. A nice, paper absentee ballot where I marked my vote with a pen, so it can be counted.

What about you? Are you going to vote this disastrous group of Republicans out of
office?

"Wait a minute!" some of you might be thinking. "Isn't this a blog about Astronomy?"

You betcha. And guess what? All those lovely telescopes take lots of money and years of commitment by the U.S. government to be built and operated. It can take 15, 20, or even 30 years for a major Nasa mission, such as the Chandra X-ray, Spitzer infrared, or GLAST gamma-ray observatories to be developed, built and flown. In fact, because of the foresight of scientists and politicians from previous decades, going back to the late 60s, we are in the golden age of space-based astronomy.

Which is coming to an end. Simply put, nearly all funding for developing the next generation of astronomy missions has been stopped. So no one really can say what or when will be the next generation of space-based astronomy. Funding throughout the government is being shifted away from scientific research for boondoggles like the Mission to Mars. Things politicians with no respect for science dream up. Basically, the Republican majority is anti-science. That is why, despite the rapid melting of glaciers and the perma-defrost, the increase in global temperatures and hurricanes, instruments to study global warming are sitting in storehouses with no plans to be launched.

So, even if you can't think of any other reason to go and vote the Republicans out of office, do it for science.