Tuesday, April 03, 2007

More on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

I wrote a while back about the strong possibility that the one useful science experiment that might go onto the International Space Station might be scrapped. It certainly is a head-scratcher for many people, especially considering that the excuse that was given was that the shuttle is fully booked to finished the ISS. Finish it for WHAT? What exactly is the ISS being finished for?

The New York Times has a lengthy article on this project, and how such cancellation would mean in terms of the credibility of NASA as an organization. Nothing that I've read so far has made me changed my mind. I am still utterly puzzled why this is not given top priority ahead of finishing that space junk called the ISS. The one thing that could have made the ISS worthwhile, NASA is planning on not employing it. You go figure.

Zz.

2 comments:

Kent Leung said...

My guess is that the money required (even though relatively small) is locked up in Bush's Moon-Mars program.

I don't know much about US law. When Bush's term is over can the next president just scrap the whole moon-mars thing?

ZapperZ said...

Oh, I'm sure the money is being siphoned into such ridiculous project. NASA has lost its mission, and science has taken a considerable backseat to such mundane issues.

And we are certainly hoping that the next president will scrap the whole thing.

Zz.