NASA administrator Charles Bolden Jr. recently revealed what seems to be a startling change in the objectives and methods of the world's foremost space exploration agency. According to Bolden in an interview with Middle East news station Al-Jazeera, President Barack Obama charged him with three tasks. The first was to re-inspire children to get into science and math. The second was "to expand our international relationships." In the third and "perhaps foremost" task, Obama asked Bolden "to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering" ("Obama's New Mission for NASA," July 5th).
These objectives are radically off-topic coming from the head of an agency that specializes in space exploration, technology development and scientific discovery. Indeed, NASA is a highly specialized organization that must stick to its core objectives to achieve its goals, and any attempt by the President to realign NASA's purposes in such a manner is farcical and unjustified.
Historically, NASA has kept itself busy exploring the final frontier and expanding the limits of human knowledge. It has captivated millions because of the audacity of its undertakings and the astonishing progress it has made. Not only did NASA send a man to the moon, it sent 12 men safely there and back. In the process, it spurred tremendous advances in the technology of aviation, telecommunications and computers that continue to impact our lives today. Its objectives have been clear since the outset explore, discover and learn. The organization believes that through achieving these goals in outer space, it can ultimately improve life on Earth.
As an organization, NASA has enjoyed a position essentially above politics. Its role has been to better our nation and our world through its primary tasks. Although it is under the jurisdiction of each successive administration, NASA has never been used to advance the policy goals of an administration in a purely political way.
Contrast this rich history with Obama's new plan for NASA as a pseudo-education, world diplomacy and "Muslim therapy" agency. The first objective formulated by Obama, to re-inspire an interest in science and math, is a reasonable goal of any administration but shouldn't be a primary task of NASA. Inspiring education is actually a byproduct of NASA's work. In the 1960s and 1970s, math and science education in America improved significantly, in part because of NASA was showing, not telling, the United States and its students the great places math and engineering could take mankind.
Obama has also charged NASA with expanding and improving international relationships. However, this task is not the objective of space exploration it is a byproduct. International relations are improved when multiple nations collaborate and use each other's specialized technologies and abilities to achieve common goals. Obama clearly misunderstands this cause and effect relationship, and his directive for NASA to focus on expanding international relationships bespeaks this misconception.
According to the new directive, the final and "perhaps foremost" task of NASA under Bolden is to help the Muslim world "feel good" about its contributions to science over the centuries. This is a perversion of NASA's core mission and a slap in the face to all of its achievements. NASA is not in the business of enhancing the self-esteem of Tajikistanis and Afghanis, regardless of their contribution to science. This task sets a new course for NASA, one that undermines the greatness of its previous path. Obama's edict reveals that the President believes NASA must move on from the fruitful activity of space exploration. It should move on to pursuing personal foreign policy goals, move on to exalting the Muslim world's scientific accomplishments, and move on to a future in which NASA no longer represents scientific prowess and the beacon of human intellect.
The critic will say that NASA will continue exploring space in addition to these new tasks. I hope that the critic is correct, but given what Obama has told the head of the most prolific space exploration agency on the planet to do, NASA's traditional objectives may fall by the wayside. Indeed, if NASA waters down its program, it will have little time to achieve its initial goals. If this happens, both Obama's initiatives and NASA's mission will have failed.
