Biden Administration Issues New Framework for Space Policy, With a Focus on Climate Change (theverge.com) 31
Today, Vice President Kamala Harris' office released a new framework for US space policy, detailing how the Biden administration plans to approach commercial, civil, and military space activity moving forward. From a report: Called the United States Space Priorities Framework, the document keeps many of the same space priorities from the previous administration but adds a new emphasis on using space to help combat climate change and investing in STEM education. The new framework comes ahead of today's National Space Council meeting, the first one to be held under the Biden administration. Harris, who chairs the National Space Council, will convene the policy advisory group at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, at 1:30PM ET today.
[...] When it comes to space, the Biden administration is carrying forward many of the priorities set by the Trump administration. Notably, NASA's ambitious Artemis program, which was solidified under Trump, is still a major focus under Biden. And plenty of the topics discussed under Pence's Space Council are included in the new framework released by Harris. A few of the key points include maintaining US leadership in space by sending humans back to the Moon and exploring the Solar System with robotic spacecraft, fostering a competitive, regulatory environment for space companies, and defending against security threats in space while strengthening our space assets. In the biggest break from the previous administration, there looks to be a renewed focus on using space in the fight against climate change. In the new framework, the administration pledges to invest in satellites that can observe Earth from space, helping scientists better understand our changing climate. "Open dissemination of Earth observation data will support both domestic and international efforts to address the climate crisis," the document states. To further drive home this new emphasis on climate research from space, President Biden plans to sign a new Executive Order today that will add five new members to the National Space Council, including the Secretaries of Education, Labor, Agriculture, and the Interior, but also notably the National Climate Advisor.
[...] When it comes to space, the Biden administration is carrying forward many of the priorities set by the Trump administration. Notably, NASA's ambitious Artemis program, which was solidified under Trump, is still a major focus under Biden. And plenty of the topics discussed under Pence's Space Council are included in the new framework released by Harris. A few of the key points include maintaining US leadership in space by sending humans back to the Moon and exploring the Solar System with robotic spacecraft, fostering a competitive, regulatory environment for space companies, and defending against security threats in space while strengthening our space assets. In the biggest break from the previous administration, there looks to be a renewed focus on using space in the fight against climate change. In the new framework, the administration pledges to invest in satellites that can observe Earth from space, helping scientists better understand our changing climate. "Open dissemination of Earth observation data will support both domestic and international efforts to address the climate crisis," the document states. To further drive home this new emphasis on climate research from space, President Biden plans to sign a new Executive Order today that will add five new members to the National Space Council, including the Secretaries of Education, Labor, Agriculture, and the Interior, but also notably the National Climate Advisor.
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The U.S. is a big country, it can both compete with China and work against global warming.
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You know that one of the world's largest economies, with 330 million people living there, can do more than one thing, right?
As it turns out, the guys working on hypersonic weapons may not actually be the same guys working on satellites that help to get better data about melting polar ice and shit. And when it comes to defense spending, I don't think we've ever seen a Congress that isn't enthusiastically loading stacks of $100s into confetti cannons at the Pentagon.
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well who else would lead the struggle sessions?
Re:Anytime you see "climate advisor"... (Score:5, Informative)
the words "climate advisor" or "diversity advisor" appear nowhere in the document (which wasn't linked, but is here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-... [whitehouse.gov] ).
Even the sentence in the summary "there looks to be a renewed focus on using space in the fight against climate change" mis-states what is in the list of priorities. The actual document doesn't mention "fighting" climate change; it talks about Earth observation satellites observing climate change. But that's not a change, the only new thing here is that a program that's been ongoing ( https://eospso.nasa.gov/conten... [nasa.gov]) has made it to the top-level statement of priorities,
Not much new (Score:2)
Basically just a set of top-level inspirational principles, not really a blueprint for action.
yawn (Score:1)
When Trump is reelected in 2024 and all weather satellite programs will be sidelined again.
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Wtf? The only thing similar here is that both articles are about NASA.
Feel free to keep nailing yourself to that cross though, it's what Trumpians are best at.
Whole of government (Score:4, Interesting)
This is why I seethe with cynicism.
A "whole of government approach" to X simply means that all the petty jockeying for money and contracts in any government program will include a boilerplate blurb about how Joe Blow's particular pet project would facilitate X.
X can be climate change or "equity" or counter-terrorism, but whatever it is, I promise to spend the money you give me on fighting/furthering/studying X, so gimmegimmegimme.
This would be amusing except for the unfortunate reality of a finite amount of mental cycles and physical resources. If I'm doing mental gymnastics justifying how my highway repair plan fights racism and climate change, I'm spending fewer resources patching potholes and selecting contractors who do a better job of laying down road surface that develops fewer potholes.
About 10 years ago Massachusetts really cheaped out on highway resurfacing. And what ended up happening is that almost every single lane marking on I-95 (aka 128) around Boston developed into a giant pothole over the course of a few years.
The pre-emptive scraping of dry roadway by snowplows that I observed several times didn't help I'm sure, but selecting road surface and lane marking paint that doesn't turn into potholes every winter is a subtle-enough task that it obviously gets lost in the cracks easily enough when there are distractions.
Whole-of-government propaganda campaigns are a distraction. Good governance is about removing distractions. Therefore a whole of government campaign against climate change is on the whole poor governance.
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I doubt it's anything to do with the marker paint on the highways. To keep traffic moving Mass. started paving each individual lane separately, so as to keep as little of the highway blocked as possible.
End result? The lane markers is where those separate pavings meet, so that is where the potholes form first. I think it's just that simple.
Re: Whole of government (Score:1)
If that were the explanation then the potholes wouldn't have been concentrated almost exclusively at the lane markers.
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Actually, Virginia just did what Virginia has been doing for over a century - not re-electing governors. Virginians don't like having a governor for longer than one term. Sitting governors actually are barred from running for a consecutive term, and only two guys since 1830 have ever served more than one term. In fact, the second guy to do it had to switch parties to get re-elected.
And it's not like Terry McAuliffe is anyone's idea of a wildly popular governor - he's a Clinton Network hack with name reco
I'm sure this will really help (Score:3)
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Just cut the legs out from under it (Score:2)
Anyone with any real-world experience knows that when an employee or team is given a pointless and intractable task, upper management just wants them out of the way or gone completely. Clearly, this administration has no interest in manned space missions to the moon or Mars. But that's okay, Elon Musk will have been there and done that before they ever get off the ground.
Nuclear fission power, 2 birds with 1 stone (Score:1)
If the Biden Administration is concerned about space exploration and global warming then they had better get working on developing nuclear fission power and training the people needed to develop, build, and operate these nuclear fission power plants.
There's no water flowing on Mars. There's no wind in orbit. The sun sets on the surface of the moon for two weeks at a time. If we are going to put people on the moon and Mars, and set up permanently manned stations, then we need nuclear fission power. It's
Ask not... (Score:3)
...what your country can do for you; instead, ask what possible current trendy thing we can focus NASA on instead of, you know, "space exploration".
Hey, at least it's not Arab Outreach, their former primary mission.
What an idiot (Score:1)
Very interested to see what happens to Artemis (Score:2)
BTW I AM in favor of Artemis - doing things for national pride is valuable, but I will be surprised if it sta
What? Climate change? (Score:3)
Surely the first focus of space policy should be not climate change, but equity! What were they thinking?