What if you were in control of NASA?

[Bassoe]

Give the ISS a module for centrifugal gravity. Given how many miscellaneous plans require it, the fact that nobody's actually done a proper, real-world test seems like an issue that needs to be corrected.

Edited October 22, 2019 by Bassoe

[iDan122]

If I were a philanthropist:

I would start the Mars colonization program, send a crew to Europa(yes, I know), send a mapping probe to every planet(we need maps, right? We will see Pluto close-up only in 2015). Also, build a simple MunBase like in the plans of NASA.

If I were a mezantropist:

Build a space station with rotating modules for artificial g.

Launch a network of 6 "comm satellites" (satellites with chemical payloads extremely toxic).

Launch a crew and your self to the station, then blackmail the continents and regions of Earth to pass out better-world laws. Those who oppose get a chemical payload dropped on their continent/region killing about a billion people.

The artificial gravity deck on my station creates a pull of 1.2g so after 10 years of being in remote control of the world me and my crew go down to the already safe world, strong, healthy and intelligent. We use the things we already have and make the world more advanced with the small populatin of great minds that we have.

Edited August 30, 2013 by iDan122

[Joshington]

"All employees are required to play at least an hour of Kerbal Space Program everyday...for research."

[HAL9000-2001]

1. Cancel all SLS variants except for the super heavy lifter.

2. Reopen the development of Nerva thermal nuclear rocket engines.

3. Triple the current planetary science budget (if possible) and obtain a remote sample return from mars.

4. Launch the Webb space telescope asap and start development of a space based visible telescope at least 15m to replace hubbles capabilities.

5. Use our newly developed atomic engines along with the SLS to land a drilling probe on Europa.

6. Wait for Chinese to land on the moon and the start of a new space race so that congress will fund the development of a manned mars mission using the SLS heavy and Nerva engines to show china who's boss.

7. Distribute a free copy of ksp to everyone in America so that the newly interested public will make sure NASA is never under funded again.

P.s. Fund the development of a space elevator!

Hal9000

[rpayne88]

If I were a mezantropist:

Build a space station with rotating modules for artificial g.

Launch a network of 6 "comm satellites" (satellites with chemical payloads extremely toxic).

Launch a crew and your self to the station, then blackmail the continents and regions of Earth to pass out better-world laws. Those who oppose get a chemical payload dropped on their continent/region killing about a billion people.

The artificial gravity deck on my station creates a pull of 1.2g so after 10 years of being in remote control of the world me and my crew go down to the already safe world, strong, healthy and intelligent. We use the things we already have and make the world more advanced with the small populatin of great minds that we have.

Edited September 2, 2013 by rpayne88

[Moon Goddess]

I would game the system...

I would design a long term mars plan that works with ESA and Russia with deals that are difficult to back out of. This is the only reason the ISS survived.

I would also spend a lot of effort to make sure that every aspect of the project was built, designed or maintained in the district of a high ranking congressperson. And once I had the ball rolling I'd resign cuz I hate management positions.

[Dimetime35c]

I would disband it. Ever since the end of Apollo, NASA has been more of a hindrance than an asset when it comes to utilization of space. As it stands now, it's essentially a bloated jobs program.

There are a few worthwhile projects going on at NASA (the various probes and telescopes), but by far the majority of NASA's funding has gone towards expensive, useless nonsense (the shuttle program, the ISS, etc.). While in a perfect world I would like to see NASA get out of the manned spaceflight business and repurpose itself towards exploration and scientific research, NASA is a government agency; the red tape would make doing so impossible. We'd be better off getting rid of it completely, and creating a new, more narrowly focused agency with that goal in mind.

umm do you not realize that 90% of the tech we use today was built to solve problems or uses things made in space? the shuttle program advanced so many fields of research it would take an entire thread just to list them. the ISS is helping us understand how micro gravity effects things helping to lead to new ways to treat diseases and create new compounds. what have probes and telescopes done for us??? what have the created???? honestly i hope your just trolling cause your re purposing of NASA is what there mission is already

[czokletmuss]

What if you woke up one day, and someone handed you the keys to NASA? If you awoke to be proclaimed Administrator of NASA and Senior Space Science Adviser to the President of the United States?

1. I would struggle with the aerospace sector and politicians

2. I would spend whole days fighting a bureaucracy

3. I would try to make a bunch of friends in the industry (hey, you never now what your next job will be!)

4. I would try to raise my salary and maybe hire some friends of a friends, if you catch my drift

5. I would spend a lot of my time at petty schemes against people I don't like at NASA

6. I would try to spend a lot money on big projects requiring a lot of manhours in the states in which my senator friends are elected

7. I would try to bul**** public opinion doing some silly PR stunts and sell dreams like Moon/asteroid/Mars mission

8. I would do my best to become wealthy and influentional

9. I would give some money for a serious projects to silence the scientific community

10. I would do everything to stay in this position as long as I can

How about that?

[Kerbal01]

I'd make Going to Mars and back to the moon the highest priority. I'd also remove all the burecrasy between NASA and new rocket systems to get them made faster.

[King Arthur]

What if you woke up one day, and someone handed you the keys to NASA? If you awoke to be proclaimed Administrator of NASA and Senior Space Science Adviser to the President of the United States?

1. Cancel SLS (including Orion), the program is a political moneysink and lacks direction and initiative.

2. Pull out of the ISS. The station is not worth the costs of keeping US astronauts in space, especially now that we lack a direct way of getting there.

3. Cancel the James Webb Space Telescope, as ambitious as the program is it has suffered from consistently terrible management and beaurocratic bullcrap.

4. Re-invest in the Great Observatories, developing and launching clear successors to Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra with a strict budget, direction, and tight management.

5. Invest in more unmanned exploration missions along the lines of Voyager, Cassini-Huygens, New Horizons, and the Mars rovers which have all proven consistently throughout history to return scientific data on the order of several magnitudes larger than the original financial investment.

[LaydeeDem]

I would spend the whole budget making powerpoint presentations.

[NGTOne]

I would spend the whole budget making powerpoint presentations.

Isn't that what they do already?

On a more serious note, I would fund the development of a cargo-only mass driver (estimated at as little as $4.4 billion US upfront capital investment) that would lower the cost of reaching space by orders of magnitude (at least for cargo).

Hell, if I ever make my billions, I might just do that ANYWAYS.

[mythbusters844]

I would give control back to whoever had it first.

[Bioman222]

1. Shut down all government sattelites

2. Tell the government that I'd like to negotiate budgeting or they'd be negotiating to the blunt end of a Saturn V

3. Take governmental control

4. Flip Flop the NASA and military budget

5. Do some serious s$%t in space

6. Bring the world together

7. Get some people who don't want to live on this planet anymore.

8. Build a space colony with warpdrive compatibilitie

9. Send them to a distant star

10. Design another one

11. Get aboard

12. Leave this god-forsaken planet (Think of what type of riots would be happening!)

13. Live far away from here happily ever after.

14. Let the cycle of Earths repeat.

Of course, this is a joke. It's just fun.

[rkman]

Is $17,800,000,000 every fiscal year really too little to operate a Space Administration? India has less but they have a planned mission to the moon next decade.

That's the difference between an ongoing space program and a "plan".

[Diche Bach]

The NASA Administrator really doesn't have much power. It's Congress that controls NASA by deciding which programs can be funded or not. When you look at the scientific background of most members of the US Congress, who are more interested in banning Evolution from Biology classes, taking bribes from from corporations and giving free guns away in raffles, it's easy to understand why NASA is in such a mess.

NASA has become a jobs program. Members of Congress don't vote on whether a NASA project brings value to the nation, they vote on whether their particular district is going to get any of the jobs and money related to it. NASA's budget is discussed every year, and gets cut every year, so it's impossible to plan ahead.

What NASA needs is a clear mission statement with a tangible objective. It also needs to be cut lose from Congress and become a scientifically-driven organization instead of a politically-driven one. It needs to have a garanteed budget over 10 years, in order to achieve a specific mission. Once those goals are set, then they need to stick to them, and a change of Administration should have no effect.

As usual Nibb31 has hit the nail squarely on the head.

Sadly, even if NASA had the most ingeniuous, visionary, charismatic leader ever, the inherent constraints of operating as a govt. bureaucracy and political poker chip mean that options are quite limited.

With that said, I think that the single most important thing for NASA to be doing is as follows:

1. Synthesize expectations of the challenges and opportunities humanity will face in the next 100 years

2. Outline the role that space exploration and space travel can play in overcoming those challenges and taking advantage of those opportunities. (a) define how NASA fits into that larger sphere of "space work," ( define what essential features NASA offers which cannot be replicated in any other way at present.

3. Define a 10, 20, 50 and 100 year plan(s) (all of which should offer "cheap," "moderate" and "expensive" variants) with detailed information on costs, feasibility, significance, opportunity. Attempt to realistically and objectively show how greater investment does or does not lead to more impactful mid- and short-term value re: #2 above.

4. Develop a Youtube channel (or similar means for mass distribution) that methodically presents all the above to the public. Invite congress to watch too. Use the best of modern web design to link said Youtube channel as broadly as possible, and in particular with a focus on potential corporate donors, state lobbyists and the like.

5. Sit back and wait for the calls from the President / Congress.

Cutesie videos of a handsome mustachioed astronaut playing David Bowie in orbit are charming and delightful. They may be somewhat successful at gaining _some_ public approval.

However, by virtue of being cutesy, they may also run the risk of _alienating_ a substantial portion of public opinion. I can for example, readily imagine some curmudgeon rich taxpayer saying "What the heck are those astronauts doing up there! I thought they were up there to do serious and important scientific work!?"

Selling the importance of NASA to the public is important. But it needs to be done in a professional way, meaning NASA should probably be hiring some of the best mid- to high-level marketing professionals. Poach a few of the folks from firms which have had great recent success at using marketing to turn around failing organizations, else to solidify and expand already solid ones.

ADDIT: LOL! Anything Nibb31 didn't cover Czokletmuss has just nailed!

1. I would struggle with the aerospace sector and politicians

2. I would spend whole days fighting a bureaucracy

3. I would try to make a bunch of friends in the industry (hey, you never now what your next job will be!)

4. I would try to raise my salary and maybe hire some friends of a friends, if you catch my drift

5. I would spend a lot of my time at petty schemes against people I don't like at NASA

6. I would try to spend a lot money on big projects requiring a lot of manhours in the states in which my senator friends are elected

7. I would try to bul**** public opinion doing some silly PR stunts and sell dreams like Moon/asteroid/Mars mission

8. I would do my best to become wealthy and influentional

9. I would give some money for a serious projects to silence the scientific community

10. I would do everything to stay in this position as long as I can

How about that?

ADDIT^3: LMAO! You forgot to "take off and nuke it from orbit!"

1. Shut down all government sattelites

2. Tell the government that I'd like to negotiate budgeting or they'd be negotiating to the blunt end of a Saturn V

3. Take governmental control

4. Flip Flop the NASA and military budget

5. Do some serious s$%t in space

6. Bring the world together

7. Get some people who don't want to live on this planet anymore.

8. Build a space colony with warpdrive compatibilitie

9. Send them to a distant star

10. Design another one

11. Get aboard

12. Leave this god-forsaken planet (Think of what type of riots would be happening!)

13. Live far away from here happily ever after.

14. Let the cycle of Earths repeat.

Of course, this is a joke. It's just fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a88Z7YOh_us

Edited August 31, 2013 by Diche Bach

[GDJ]

Petition to have a 0.01% surcharge on all fuel purchases (Gas, Diesel, home heating oil, natural gas, propane, etc), utility bills, municipal, state, and federal services, and that goes straight to the NASA bank account, and that account will go strictly for research and development.

Budget problems no more.

[NGTOne]

Cutesie videos of a handsome mustachioed astronaut playing David Bowie in orbit are charming and delightful. They may be somewhat successful at gaining _some_ public approval.

You forgot to mention that he's Canadian, eh?

[Drunkrobot]

A lot of stuff can be done if NASA was given four years of solid funding for all projects being worked on at the time. Not having to suffer the risk of budget cuts every single year means the smart people can do their jobs. When that forth year is up, they would either have finished their goals, or are so far into the project that it would be completely insane to pull the plug.

[dimovski]

Do all in my might to stop development of currently not needed booster systems (hint, hint, SLS), same for sending humans into orbit and beyond, and try to get as much money possible chanelled into the important stuff, space probes, landers, and rovers. (if it would be possible, maybe some light lifter, say 5-7 tons, which NASA would sell off and gain their own money for their own projects, I suppose it isnt, but still)

[Moon Goddess]

You forgot to mention that he's Canadian, eh?

Yeah I'm not sure why everyone keeps bring up Cmd. Hadfield's David Bowie as something NASA is wasting time on. He's a Canadian Air Force officer, Canada paid Russia to take him up there. Now NASA did lift the guitar, so I guess you can blame that, but Astronauts gotta have something to do in their off time... and I guess NASA is paying for his internet access, But I'll admit I do a lot of stuff on my job's internet access and you probably wouldn't blame my job for my posts here.

[crasher925]

1 give the politician who are supposed to fund us the finger

2 get working on going to mars the moon and alpha centari

3 no $$ no problem we are not part of your country anyway!

4 establish colonies on the moon and mars

5 be charitable to any body who's actually smart and get them off this god forsaken rock

6 let the idiots who love there green paper ($$) ( Insert VERY angry and long rant about how stupid money is and how stupid the love for it is here) die when they suddenly realize $$ cant save you from global warming and death (its what they diserve)

7 go to the nearest and most happitable planet and leave everyone else who was to stupid not to come die

8 once we get there build a new earth that will not have $$ (no work no food) and you choose your job robots can do the rest

9 never let this new Earth go to H-E-double-hockey-sticks like the old one did

1. I would struggle with the aerospace sector and politicians

2. I would spend whole days fighting a bureaucracy

3. I would try to make a bunch of friends in the industry (hey, you never now what your next job will be!)

4. I would try to raise my salary and maybe hire some friends of a friends, if you catch my drift

5. I would spend a lot of my time at petty schemes against people I don't like at NASA

6. I would try to spend a lot money on big projects requiring a lot of manhours in the states in which my senator friends are elected

7. I would try to bul**** public opinion doing some silly PR stunts and sell dreams like Moon/asteroid/Mars mission

8. I would do my best to become wealthy and influentional

9. I would give some money for a serious projects to silence the scientific community

10. I would do everything to stay in this position as long as I can

How about that?

that's so true, and that's why i have no hope for humanity but at least you were able to take the coded agenda and decode it for what it is!

Edited September 2, 2013 by crasher925

[notfruit]

I would ask nicely for moar moneys from congress, play KSP IRL, and conquer the universe in 10 years. Who cares about the economy when we have a massive rocket to take us to pluto and back?

[ndwiggins]

It would be nice to send some landers to explore the water environments of the Jovian moons as well as Titan, maybe with some confirmation of extraterrestrial life, the public and Congress alike will see that they should fund NASA more