Re: starship-design: It's a bad, bad world out there

["Kyle R. Mcallister" <stk@sunherald.infi.net>]

KellySt@aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a way those signals helped kill the program, but not in the way you'ld
> thing.  NASA got funding by NEVER mentioning SETI.  

Very interesting. But I recall that there was quite a bit of knowledge
of the existence of SETI before then...

> It was a microwave
> astronomy survey, period.  But the signals, and the possible SETI
> implications got a lot of press.  Suddenly congressmen and senators were
> geting calls about why was NASA wasting money searching for little green men.
>  If the feds have so much money to waste on such things... etc.

Perhaps some people didn't like the idea of it, but I suspect the
majority of it originated with the congress/senators. Really you can't
even blame them, but their superiors.
> 
> The funding was pulled the next year.
> 
> You have to remember.  The general public thinks NASA is a MAJOR fraction of
> the federal budget.  So surveys have shown that people think DOD and NASA
> practically split all the federal budget between them (the public is
> stageringly ignorant about the budget).  They thought META was big bucks, and
> wanted it stoped NOW.  Congress obeyed the will of the people.

Just like they obey us now? They rarely do what the people want. I think
this occasion in which they obeyed was of their own choice, not what the
people said. I can't remember who said this, but: "When the Government
does what the 'people' want, be cautious: something is amiss."

Perhaps NASA should have explained that META was cheap. But no, we like
to pretend we're dismantling nuclear weapons....

Kyle Mcallister