We’ve all seen the posts in forums, twitter, and on blogs proclaiming that government is about to announce the existence of extraterrestrial life. I usually glance through them, take a moment to think about how cool it would be and move on. I just have never thought that the government would ever risk the fallout from such a world changing announcement. Lately though, I have heard more and more talk about disclosure happening sooner rather than later. In fact there is talk that the government might finally be ready to tell us the truth this year and I am starting to think that it may be a strong possibility.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week it looked like Spirit, one of two remote controlled NASA rovers currently exploring Mars, might not make it out of its winter hibernation. The worst part of this robotic near death experience is that it had nothing to do with technical difficulties on the aging rover. Budget cuts at NASA were to blame. Fortunately, NASA rescinded the letter it sent last week mandating budget cuts that would have abandoned Spirit and greatly reduced Opportunity’s (Spirit’s sister rover) exploration of the red planet. Both rovers have long outlasted their intended lifespan of only a few months, sending back valuable scientific data for 4 years. Gimping the rover program at this point would have been an incredibly stupid move. Especially when considering the cost of sending another rover to Mars (one of the reasons for the budget cut) when you have two healthy robots already in place whose yearly operating budget is fractional in comparison. I would hope that NASA came to this conclusion on its own, but I feel that it is more likely that outcry over the incident from the scientific community and the general public caused NASA to reconsider giving Spirit its walking papers just yet. While the loss of an incredible scientific tool is nothing to scoff about, this incident puts a light on a much larger issue: How the US government allocates it’s citizen’s tax dollars.

Read the rest of this entry »