NASA Wise Council

NASA Advisory Council met with AAS members in Seattle this morning.
It was an interesting meeting; some harsh things said, some nice things said and some things unsaid.

This is my personal interpretation of what I heard...

Some very harsh things were implicitly said about recent NASA management, some deserved, but lets see some actual grown up action from the current crowd before we get all superior, because to be honest the administration of NASA right now is not exactly smooth runnings.

The advisory council structure has now nominally been restored, and there are meetings and reports, but no one seems to know if any of it is being listened to, or acted on, and there is apparently no trust between the science advisors and the HQ admin.

There was some criticism of scientists having put forward unrealistic mission costs and too many overruns and slippages leading to excess cost. Some of which is true, and some of which is because NASA changed accounting methods, and some of which is because NASA put decisions on hold for political reasons which forced delays which cost money.

It was absolutely infuriating to hear a lecture on science missions needing to do full lifetime MODA costs and allow for slippage, and then, literally in the next sentence, be told that the Moon program can't be costed because, you know, things slip, and lifetime costs are an exaggerated measure, and the money will be spent each year anyway so lets just talk ongoing share of the budget and not worry about totals or schedule.

WTF is that.

Real problem: NASA is being tasked with ambitious plans and not given the resources to do it or the flexibility to cut what must go.
And, there is no consistency, the NASA goals change direction as often as a fresh grad student navigating the aisles of an AAS meeting chasing swag, free cookies and old buddies.

Consistencies and resources proportional to the task - that is what NASA needs.