NASA silent on questions from young school child.

Originally posted by Maxmars
Let's not forget that NASA is a Department of Defense Agency.

No it's not. It's an independent executive agency. It is established by 42 USC 2472, not the Title 10 authority to establish defense agencies. It has its own budget. You won't find it in the list of defense agencies. The NASA administrator is under the "supervision and direction" of the President, not the SECDEF.

Originally posted by FurvusRexCaeli

Originally posted by Maxmars
Let's not forget that NASA is a Department of Defense Agency.

No it's not. It's an independent executive agency. It is established by 42 USC 2472, not the Title 10 authority to establish defense agencies. It has its own budget. You won't find it in the list of defense agencies. The NASA administrator is under the "supervision and direction" of the President, not the SECDEF.

You are correct as of Feb 2010.

Title 42 of the US Code as currently published by the US Government reflects the laws passed by Congress as of Feb.1, 2010

Frankly, as justification for reassessing what I said it, holds little water ... NASA was created in 1958 and until 2010 was the bejeweled crowning headpiece of the military industrial complex. All of NASA's administrators and leadership were functionaries of the institutions that dealt in 'secrets' - particularly "cold-war' secrets and those that followed.

For the last 18 months or so, it was formally moved to exist separately... perhaps that explains the relatively new scarcity of funding for it's missions. If you think the preceding 50+ years of organizational history have no bearing because of the change in letterhead since last year, I think you are somewhat mistaken.

Originally posted by TsukiLunar
I am sure NASA has been asked that a lot. They probably dont care about hypothetical questions that are less about the universe and more about 'conspiracy'.

did ya even bother to read the OP?
NASA asked school kids to present questions to them.
What do you think they were expecting from schoolkids other than hypothetical questions?

The answer I would expect NASA to give would be something along the lines of :
If we discovered life outside the earth, of course we would tell everyone. Imagine the funding we would get!

In reality, the open funding is false.
Silent benefactors would pay more to keep the knowledge under wraps until they could devise a way to profit from it.
Why do you think NASA is now in the private sector?

Originally posted by Malkuth
Thank you, one and all, for your responses. There were a couple of honest surprises in your posts. A few people seemed unable to hone in the point of my question very well. What a shame. Anyway, the thing that bothers me most is that for the program in question - clearly a PR-based effort- it would be understood going in there would be the possibility of questions being raised that would not necessarily be easy to answer. But silence, or silence after what amounts to a thank you for posing the question is not what anyone should ever regard as a PR coup. Even simply deferring the question to a possibly more appropriate entity should have not been rendered 'unthinkable'.

If my son has gotten anything from the experience it would be that he is just part of the next generation of Americans who will be forced to pay for a civilian program from which they can not expect their reasonable questions to be dignified by an intelligent or thoughtful response.I would say this is an honest assessment.

I understand that there are people there with multiple degrees and that their training may not be in handling those issues. Those are not the folks you put in the PR line of fire. You put those people in there who have expertise dealing with the public or you hire a firm of professionals to do it. Now, if you can't even manage to set this up appropriately from the get go, then I say there is no good message that comes from this.

As for critical thinking, rest assured there were discussions about these questions before they got fired off. The class talked about the questions of the students, I talked over the questions with my son in advance. There were not just fired off willy-nilly and consideration was given as to what sorts of answers might be expected.

I have very often defended NASA for the great, great work it has done..because they have. Credit where credit is due.I also know that many a good scientist has left NASA because they cannot stand to attempt to do serious research where they are expected to do it with one hand tied behind their backs and to have waffling support when a find become controversial. In this simple PR matter, they have failed miserably by any measure.

A great thread. One of the best that has ever been posted here at ATS and also one of the most important. Maybe so important that it could tell us were some of us may have come from originally. After seeing so many distorted photos of mars by nasa how can anyone not have to wonder bigtime if nasa is hiding some incredible information. The lousy part is, that it is coming out to the public massively and denied internally by the powers that be. Amazing really. Like saying to someone "don't see what is in front of your face"., This is got to be one of the most baffling things I've ever experienced in my life. Just the curious case of Gary Wilcox and Lonnie Zamora is incredibly mysterious and that was on the same day of April 24th, 1964 decades ago.

reply to post by Malkuth


Youre wasting your breath and energy even asking that question. NASA has been told not to divulge any information regarding E.T.B.E. or extra terrestrial biological entities. Numerous astronaughts over the years have come forward with their stories of these encounters after their non-disclosure contracts wear off. Even Neil Armstrong claims to have seen something as does Gordon Cooper and many others.

Just a thought, but were these the only questions not answers?

How many children asked how many questions? Was it the one school or across hundreds of schools? Did NASA just select, at random, a handful to reply to? Or did they answer every single other question?

Originally posted by Maxmars
You are correct as of Feb 2010.

You are partly right; as of December 2010, NASA was moved to Title 51. My citation was incorrect as of December 2010. But I am nevertheless substantially right. The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 established NASA using substantially the same language that was still codified in 2010 and is codified and enacted today. See also this pre-NASA memorandum indicating that a certain space project might be removed from the purview of the Secretary of Defense and placed under the new civilian agency. If NASA was going to be a Defense agency, such a memorandum would not have been written.

I have nothing to say about any "military industrial complex," as that's an amorphous creature that seems to include anything that even once looked at the military or industry. I will keep to your original claim, that NASA is a Department of Defense Agency, which is specific and testable and incorrect. It's "considered" a defense agency with respect to intellectual property rights, but it is not and never was a Department of Defense Agency.

reply to post by Essan


To respond to your question, the initiative was a public one..not just to a specific school on a particular. Even to this day, a form of that initiative is still present on the NASA website. In all likelihood, many student probably get some sort of response, appropriate or not. As to how many questions have been posed or how many answered in any fashion, I doubt anyone at NASA even know the answers there.

I hope people still keep asking questions no matter what. The longer good people ask sincere , honest questions from an administration that continually denies reasonable, responsive and honest answers, the sooner (hopefully) some person(s) with enough clout and integrity will stand up and say, "ENOUGH, already. You want one more dollar, start treating the public with the respect they deserve. If you can't even do that much, close up shop and go home."

Fat chance, you say? I do not blame you a bit, however,(and this is just my opinion, nothing more) I feel that part of the OWS movement as well as whatever it is that is supposedly going to happen 12/21/12 relates to people finally (did I say 'finally'?) beginning to treat one another as human beings and by putting each other's feelings, needs and respect for all at the top of the priority list. Being greedy, being nasty and selfish just because it might be easier, preferable or mandated on some level will become regarded as distasteful, antiquated and equated with hanging onto a barbaric, egocentric point of view second only to cannibalism. (No offense to cannibals.)

Get the children excited about knowledge. Keep the places of science open and INVITING and REWARDING so that they can feed their hungry, inquisitive minds and do great scientific works as they live their lives.(There are some kids who would find it completely cool that NASA wrote them back. There is no telling into what such a simple experience could blossom.) Show them that sharing their work is what keeps civilization evolving AND what gives their lives a fulfilling sense of purpose. Stop asking for their participation, then slamming the cold, steel cyberdoor on their fragile, innocent queries. What exactly does anybody feel could be the good result of that?

NASA is well aware of the fact that there are aliens, I mean how could they not be? It would be completely naive of them to believe that we are the only living creatures in the universe.

Originally posted by Malkuth
Years ago, as part of a grammar school project, my son's class was encouraged to take NASA up on their open invitation to answer questions from children. His first question some years ago now was: If NASA discovered aliens, would they tell the public. No answer.

Lot's of other kids' questions got answered, but not his. He tried a bunch of times after this, even going up into higher grades, but they would only acknowledge and thank him for his question but they absolutely would not answer it. I intervened, as a good father should, only to get the same silence even after 5 years of asking. We gave up.

That is very telling. Probably is a waste of breathe and energy to even ask them.

When I was a little kid in school we went to Houston for a field trip at Nasa. A spokesman there was talking about the future (this was 1989) and the future was like 2001 or 2010, their Flying airplane spacecraft. He showed us a model of it he had and that it was in the works and would be flying by the time I was an adult.

Well I am an adult now and I am not seeing these flying runway spacecraft. I wish I could have called him out back then. They won't answer if they discover life on some other world? Are they officially now an arm of the secret government don't tell the public anything? Maybe they do have those runway "airplane" spacecraft, but it is secret government for monitoring us. Nasa doesn't like those "hard" questions.

reply to post by Malkuth


The invitation was to ask questions or to engage the NASA people in fundamental space talk? I think that is cool that they are appearing to the schools, maybe your opinion is that they fell flat on their face, but they don't really have to go to schools! especially younger grades and give students the opportunity to have high level discussions, whatever is on their mind, their dreams celestrial about space! You have to be off a rocker or two if you believe everything has to center around your son, maybe there were other questions that were more pertinent, no? Nasa was basically founded by the Nazi's right, wouldn't that be some good line of questions for a NASA person, who was the creme of the engineering?

I am sure if your son asked NASA to their face, then yeah you would have got a response. And even a chuckle or a kind of indictator of the level or grade of seriousness that the spokesperson was willing to answer the question. A Hollywood statement. So maybe NASA could have "saw" your question and believed that it was an skeptical nonsensical adult triggered question, on other words they want to hear a question from a kid, not from an adult who is telling their kid what to say to NASA.

Originally posted by Malkuth
reply to post by Essan

 

To respond to your question, the initiative was a public one..not just to a specific school on a particular. Even to this day, a form of that initiative is still present on the NASA website. In all likelihood, many student probably get some sort of response, appropriate or not. As to how many questions have been posed or how many answered in any fashion, I doubt anyone at NASA even know the answers there.

My question off the cuff would be NASA do some of your scientists share the same origins as people who designed planes for the german Lufwaffe? hm, The answer that we all know.
When are the costs going to go down?? Are SpaceX making things cheaper up there yet? No?

reply to post by FurvusRexCaeli


But NASA coming to school that would be a big deal! I don't know if NASA not answering a question about the ET is a well, the wormwood star you fell flat on your face! NASA you fall on your face we have to flood you with questions about the extraterrestrials that is the main focus of the people..

I am sorry that your son did not get an answer. Call your Congressman and ask them.

NASA can't divulge how many beer bottles flying are theirs or the Ets.

Wouldn't it be neat to see what is beyond earth? That is my opinion if I worked at NASA.
What do you believe NASA knows?

Space, not government, and that we need..No aliens
Well Dragon X, yeah ok....
I think a cool question you could have asked (or whoever) They want to donate billions to find an ET?

Water pumps in space capsules do they ever go out??!

Originally posted by Ghost375
The space station one is pretty obvious, right? NASA can't reveal the defenses of it. That has to be classified information.

He wasn't asking for an inventory of weapons, he asked if the ISS could defend itself if under attack and could the astronauts do the same if they were aggressively boarded...NASA could easily have said yes or no without giving particulars of the defenses themselves. Something like blah blah...defensive capabilities are aboard, although we won't go into details for obvious reasons blah blah or something equaly as bland, but polite, for the negative.

Besides, the entire idea of M.A.D. is that your potential enemy KNOWS you are armed, so will think twice before attacking you, same thing with a US space asset..if a potential enemy knows you're packing heat, you're less of an easy target.

It's enough to let your enemy lose sleep at night worrying over what you might have stashed away to lob at him, without telling him where the silos are and how many of 'em you have.

Firing weapons on board a pressurised space craft isn't going to be a good idea anyway...i'd guess the defenses would be along the lines of depressurisation of the entire station...some kind of dodgy gas in the air supply...stunners ala tasers...and an emergency self destruct device(s) onboard, as a last resort maybe.

I dare say there are various missile and or beam weapons batteries on sats positioned near to the station too...but this would never be disclosed.

Come to think of it...the reason NASA didn't answer is because having weapons in space would break the weapons free space treaty the US is signed up to..that's more likely why the OP's Son was ignored.

very interesting.

Originally posted by Burnerz
Really?
Are they more of the type you are looking for?

reply to post by Malkuth


Nasas silence speak volumes. Nasa definitely knows about Ufos and Ets but have been ordered to keep the lid on it.

reply to post by Ghost375



I think the answer is more obvious. It's called the International Space station for a reason. America is NOT the only ones who use it. Hell, even the Russians have used it.

Secondly, if anyone were to attack the space station, I'm sure the entire world would be in an uproar. The ISS isn't about resources, or territory. Any hostilities towards the space station would result in immediate military response from the military. I'm a Marine, and while I'm in no command position, I would gladly do another deployment to kill the motherfuc*ers who shot down the space station, or killed our astronauts.