This is Daniel Goldin, who manages NASA. This year he is asking Congress to give him $13,465,000,000 dollars for all of NASA's programs. He will use this money to build and orbit the Space Station, to develop the Reusable Launch Vehicle, to explore Mars, and to explore the planet Titan.
Dan Goldin will also spend a very small part of this money to try to find the next asteroid or comet which will hit the Earth. The part he will spend will be so small that there is a good chance this asteroid or comet will hit the Earth before we find it. And he will spend no money at all figuring our how to build a telescope or radar on the Moon!
Do you think that NASA should spend more money finding the next asteroid or comet before it hits? Do you think NASA should spend more of its budget trying to figure out how to stop asteroids and comets from hitting the Earth? Do you think we should go back to the Moon?
Will you go to the Moon? Well, maybe, but probably not. It will only take a few astronauts to build the observatory and radar station, and it will cost a lot of money to send them to the Moon. The astronauts will have to be very smart and in perfect health.
Let me show you an example. The picture on the left shows Eugene Shoemaker. He discovered many of the craters on the Earth which were made by comets and asteroids, and he was going to go to the Moon to study the craters there.
Then doctors found a small problem with his heart, and he could not go to the Moon. But just because he could not be an astronaut he did not stop working for NASA. Instead he worked with the geologist and astronaut Harrison Schmitt when he went to the Moon, and in the picture on the right you can see Astronaut Schmitt on the Moon talking with Eugene Shoemaker back on Earth! And after working with Astronaut Schmitt, Eugene Shoemaker and his wife Carolyn and their friend David Levy discovered the giant comet which hit Jupiter!
So remember, for every person who goes into space there will be a 1,000 people working on the ground to help them. Engineers to design the rockets, machinists to build the rockets, chemists to make the rocket fuel, electical engineers to build the radios and computers and radars, construction workers to build the rocket launch pads, sewers to sew the astronauts space suits, and cooks to cook their food.
But even to work for NASA all of these people will have to be the best at whatever they do. Are your grades the best in your class? If they are, then maybe when you grow up you will be able to work for NASA and help the astronauts work on the Space Station and on the Moon.
YOUR TEACHER CAN... get free posters and photos and stickers from NASA, arrange for your class to make a field trip to visit a NASA research laboratory or to watch a rocket launch, arrange to have a NASA scientist or even an astronaut visit your class by clicking here.
YOUR TEACHER CAN... arrange for your class to conducting its own training space mission by clicking here.
YOUR TEACHER CAN...
arrange for your class to build its own rover
by clicking here.
YOUR TEACHER CAN... help you build your own model rocket or moon base by clicking here.
YOUR TEACHER CAN...
help your class build its own flying model rocket
by clicking here.
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