Oh, I'm well aware, having worked on a NASA program for the prime contractor for 2 years (and being a life-long space nerd). I love the idea of NASA, but the re

Oh, I'm well aware, having worked on a NASA program for the prime contractor for 2 years (and being a life-long space nerd). I love the idea of NASA, but the reality that I encountered was quite jarringly different. The culture was toxic to any new thought, or any outside opinion. I fled (at great personal expense and stress) before the toxicity of the environment broke up my marriage and eroded my soul. My wife is a veteran of NASA HQ and ultimately left for similar reasons -- the agency just wasn't interested in actually doing anything that wouldn't further its own political interests. Disclaimer, of course, is that my experiences only apply to the specific NASA site I was at (that's why my profile says "reformed sounding rocket engineer"). I think I've posted extensively about that job before. My point was simply this: NASA is now a large hierarchical organization whose primary goal (as must be the goal of every hierarchy) is to perpetuate itself. The parent made it sound like all that's needed to solve some of these complex problems is to open the fiscal floodgates to NASA. It's going to take more than money. It's going to take a culture change.