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Kepler is the most exciting mission that exists anywhere right now. We've always assumed that there might be lots of Earth-like planets, but here's our proof th
by cryptoz 15y ago
Kepler is the most exciting mission that exists anywhere right now. We've always assumed that there might be lots of Earth-like planets, but here's our proof that the galaxy is littered with them.
However...
> In Barack Obama's proposed 2013 budget for Nasa, the president would cut Kepler's funding from $19.6 million to $13.6 million next year, then cut cash to the space telescope entirely from 2014.
Not okay. We need to fix this, asap.
- srl 15y agoHere's what I don't understand. How are scientific projects constantly having funding crises? The set of people who are most interested in seeing Kepler, JWST, etc. succeed strongly overlaps the set of people who have the sort of money needed to make these projects be successful without even significantly impacting their life style. Asking as a stereotypically poor college student - why do these projects not have nontrivial amounts of "private" (not for-profit, just "private") funding?