Can Milky Way cupcakes, Saturn cake and chocolate chip Opportunity cookies prevent potentially deep cuts to NASA鈥檚 space exploration budget?
With a possible $300 million cut to planetary science projects donating a dollar for a cookie might have the impact of a pebble striking Jupiter. But 麻豆原创 students and professors who are holding the bake sale and car wash on Saturday 鈥� and nearly 20 groups of their peers throughout the country who organized similar events — hope to send a clear message to Congress.
The 麻豆原创 group鈥檚 Planetary Exploration Car Wash and Bake Sale will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 9, at the Chevron adjacent to campus, 1640 E. McCulloch Road. Donations will cover the costs of the event and help the group fund future education outreach efforts.
Students, professors and scientists around the nation say the cuts proposed by the Obama administration will cripple the country鈥檚 future in space exploration by eliminating almost all non-manned planetary space missions through the next two decades. Those missions, which send unmanned robots or probes to space, have produced captivating discoveries this decade, including the first evidence of water on the moon and the first glimpse of the Mars surface. In a few years, they鈥檙e expected to offer the first real look at Pluto and beyond.
The proposed budget calls for a reduction of about $300 million in the area of planetary science, with no cuts to earth sciences, heliophysics and astrophysics area.
鈥淲e’re not asking for more of the pie, we’re asking for less of a bite out of the pie,鈥� said Laura Seward, a graduate research assistant and a doctoral candidate at 麻豆原创 who organized the event. 鈥淎 strong robotic planetary exploration program is essential for a strong human planetary exploration program.鈥�
The nationwide event was organized by the , an independent, nonprofit applied research and development organization.
鈥淭his is being done to attract media attention and to help focus Congress on repairing the damage of the deep cuts planned to NASA’s planetary science program,鈥� said Alan Stern, the institute鈥檚 associate vice president for research and development. 鈥淚t’s important these cuts be repaired to maintain U.S. leadership in this area of science, to prevent mission cuts, and to prevent student and research job losses.鈥�
The nation is enjoying a Golden Age of non-manned space missions that resulted in incredible results thanks to investments made years ago, Seward said. They include:
The car wash groups have the full support of the , a division within the (AAS) devoted to solar system research. It鈥檚 the largest organization on the planet dedicated to understanding how the solar system works and what that means for the Earth鈥檚 future.
鈥淧lanetary science delivers great results for the United States,鈥� said Daniel Britt, chair of the Division of Planetary Sciences and a professor at 麻豆原创. 鈥淭his is one major way that we maintain our world-wide technological leadership.鈥�
For more information, contact Tracy Becker at tbecker@knights.ucf.edu .