The Death of NIAC

I mentioned in the last post that NASA takes a lot of criticism. It certainly deserves some for shutting down the highly productive NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), which funded cutting-edge technology projects of the sort we will need to make possible such endeavors as a human voyage to Mars. It's certainly true the agency's tasks exceed its budget, and some things have to be sacrificed, but the most forward-looking institution in a forward-looking agency is quite possibly the worst candidate one could choose to axe to save a few million dollars.