Phil Plait posted this letter a few weeks back over on the Bad Astronomy Blog, and I have to admit that I’m incredibly jealous. This is the letter I wish I had written! Because, almost uncannily, Dr. Plait manages to exactly echo my thoughts on the matter in his letter to current NASA head Mike Griffith.

Or maybe it’s not all that uncanny. From reading his weblog, his website, his book, and listening to podcasts where he has been a guest I’ve discovered that Phil and I have very similar views. The prevailing theme (at least to me) is that science is important, science education is even more important, and that you need to be logical and skeptical about things. I liken that last point to saying “get up and do a bit of work, will you? Don’t sit on the couch and let Fox tell you that the Apollo missions were faked - go out and find the facts and decide on your own.”

Or, as George Hrab would say, “think for yourself little man”.

As you may have guessed by the bit above, I’m a big fan of Phil and his work. His site, Bad Astronomy and the companion book “Bad Astronomy” - are two of my favorite resources for debunking bullshit like “Planet X” and the “Moon Landing Hoax”. His blog is always informative, and often alerts me to some new space science related fact that I’m not aware of. He regularly gives interviews (there is a good bit in his interview podcast with Slacker Astronomy where he gives two suggestions as to what that makes him - but I’ll let you find that out for yourself), debates nutcases (which I quite frankly wouldn’t have the stomach to do), and basically holds up the candle of science for all to see. Probably more importantly, he’s not afraid to shove it in someone’s face if it’s required.

Phil has been a part of James Randi’s Amazing Meeting for the past few years (and while I’m thinking of it, I’d like to send out a bit of an electronic “get well soon” to Mr. Randi, who recently suffered a heart attack and is in the process of recovering) - but unfortunately, Beth and I haven’t been able to go due to our family vacation schedule. We’ve been talking about how much this sucks, and are thinking of trying to juggle things next year so we can do our normal vacation while still having time to head off to Vegas for a week with our skeptical heroes. Hopefully, the Bad Astronomer will be speaking and we can buy him a drink to thank him for fighting the good fight.

One closing note. One of my favorite geeky/sciency quotes occurred during the Apollo 15 mission when Mission Commander Dave Scott stepped onto the surface of Hadley Plain:

As I stand out here in the wonders of the unknown at Hadley, I sort of realize there’s a fundamental truth to our nature. Man must explore.

Above my desk, I have a picture of the Apollo 15’s Lunar Module Falcon on the plain at Hadley. Jim Irwin, LM Pilot, stands at the left, saluting the American Flag. At the right, the Lunar Rover sits idle - waiting to explore. The Apollo missions opened great horizons for humanity - for untold generations humans gazed up at the moon. Apollo orbited the moon; they landed on the moon; they explored the moon. Every now and then I look at the picture - really look, and think to myself that I’m looking at the surface of the moon. With people on it. The moon. Wow.

But exploration is not just about manned missions - it’s missions such as Deep Impact, which we watched launch on vacation two years ago. It’s the Voyager (or Vger for the more Star Trek inclinded) missions that took pictures of Saturn and Jupiter when I was a child (and which now, year after year, scramble for funding lest they be shut off). It’s Hubble, the mission that brought the wonder and majesty of the universe to the ordinary person.

Dave Scott’s words resonate with me - I want my children to explore, to learn. It’s innocuous things like Steven learning to be a father with Kai, Malinda attending classes in Chemical Engineering, or Alex learning how to test a theory on Myth Busters. I want to learn as well - a day where I go to bed knowing a bit more than I did when I woke up is a good day.

Now the confessional part of the post. I unfortunately read this too late to send my own letter along to NASA - I’m aggregating this feed through bloglines, and with everything going on at work and home I haven’t had time to keep on my reading as I like to. However, I do urge everyone to visit the sites linked in here to learn a little, and maybe to take an active interest in this debate - NASA is paid for by our taxes, so we should make sure that their actions and direction are in line with what we want.