Can Milky Way cupcakes, Saturn cake and chocolate chip Opportunity cookies prevent potentially deep cuts to NASA\u2019s space exploration budget?<\/p>\n
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 University of Central Florida students and professors who are holding the bake sale and car wash on Saturday \u2013 and nearly 20 groups of their peers throughout the country who organized similar events \u2014 hope to send a clear message to Congress.<\/strong><\/p>\n The UCF group\u2019s 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n Students, professors and scientists around the nation say the cuts proposed by the Obama administration will cripple the country\u2019s 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\u2019re expected to offer the first real look at Pluto and beyond.<\/p>\n The proposed budget calls for a reduction of about $300 million in the area of planetary science.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not asking for more of the pie, we\u2019re asking for less of a bite out of the pie,\u201d said Laura Seward, a graduate research assistant and a doctoral candidate at UCF who organized the event. \u201cA strong robotic planetary exploration program is essential for a strong human planetary exploration program.\u201d<\/p>\n The nationwide event was organized by the Southwest Research Institute, an independent, nonprofit applied research and development organization.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is being done to attract media attention and to help focus Congress on repairing the damage of the deep cuts planned to NASA\u2019s planetary science program,\u201d said Alan Stern, the institute\u2019s associate vice president for research and development. \u201cIt\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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:<\/p>\n The car wash groups have the full support of the Division of Planetary Sciences, a division within the American Astronomical Society (AAS) devoted to solar system research. It\u2019s the largest organization on the planet dedicated to understanding how the solar system works and what that means for the Earth\u2019s future.<\/p>\n \u201cPlanetary science delivers great results for the United States,\u201d said Daniel Britt, chair of the Division of Planetary Sciences and Physics professor at UCF. \u201cThis is one major way that we maintain our world-wide technological leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information, contact Tracy Becker at tbecker@knights.ucf.edu .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Can Milky Way cupcakes, Saturn cake and chocolate chip Opportunity cookies prevent potentially deep cuts to NASA\u2019s 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 University of Central Florida students and professors who are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":3175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-planetary-sciences"],"yoast_head":"\n\n