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About me

• Member since: September 21, 2007

My posting summary

1 to 4 of 4

My comments

• Poor logic Science Guy
  For example - are you saying there would be no Structural Analysis software without NASA? No CAD software without NASA?
  
  Can you tell me which NASA Civil Servant invented, or even significantly advanced CAD software? I work closely with Parametric Technology, and I assure you, they are aware of no such civil servant.
  
  If you mean NASA dollars allowed these advancements to take place then your arguement is a little better. And in a way then you support the CNET article "Do We Need NASA?".
  
  The article doesn't suggest that space exploration (or the money that funds the advancements you list ad nauseum) be terminated. Only that perhaps it should be taken largely out of the hands of civil servants. The Agency is bloated with self perpetuating and self serving. Think about - most center directors now stop off at NASA on the way to a much higher paying job. They are unlikely to commit to risk and innovation.

  October 3, 2007

  0 replies

• Dreamland
  I suppose there's some thin possibility that your NASA center adheres to the qualifications you indicate. However I assure you, at the three NASA centers I've worked at, the percentage of 14/15s who have served on outside technical committees is in the single digits. At the center I'm at now, I'm aware of 2 that might be considered experts, unless by expert you mean competent, in which case half might be.
  
  Also, a structural engineer is a structural engineer. I don't care what agency you work for.
  
  NASA has not embraced high risk since Apollo. Come back to me when a majority of civil servants at a center are directly engaged in high risk. Meanwhile the number of civil servants engaged in elementary IT, cultural activities, conference room management, et cetera ad nauseum, has grown continuously ... at the same pay as the "space experts".
  
  Tony, for heavens' sake go check the paygrades of your own IT team.

  September 25, 2007

  0 replies

• Right is Wrong
  Don't know where you're getting your facts, Anthony. However, I was comparing civil servant, not military pay. Please check journyman engineers at, say, Bureau of Mines, NIST, or Transportation. They are all GS-11/12. NASA non-management career engineers are GS-13/14. For the last 10 years, there's been a wave of engineers pushed to the GS-15 level. What's sad is that even if they stop doing the level or category of work that got them to the 14/15 level, they keep the grade anyway.
  
  You're also wrong about the lawns; please check. For example, the branch chief for Property and Equipment is the same pay grade as the chief of the Space Suit Systems branch.
  
  100 charging to overhead? What on earth? There are over 300 civil servants at one center of 2700 who charge to basic IT support and property management. Not to mention the hundreds involved procurement, human resources, etc. What do you call overhead.
  
  IT is funny (sad). There are over 100 people at this one center, responsible for providing IT services to the whole center. Except due to poor performance, no one at the center will use them except where forced by Center managment for the most basic things, like PC distribution. Instead, Space Station, Space Shuttle, and now Constellation, have all built up their own, duplicate IT groups of civil servants. Check it out.
  
  Rutan is Right. He believes in Space Exploration. Focus NASA on high risk, pure research. Outsource programs and operations. Please.

  September 24, 2007

  1 reply

• Rutan is Dead Right
  Civil servants get minimal performance review, have little fiscal accountability, and pretty much come in to work and leave whenever they want. They just about cannot get fired. Pay scales are flat. The guy in charge of making sure the lawns are mowed gets paid the same as the Constellation Program manager. And for some reason, NASA pay scales are about 1 to 2 grades above any other government organization, for the same job category. However the top NASA salaries are about a tenth that of their commercial counterparts. You figure out where the best and brightest are going to go.
  
  Inefficiency abounds, from numerous independent, battling IT organizations providing 5-year old tech support, to over allocating human capital to functions that have nothing to do with space exploration.

  September 21, 2007

  1 reply