NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn's Moon Titan

Re:NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn's Moo... by ianai on Saturday January 19, 2019 @10:57AM (#18947607)

Is there a way to throw money at specific NASA projects? Ie a way for the crowd to indicate interest. I doubt it, but nasa is pretty popular

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Re:NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn's Moo... by anticensor on Saturday January 19, 2019 @11:22AM (#18947723)

No, government agencies may not accept targeted donations due to anti-corruption law.

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Re:NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn's Moo... by mellow-lake-day on Saturday January 19, 2019 @11:53AM (#18947865)

Apparently it's legal in some cases when you give it directly to people

>Buried in the campaign finance reports available to the public are some troubling connections between a group of wealthy donors with ties to Russia and their political contributions to President Donald Trump and a number of top Republican leaders. And thanks to changes in campaign finance laws, the political contributions are legal.

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/05/08/put...

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Re:NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn's Moo... by corndoge on Saturday January 19, 2019 @12:15PM (#18947952)

This partisan op-ed is barely tangentially related to the OP. So tired of seeing worn out sensationalist divisive news where it obviously doesn't belong.

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Re:NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn's Moo... by mrfusion on Saturday January 19, 2019 @11:17AM (#18947702)

They should sell something. Maybe you can buy a vote on where it goes. Even if scientist proposed their top ten picks and then people could pay to vote on them.

Or also naming rights would be a cool way to get funding. Or early access to the imagery.

Lots of stuff they could do.

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Re:NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn's Moo... by ianai on Saturday January 19, 2019 @01:05PM (#18948250)

Right, the problem in allowing contributions is definitely clear as day. But a work around is clearly possible through indicating directions for taxes. I remember hearing that idea proposed somewhere, not sure where. You can already elect to add some money to public election campaigns on federal taxes, for instance.

Maybe down the road private operations like SpaceX will be funded enough for stuff like this. Doubtful though.

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Re:NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn's Moo... by JetSpiegel on Saturday January 19, 2019 @07:05PM (#18950078)

> indicating directions for taxes

That's what political parties are for. The current US duopoly on representation is a problem.

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Re:NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn's Moo... by Something1234 on Saturday January 19, 2019 @10:37PM (#18950842)

They do a shit job at it.

Quite honestly being opposites on each of the issues is not helping. I think that having a points distribution on every tax return would be amazing. It need not have any legal force, just be released publicly so all can see. Brings a feeling of real impact.

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Re:NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn's Moo... by JetSpiegel on Sunday January 20, 2019 @07:41AM (#18952776)

> They do a shit job at it.

That was my point. I other countries there are bigger range of views to choose, other than the US "radical neoliberalism" and "moderate neoliberalism".

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Re:NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn's Moo... by Ankaios on Saturday January 19, 2019 @03:46PM (#18949069)

At the moment, there's not even anyone there to receive a check. The agency is shut down.

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