A Crisis of Funding in U.S. Astronomy

Aug 17, 2012 | Behind the Scenes

First of all, I want to note my past and present affiliations as this undoubtedly biases my analysis. I have worked with the NRAO since 2004 and did my astronomy dissertation with PAPER. And, obviously, since I now work for CosmoQuest, I love EPO and citizen science. Now, read on…

Today, a report was issued on the state of funding for U.S. astronomy through the National Science Foundation. An expert committee was selected to gather feedback from the professional astronomical community and report back with recommendations for funding the next decade of astronomy. The results, I am sad to report, are not pretty.

The report is titled “Advancing Astronomy in the Coming Decade: Opportunities and Challenges” and can be found in all 170-page glory at the National Science Foundation’s website.

The Situation

In 2010, the astronomical community released its decadal review (aka New Worlds, New Horizons, or NWNH below), reviewing on and recommending the most important science goals and facilities for the next decade of ground and space-based astronomy. However, what was supposed to be a realistic budgetary assessment turned out, in a few short years, to be not so realistic after all. The National Science Foundation (NSF) determined that astronomy (AST) funding levels will not nearly cover all of the stated goals of the decadal review, and thus charged the ground-based astronomical community to reassess its portfolio.

In this report, the optimistic scenario has funding at the end of the decade at only 65% of what was expected by the decadal review. The less optimistic scenario is only 50% of projected funding. So how are we to do all this ground breaking science with less money? Well, we can’t.

If U.S.-based astronomy is to be healthy, the committee determined, we need a number of things: solar telescopes, radio/millimeter/submillimeter (RMS) telescopes of various sizes and resolutions, optical-infrared (OIR) telescopes of various sizes, supercomputers for theoretical simulations, laboratory access, and strong development and instrumentation programs.

In addition, to maintain astronomy as a healthy profession, it needs project grants of all size for individual investigators and their teams, wide access to astronomical facilities, openly available software development, support for education and public outreach, and better career support for students, post-docs, “soft-money” scientists and those who find themselves on “non-traditional” career paths.

(Can I get a HELL YEAH from my fellow young astronomers reading this? Or a “DUH, WE’VE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR A WHILE!” Just saying…)

Anyway…

The Recommendations

In order to keep the field alive and thriving with the current budget projections, some projects/ideas are going to thrive, but many others will suffer. In order to make this hard decisions, some recommendations were made. I will try and summarize many of them below with my own commentary:

Strong support of small and mid-scale projects: I believe this is a GOOD THING. It probably helps that the Precision Array to Probe the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER) on which I worked for several years was one example of a successful project in this regime. Small and mid-scale projects provide lots of opportunities to train students and post-docs in a situation where they won’t get lost in a huge management structure. Also, these projects tackle ambitious science goals and are forced to do so with limited resources and time. Caveats? Well, the data for such projects is often not widely available to astronomers outside the collaboration, though the report recommends that open-access become an important part of all such future project proposals. Also, with smaller budgets, there is a lot less funding for related education and outreach opportunities. Why haven’t you heard of how awesome PAPER is? Well, we didn’t the have time or money to tell you, frankly. We’ve been so busy building it. Also, grant programs for individual investigators should be funded, as they are important to maintaining scientific advancement and are already overwhelmingly oversubscribed as it is.

Undergraduate training and post-doc fellowships should continue: Funding early career advancement is important. If you are an undergraduate with an interest in astronomy and insane enough to jump into this funding climate, I highly, HIGHLY recommend the NSF’s Research Experience for Undergraduates program. BUT the shiny, named post-docs only fund a small fraction of post-docs in astronomy, if my highly unscientific stalking of the job posting boards last year is any indication. Also, there’s the outstanding problem that far too many postdocs won’t find openings in a permanent position later on.

Continued support of some large astronomical facilities: The Large Synoptic Survey Telescopes (LSST) for ridiculously high marks from the decadal review and is again supported by this report. This wide-field of view survey optical telescopes will provide unprecedented access to the skies and will be open-access. The committee also wants to see continuation of US support for the Gemini telescopes in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, the Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA or VLA or JVLA or whatever you choose to call it these days), and some other essential facilities. However,…

To maintain these commitments and have grant programs survive, they have recommended that the NSF “divest” from several facilities. Note that the FAQ says, “Divestment of Telescope X means that funding for operations of Telescope X would be removed from the AST budget. In implementing this type of recommendation, AST would first seek other sources of funding for that telescope before moving toward possible closure.” These facilities include, “the Mayall, WIYN, and 2.1meter telescopes at Kitt Peak, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, the Very Long Baseline Array, and the McMath Pierce solar telescope.”

I don’t even need to tell you how much this sucks.

Okay, I will anyway.

Without NSF funding after 2017, the facilities here, including the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank and Kitt Peak are in danger of closing down. We will lose these important telescopes AND jobs for scientists, engineers, software developers, education professionals, shop mechanics and more. The astronomy community, especially those at large and small universities that do not own their own telescopes, will lose access to the sky. The capabilities of these telescopes will be lost as other facilities can try and chip in, but they do not compare in sensitivity, resolution, and capability. Their associated education centers will be in danger and the brilliant projects done with high school and college students will GO AWAY.

So, this sucks. But the committee who authored this report has no choice but to recommend cutting funding somewhere in the current state of the budget. Which, may I add, sucks.

What Can We Do?

The situation is rather grim. Money for grants will hold steady under an optimistic scenario and decline in a pessimistic scenario. Major facilities will get their funding cut off either way. The U.S.’s much touted open-skies policy is not necessarily in place in many foreign observatories, so access to telescopes for many astronomers becomes even scarcer. So what do we do?

If you care about astronomy and space science, tell your elected government officials! If you are reading this blog, you probably realize that basic research is important. And that it costs you the price of a large coffee per month to support the NSF at current levels. For SCIENCE.

You may not know that if you DON’T say something to your Congresscritters now, things could get WORSE. Failure to reach a budget consensus at the federal level by the end of 2012 will lead to broad-sweeping automatic cuts to federal science programs that will devastate the field. Unless a balanced budget is agreed upon, mass layoffs and facility shutdowns will ensue, far beyond the NSF committee’s report. If you want to stop this, SAY SOMETHING to your elected representatives. Help us prevent the coming budget slashing and push to improve the situation in the long run. Even a one-liner email has to get counted by their staff, so make yourselves heard.

Update (8/17): See John’s comment below for a form letter you can use to contact your representatives! 

Crowd-source alternatives: Maybe you want to really put your money where your mouth is. If you are a multi-billionaire, you may start a space company. If not, you can still contribute. Some scientists are getting the wild idea from crowd-funding sites such as Kickstarter and IndiGoGo to get their money from the people who are interested in the science. One such example involving our project leader is Uwingu, which is a third of the way towards its goal of funding new space science research from donated funds from people like you!

Your time and expertise are valuable as well, and that’s why we’re working so hard to expand our citizen science portfolio here at CosmoQuest. If we can take that “open-access” policy one step further and make as much astronomical data available to whomever wants to help us look at it, then we are advancing science through your volunteer efforts. Of course, we still need funding to create these projects and keep them going, hence the need for money from somewhere in the first place.

So let’s get busy with the Congresscritter calling and the fundraising, okay? Let’s keep the universe open to exploration for all our sakes. And let’s give science and astronomy a chance to flourish as one of the great human endeavors and drivers of education and  innovation in the U.S. and the world.

 

Update (8/17): Added definition of NWNH. Thanks for catching that, @peterdedmonds!

21 Comments

  1. John Jaksich

    Hi,

    I venture to say that in the current economic climate –it would almost be necessary to approach individuals with an MBA to get their take on what steps to take monetarily. More likely than not there will be those who will be left out of the pursuit of astronomy and science. If we wish to prevent a massive brain-drain of our youth we may need a type of govt investment that is as sweeping as that of the late 1950s.
    Furthermore, I believe that it may take thinking and acting out of the box to make the general public to believe that investing in science is important to everyone’s future. And, helping our “children” see that science can be and is fun to do.

    I will be contacting my district’s Congressman–and also my Senators—in the hopes of persuading them to become less polarized against one another.

    John

  2. Rachael Beaton

    Nice job Nicole!
    Another important consideration to the continued funding of many of those facilities (KPNO, WIYN, 2.1m, GBT …) is that these are the last truly public facilities that can do “PI” driven science, e.g. you have an idea, write a proposal, and get time. The funding situation is driving us toward a model where institutional affiliation and “project affiliation” are the drivers of who gets to do science!

    • Nicole Gugliucci

      Yes! This! I’m not sure how to stress this even more, but this is a big hit.

      • james wood

        Do you know if someone or some university would be interested in a donated large telescope ? it is historic and nasa owned / but now it is owned by an 84 year old citizen and he is seeking to donate most all of it ……

        • Nicole Gugliucci

          Hmmm… Good question. Do you have any local universities with a physics or astronomy department? I would check there first, next local amateur societies who do public outreach.

        • John Reed

          How large? And where is it located?

  3. John Jaksich

    Dear Nicole,

    I have sent e-mails to my district congressman –as well as to my U.S. State Senators.

    Here is a copy of what I believe is the strongest letter–please feel free to use it as a template for a “letter campaign” for all at Cosmoquest.

    Dear Honorable Senator ,

    I writing this morning on behalf of astronomers and scientists in the U.S. who are making use of our cherished government faciilies. Recently, the NSF published a report outlining the effect of cuts that are slated to occur if a timely and progressive budget is not passed before the end of the year. Many of our brightest scientists who are recent graduates or post-docs will languish without jobs. In effect, we will lose a whole generation of the brightest–so I solemnly implore you and your fellow Senators to act according to what is needed to be done. Pass a progressive restoral of funds to our astronomical research facilities.

    John

  4. John Reed

    Calling is better than emailing, it carries a lot more ‘weight’. It’s also surprisingly easy, why don’t we do it more often? I dunno. But one thing helps make it easier. Having a template of things to say, written by someone smarter than me. Otherwise I might get flustered and end up sounding clueless by saying, “Uh support science cuz it’s like, cool”.

    Can you whip something up? And I promise I’ll call.

    John

    • Nicole Gugliucci

      I have phone phobia… wrong person to ask 🙂 Anyone??

      • John Jaksich

        I phoned my two Senators and Representative and it is sometimes hard to find the exact words to express the meaning. I echo the trepidation about the possibility of being misunderstood over the phone.

        John

      • John Reed

        I used to have phone anxiety too! But when you do it, you’ll find it’s not so bad. And in this case, you’re just leaving a voice mail and not talking to any of those scary humans.

  5. Hugo

    I’m planning to start a career (well see if works) in Astronomy in a much less fortunate country what the US. If the US loose field in science, the future surely looks a little black. But I agree with you in all, we must find ways to continue without sacrifices what in the long run will cost us more what we can gain.

    • Nicole Gugliucci

      I wish I could like this comment. So… “Like!”

  6. pat

    people who know I am interested in astronomy here in the north of England ask me “They sent a probe to Mars, what on earth for? What a waste of money that is needed on earth!” I say if people and nations get more money they will spend it on more cars and ozone wrecking factories and their great grandchildren will need to go to Mars to live. CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE FIND AN ASTRONOMY MISSION THAT APPEALS TO ORDINARY PEOPLE!?

  7. Astroswanny

    With apologies to Leonardo Da Vinci – If not “USA” then it shall be unto “India and China” but there shall be wings, there shall be wings!

  8. Jose Velez

    The scenario the reviewing committee missed is even more terrifying, picture the new (ALMA) and (LSST) under construction in Chile, a foreign nation, susceptible to relatively large earthquakes and located at quite a distance from any USA territorial jurisdiction, the foreign zone where the funds will be diverted to, after the “divestment” of on USA soil top facilities. Well, what if the sovereign nation of Chile decides to cut access, modify relationships or terminate commitments? Are we going to pack up and leave or bomb them to oblivion? What if a major Earthquake causes substantial losses and/or facilities and instrumentation destruction. Then what?

    You have now gotten rid of all your top USA options. The reviewing committee failed to make a responsible assessment of risks and consequences to face on the issue at hand. The new “toys” appeared to have clouded their collective judgement.

    • marscrumbs

      You can’t replace a telescope in Chile with a US one simply because it looking at a different part of the sky.

  9. John A Jaksich

    I have received one letter from my district congressman (who shall remain nameless)—the person (most likely a staffer)did not address any of my concerns about the potential slashing and closures of Radio Astronomy facilities–or Optical telescopes, either.

    This individual most probably did not know of what I spoke of nor how it would impact not only Calif–but would “have” chilling trickle-down effect for astronomers, scientists and the general public.

    The main thrust of the response was addressing tax cuts and fostering businesses–which is all well and good–but I had specifically “pleaded” that congress attempt to not be so polarized and act in the interests of all.

    The response also directed me to a website which I–either could not access or did not exist according to my browser.

    My Congressman had not earned my votes previously, but he certainly did not help his case in upcoming elections.

    Here is the web address that he gave me:

    http://go.usa.gov/7gW

    I am awaiting the responses from my two U.S. State Senators.

    John A Jaksich

  10. John Jaksich

    One of my two State U.S. senators responded to my request–and it was as if I was getting second hand news from a cable-news network. It is very hard to understand how our public servants really don’t know that if we go down the road of un-funding basic research–we will no longer be a leader in technology –nor will our middle class prosper.

    In short, we will not be the “shining city on that hill”–to borrow a “quaint quote” from a former President. Not only that –what exactly are we fearing by funding researchers in Astronomy–and facing a possibility of raising taxes on the upper 2%–the Ernst and Young economic model –is just that–it is a model. It predicts gloom–it is just a prediction.

    I will continue my quest to influence my Congressman and my two U.S. senators.

    Clear skies

    John

  11. John Jaksich

    Here is a copy of a letter which I sent to my congressman on 9/13/12: (I will let you know of the response in the coming days or weeks.)

    Dear Congressman ,

    This is my second contact letter to you. As you may be aware–there are budgetary restraints for the coming fiscal years due to out-of-control spending during the 2000s and the financial collapse in 2008.

    I am requesting that you and your colleagues in the House of Representatives reconsider budgetary issues for the funding of Astronomy and all of the sciences, in general.

    As you may well be aware, the country as a whole will be asked to pull together if our economic climate does not improve in the coming year.

    On behalf of scientists, technicians, software developers, and engineers who are apart of research facilities that are primarily funded through govt grants–I ask that you do not withhold or cut their funds.

    It would be a true tragedy to our “youth” —those who are the most at impressionable and influenced by our noblest pursuits.

    Sincerely,

    John A Jaksich

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