[RadioAstronomer]

This isn't Carl Sagan's NASA anymore.

It never was. With all my years in NASA, I never once saw Carl in charge.

And yes I knew Carl and even was on one of the same shows (about radio astronomy) with him on the Discovery Channel.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I'm speaking of the Saganization of NASA and the "search for life" mentality.

Sagan was all the rage and when Golden took the helm. Sagan immediately swooped in, grabbed his ear and that's all she wrote.

Now NASA is back in the business of exploration - rockets, bases, mining, etc - not planning missions around finding life (if it's there we'll trip over it). Now we can build an infrastructure and learn to live off planet.

I know there are a lot of groups involved here and competing scientists (that's why scientists shouldn't run NASA) - people were told Mars was the end all and be all of space exploration - now the game plan has changed. Then there's the robot vs man groups and astronomers who don't think the Moon is good for astronomy (I can't figure that one out). If U.S. astronomers don't want to go along for the ride, there are astronomers from other countries willing to fill the void.