I attended an lunch meeting today with the NASA Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics Division Chief. He gave an overview of where astrophysics currently stands in NASA's budget, where the priorities are, and how he wants to address some of the major problems in the astrophysics division community.

Putting finances into perspective is very helpful to me. I have no idea what 3 trillion dollars looks like, which is the 2008 budget for the United States. I can't comprehend that much money, but I understand percentages and comparisons. NASA's budget is 0.6% of the federal budget. Compare that to the 9% the U.S. pays in interest toward the national debt – so small! And next to the budget for military spending and defense (I don't know that exact figure), NASA's budget is ridiculously tiny in comparison. Especially when one considered just how much NASA does that's not in the public eye, NASA is a really valuable assent to our country.

The speaker talked about hiring experienced PIs, diversifying the missions (some small, some medium, and some large), the huge problem of large mission budget overruns, and protecting the smaller missions. He explained how NASA is making research and analysis (R&A) a higher priority. He also added his opinion that NASA needs to increase its civil servant personnel so as to not be so dependent on contractors. I'm available for a civil servant position in about three years, by the way. ;)

I spent a bit of the day working on some analysis for Chryssa, which ended entirely unfruitful because the data I had just wasn't good enough. I work with what I can, but sometimes there's just nothing I can do.

I also analyzed a GRB that was detected this early morning which fit my timing project criteria and had a bit of a flare.