A couple of weeks back, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tagged National Aeronautics and Space Administration engineers to jump into the ring and wrestle with the acceleration and braking issues that some Toyota vehicles have been having.
Houston we have a problem.
I didn't hear one whisper of criticism about this Which is hard to believe during these days of "over-the-top" party politics. Federal assistance to the automotive industry and the NASA budget, are political hot potatoes, but the fact that our roads need to be as safe as possible wins out.
Tapping NASA was a great call.
We've all heard someone refer to a particular problem and say, " well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist " Finally someone says, "Looks like this is one for a rocket scientist "
I hope that we start hearing that more often. Asking NASA to solve problems means jobs for Ohio.
The great thing about NASA is, they spread the wealth. When that rover is exploring Mars, guess what, researchers at the Ohio State University have a hand in it.
Our President has outlined new goals for the future of space exploration for the United States. Wouldn't it be great, if, while the new "space goals" were ramping up to speed, NASA minds were asked to attack some of the problems we face right here on Earth?
The Glenn Research Center in Cleveland could be called on to work on improving anything everything mechanical. The sky is the limit, no pun intended.
A friend of mine recently told me that the Space Shuttle is the most complicated machine ever built. Imagine having those shuttle minds pointed at our driveways. How safe could our rocket scientists make our cars? How fuel-efficient? How cool?
Think about the miners' lives that might be saved if NASA is called on to develop longer lasting self-rescue breathing devices to be used in underground fires, explosions or roof falls.
What if we turned the NASA folks loose on our nation's spreading epidemic of obesity? I'm craving freeze-dried ice cream and a glass of Tang just thinking about it. But really, if a kid is told to put down the donut and get off the couch by a real astronaut speaking from outer space
But NASA is so much more than astronauts not to take anything away from them. I'm exactly like everyone else well, at least everyone else of my generation my list of personal heroes start with John Glenn and Neil Armstrong What I'm getting at - the people of NASA, the engineers, the physicists, all the tremendous scientific minds, are a great resource for America a great resource for Ohio. A resource that should be fully utilized, and fully funded, to infinity, and beyond!
-- WOSU Commentator Michael Ivey is a writer and film producer from Westerville.