In a new report, inspector general Roberta Gross said it would be ill-advised for the financially strapped agency to fund a new system to collect pictures of Earth when many images already are widely available. The planetary views would increase scientific understanding of environmental changes affecting the ozone layer and wind patterns, Lehane said.
Weather patterns have a dramatic impact on our nation's safety and economy.
Republican lawmakers in the House have voiced strong objections to the vice president's initiative. Gross, in a letter to NASA Administrator Dan Goldin last week, was sharply critical of the agency's plan to spend much of its scarce federal funds on the project. We are concerned that Triana's added science may not represent the best expenditures of NASA's limited funding. In Congress, Triana critic Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis. and chairman of the House panel that oversees NASA, quickly seized on Gross' comments to reiterate his call for Gore to abandon the project. As envisioned by Gore, the satellite would be stationed halfway to the sun and beam high-resolution images of Earth to anyone with access to the Internet.