Space Policy Edition: The motives behind NASA's billions — Jean Toal Eisen on how Congress funds the final frontier

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

The Planetary Society

Technology, Science

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2023

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For over a decade, Jean Toal Eisen drafted legislation directing billions of dollars to NASA as senior staff on the Senate Appropriations Committee. She joins the show to unveil the crucial roles played by committee staff like herself, how decisions and priorities are made behind closed doors, and the motivations and drivers of the people who control the fates of billions of dollars of taxpayer funding for the U.S. space program.

Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/how-congress-funds-the-final-frontier

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome everyone to our monthly Space Policy edition of Planetary Radio.
0:18.9	I'm Sarah Lahmid, the host of Planetary Radio for the Planetary Society, and I'm joined
0:23.4	by Casey Dryer, our Chief of Space Policy.
0:26.2	It was currently in Vienna, Austria at the Planetary Defense Conference.
0:30.0	How's your trip going so far, Casey?
0:32.0	Oh, it's wonderful.
0:32.8	I'm having such a great time.
0:34.2	I gave a talk just the other day about funding history and trends in Planetary Defense.
0:39.8	Obviously, one of my favorite preferred topics went over really well.
0:43.0	Had some really great conversations with attendees, representatives from NASA, representatives
0:47.5	from the White House.
0:48.8	And I posted this into our member community, plugged for the member community, by the way.
0:53.0	I shared the talk that I gave the paper that I wrote for this conference and wanted
0:56.6	to thank the members of the Planetary Society for enabling me to participate in events like
1:02.1	this and get the word out and really make these unique contributions to these broader communities.
1:07.2	The ones that we really, really care about, like Planetary Defense, one of our three core issues.
1:11.9	So it's been just a pleasure and an honor, frankly, to be here representing the Planetary Society.
1:17.0	That sounds like such an adventure and an event that I've always wanted to go to because,
1:21.6	any moment that you're really thinking about Planetary Defense, it's always very meaningful,
1:25.5	but a scenario where you're faking an asteroid hitting Earth and trying to deflect it,
1:29.7	it just sounds like a really fun game.
1:32.4	Yeah, that's a good way to put it.
	...

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