NASA's basically been getting the shit end of budgets probably ever since the Cold War ended, but it seems recently that the program is reaching critical mass.

The space shuttle is retired.  Now personally, I think the space shuttle program indicated a large shift in NASA priorities, focusing on capitalizing what was discovered about space during the early years by creating efficient commercialization of orbital space.  However, that's a side issue.  I'll get to the issue of the importance of the space shuttle later...

Bush's plan for NASA was to replace the space shuttle with the Constellation program, a series of rockets set that would be modeled both for orbital use similar to the space shuttle and as a springboard for further exploration, including a return to the moon.

However...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/06/14/2010-06-14_nasa_halts_constellation_program_to_put_man_back_on_the_moon.html

Okay, so the Constellation program's shot.  NASA indicates that, instead, it is relying on private companies to cover the role the space shuttle filled.  So with no space shuttle and no Constellation, NASA is pretty much grounded without the help of private companies or Russian aircraft.

So what exactly is NASA doing?

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/07/06/2739931/mission-is-to-reach-out-to-muslim-world-nasa-chief-says

In a June 30 interview  on June 30 with Al Jazeera, Charles Bolden said that "When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator -- (President Obama) charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science."

These priorities seem like a big cop-out.  NASA was created with one primary goal above all others: to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no one has gone before.  Looking at the priorities, you should probably be able to tell that the third priority is obviously pretty much just focused on short term terrestrial goals, rather than the long term goals of NASA.  The first goal is possibly related to space exploration, except that there generally hasn't been competitive exploration since the end of the Cold War (perhaps an Iranian space program could restart competitiveness, but if it does, we wouldn't be ready without a successor ship anyway).

A moment about the second priority.  Yes, it's a good long term goal.  But it ignores history.  Why do people go to college in any specific program?  Largely, we look to role models of one form or another, which inspire us.  During the Kennedy administration, there was a big increase in science and math enrollment.  We were inspired... largely because NASA was opening up a new field of exploration.  For the first time in a long period, we were exploring.  The act of space exploration, then, could be thought to be the best driving force toward math and science.

Anyway... so let's look at where we want NASA (or, for the purposes of a private v. public debate, the space industry) to achieve.  Now, there will be a mix of the public v. private debate in here.

1: Orbital Space Support

This is what the Space Shuttle did.  It supported the International Space Station, which did research projects in orbit.  The shuttle maintained and launched NASA satellites for unmanned missions.  It was also a shipping system for materials into space.

Where is the most effective future for this program?  In regards to this program, I actually agree with Obama.  Private space programs are growing greatly, and low earth orbit is becoming within the reach of businesses.  With the space shuttle phased out and NASA contracts increased we could easily imagine that the private sector could take this role on.

Another reason to outsource this portion of space is that this program is relatively lackluster.  There's no big milestones, great discoveries, and very few nationally proclaimed heroes from this level of space travel.  It may be a new frontier, but by now, going into low earth orbit is like the 200,000th person to come to move to the American colonies.  Nice, but not heroic.  I explained why this is important earlier: When we create national heroes in a field of study, we encourage kids to enter those fields.  Although the space shuttle had a role, the amount of heroes popping up was relatively small.

2: Deep space exploration

This is a long term goal.  Mars has been a major candidate for exploration for a long time, but it would require a huge resource dedication.  A more likely short term candidate would be an asteroid that passes near Earth.  In short, it's what we would expect space exploration to entail.

This is where NASA is definitely needed, as an independently functioning agency.  Space exploration is what creates the heroes that inspire kids to enter math and science, in an effort to spearhead science and technology.  A private company being the first to achieve a big exploration gain would undercut the national pride gains that could be achieved through space exploration.

In addition, space exploration just isn't profitable right now.  Since current law prohibits parties from claiming extraterrestrial property, a company couldn't claim an asteroid.  Nor could they profit from the exploration itself without massive subsidization.  Only a national government could actually get the exploration level achieved, at least for now.

3: Near Earth Object Detection+Deflection

This is an odd role for NASA, which the ordinary person may laugh about.  However, life on Earth is constantly at risk of being eliminated in an instant if an undetected asteroid of sufficient size were to ever hit Earth.  Congress has recognized this threat, giving some (though not sufficient) funding for NASA to conduct asteroid searches, mandating that 99% of Near Earth Objects be discovered and tracked by the end of 2010.

If it was ever discovered that an asteroid was going to impact Earth, the pressure would surely come on each nation's space programs to stop the asteroid.  Russia has already recognized this need, and actually began talks about sending an unmanned spacecraft to test a non-nuclear asteroid deflection method (there's controversy because a deflection method on a harmless asteroid always has the risk of creating unpredictable orbits that could send the rocks returning to Earth.  As such, it's questionable if Russia will actually carry out the test).

Because of this, asteroid detection is probably NASA's most important role.  If an imminent asteroid threat was ever discovered, we would need a centralized, capable space program to evaluate the size of the threat, and develop a strategy in fighting the asteroid.

For this effort, we would need a space program that has a functioning deep space program (manned if possible, but unmanned is fine).  The modern theories for asteroid deflection include nuclear detonations, non-explosive impacts, and about a dozen or so ideas that would take some research to develop.  Space travel at this distance are out of reach of the private sector.  We need NASA for this.

Now where is NASA today?  It looks like, in an effort to modernize space travel by privatizing mundane tasks, NASA is losing everything that makes it a special part of the United States, representing the pinnacle of science and technology, and a herald of a new era.