Why Timing Is Critical
A shutdown would mean more than just shuttered offices. Essential monitoring, telescope scheduling, and collaborative missions with international observatories could be delayed—or canceled outright. With 3I/ATLAS expected to make its closest approach to Earth in the coming months, interruptions in observation risk creating permanent data gaps.
Moreover, layoffs or furloughs at NASA would undercut morale and weaken the continuity of research teams. Unlike political debates that can be revisited, 3I/ATLAS will not wait—it will pass, and the chance to study it will be lost.
For employees at NASA, the shutdown threat is not just an economic issue but a professional crisis. Their jobs—already dependent on long funding cycles and political bargaining—are now at risk at the very moment when the world is relying on them most. For the public, this raises a stark question: do we really want to gamble with planetary research and security in exchange for partisan brinkmanship?
If history is any guide, the decision to stall or cut resources in the weeks before a celestial event of this magnitude will be remembered as a critical error.
