As we all know, NASA is losing its place as the go to for space exploration. Private companies and their dreams of riches have taken the center roll. So what will happen to NASA? These are a couple of possibilities.
Extinction: The first possibility is that the agency will be divested. With the Air force becoming more and more important each passing year and its eventual expansion into space operations NASA may be swallowed whole. Most of its engineers will probably keep their jobs as the Air Force will use them to develop space based fighters, transports and spy satellites. But the remnants of NASA will not stop space exploration. The Air Force or another agency will be tasked with such research in the same way the Coast Guard has the storm chasers fly for the national weather service. So can you really say NASA is gone under this scenario.....no, as it has merely been transformed and replaced.
Expansion: Possibility number two is that NASA expands further. Using the technology developed by private corporations and businesses they will continue further into the stars. NASA astronauts will test this new equipment in the same way they test new engines and rockets for the Air Force. In other words NASA astronauts will be a safety inspection organization for products that are used for space travel. I can even see them developing safety procedures for untrained pioneers going into space and have a testing regiment like how the coast guard tests sailors to ensure they are up to the task if their boat ever sinks. Basically, NASA will become the Coast Guard of space.
After Colonization: Once we begin to colonize space, and other planets, objects and food being brought back and forth between those colonies will need to go through customs to ensure no nasty mutated bacteria from Mars gets on planet and wipes us out. So NASA will, if expanded, become like the TSA, FDA, boarders and customs, and Coast Guard rolled into one. They may even be directed to create new pathogens for the CDC to test and find a cure for. It will be a large expansion eclipsing most other agencies that should have been expanded instead for that task, but this is under the assumption that NASA has enough love by the politicians to be kept and expanded despite the overlap of responsibilities. Hello NASA inspectors, and headache.
International: Another distinct possibility is that NASA and other space agencies from around the world either A: become partners and have their own ambassadors for sharing scientific studies, B: a new United Nations is specifically developed for space exploration, or C: the most likely scenario is that a NATO esc body is created for having the same international standards and dealing with extra planetary issues, like terrorism, unknown space phenomenon, and research. Why is C the most likely scenario? That is because every nation wants credit for finding or doing something first. Basically, international street credit and a body mimicking NATO still allows for NASA to exist and even expand in a similar way to the two aforementioned possibilities.
Conclusion: Expansion and co-operation is the most likely scenario. It plays well politically as no politician, let alone a President wants to be known as the one who killed NASA. However, I would actually like its extinction. I surprised myself too when I found I was in favor of cutting up the agency and giving its parts to various other government entities. Why? Well that is easy; I don't want NASA to turn into some bureaucratic monstrosity. I want NASA to be remembered for getting us this far into space and not as another TSA, or other red tape making body that everyone loves to hate but feels we cannot do without. So if it's going to die, kill it quickly, and prevent the excessive redundancy and corruption that is sure to mar NASA's legacy.
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