BARBARA KLEIN: The proposed NASA budget calls for a twenty percent reduction in spending for planetary science. That would mean three hundred million dollars in cuts from the program’s twenty-twelve budget of one point five billion dollars.

But the news for the space agency is not all bad. There are proposed spending increases for some programs. For example, the president’s budget would increase spending for development of a new commercial manned spacecraft. It would double to eight hundred thirty million dollars the amount for developing private spacecraft to replace the Space Shuttle program, which ended last year.

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BOB DOUGHTY: American communities often use zoning laws to control where businesses may operate in a neighborhood. Now there is a move to zone parts of the ocean.

Several states and the federal government have plans to organize competing uses for their coastal waters. Interest in such planning grew in two northeastern states following reports of wind-turbine energy projects being built close to seaside towns. On the West Coast, the interest came as a result of wave and tidal energy development.

However, balancing competing uses for coastal waters has proved difficult. At first look, the Pacific Ocean appears mostly empty. But it is anything but that. Recently, the state of Oregon published a digital map of the Oregon coast on the World Wide Web. The map includes about fifty levels of information about existing ocean uses and the environment.