Nasa

[HBK-aholic]

I'm in the middle of Dan Browns Deception Point, where NASA is a big part of the plot. However, what I know about it is limited, so bear with me, as I'm using information from a few sources.

NASA's current 2008 budget of $17.318 billion represents about 0.6% of the $2.9 trillion United States federal budget.

Now, my main question is whether you think this is worth it. Do you think the $17 Billion of your tax money could be spent in a more productive way? Do we really need the space programme?

I don't have a real view here at the moment, my main thought is that I wonder how America doesn't have free healthcare yet can spend billions of dollars on space exploration. I'd assume healthcare is more important. But maybe space exploration is better in the long run?

 

[Razor]

We're Americans, and we love ourselves some exploration. It's another way to say "Look at us being a world power, we're awesome." Which is all well and good. National pride is great, and a necessary tool if we ever want to get anything done as a nation. And scientifically, the research being conducted is tremendously useful. However, the funding does need to be cut back.

$17 billion? Really? With our schools in the shape they are? With our healthcare currently being monopolized by humongous healthcare companies like it is? Can we not keep the International Space Station and a select few probes running on half of that? 8.5 billion in school funding would go a loooong way. It wouldn't really help our healthcare, as the projected cost of the new Healthcare Initiative is something like 1 Trillion dollars. But our schools could definitely use the money.

I say find out exactly how much it costs to keep the staff employed, the International Space Station aloft, the government's sattellite's up, and the most important of the important space probes going. Take that, and add 100 million to it for breathing room, and there's the new budget. Any civilian sattellites or probes will be subject to private funding from then forward. Take that money and split it up amongst the states for schools. Assuming 8.5 tillion dollars, that comes out to 170 million dollars if my math is right. That's gold, right there.

 

[Shadowmancer]

I'm in the middle of Dan Browns Deception Point, where NASA is a big part of the plot. However, what I know about it is limited, so bear with me, as I'm using information from a few sources.

I don't have a real view here at the moment, my main thought is that I wonder how America doesn't have free healthcare yet can spend billions of dollars on space exploration. I'd assume healthcare is more important. But maybe space exploration is better in the long run?

First off i didn't like Deception Point as much as The Da Vinci Code. Thought it was slightly flatter in terms of characters though it is an older book.

Second, Space travel in the long run is going to be important, humanity is already pushing the amount of resources that are available on this planet, the ability to send people to other planets could work out better in the long run due to a way of pushing humanity to control the universe. But it also means that the removal of huge chunks of humanity from one planet meaning that more knowledge is available in the long run.

as to the healthcare thing, i think Fromthesouth has a generic response to that about canada and waiting times, or something. However I do see where you are coming from with the entire money could be better spent in terms of education and all that, but that could be done through other methods such as the cutting of salaries to the top beraucrats that don't really need the huge amounts of money going in to their bank balances.

 

[FromTheSouth]

I didn't think that point was generic. I thought it was well researched.

Anyway, I love NASA, and everything it stands for. It is a source of national pride. Every time a shuttle goes up, it does experiments to determine how a zero gravity vacuum affects biologic processes. At some point, as we travel further, be it by necessity or sense of adventure, we will need the results of these tests to help us endeavor.

Furthermore, the moon, other planets, asteroids contain valuable resources. NASA will one day mine these space objects either for Earth, the space station, or space colonies.

As far as the book goes, everything about NASA is at least based in fact. Private space travel is closer than we think. Without NASA, someone will put a Coca Cola banner across the moon. NASA is necessary to conserve space. While no one owns the moon, NASA can stake quite a claim, and act as a deterrent to the private companies who act without a sense of responsibility, possibly endangering lives in the process. As long as NASA is around, standards for space travel will exist.