CDZ Should we increase funding to NASA?

[Delta4Embassy]

According to Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the US receives eight dollars in financial benefit for every one dollar it invests in NASA. As it stands, NASA's budget it half a penny on every dollar.
Should we increase funding to NASA? Why? Why not?

Increasing funding means either increasing taxes, or decreasing funding from something else. So which would you suggest?

I'd be for lopping a hundred billion from DoD and distributing that to NASA, HUD, Entitlements, and whatnot.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Even the military is going more towards drones

NASA needs to push more R2D2 and less Buck Rogers. There is little to be gained by putting men in space

Sure there is. The way we're fucking up this rock... it wouldn't hirt to have a couple others.

 

[rightwinger]

Even the military is going more towards drones

NASA needs to push more R2D2 and less Buck Rogers. There is little to be gained by putting men in space

Sure there is. The way we're fucking up this rock... it wouldn't hirt to have a couple others.

A space colony would still need resupply

 

[TheOldSchool]

Even the military is going more towards drones

NASA needs to push more R2D2 and less Buck Rogers. There is little to be gained by putting men in space

Sure there is. The way we're fucking up this rock... it wouldn't hirt to have a couple others.

A space colony would still need resupply

Unless we figure out how to make it self sustainable

But we'd need to do something like, oh, fund NASA for that to happen

 

[pauls]

If something, comet strike, large meteor collision, super volcano eruptions, anything, made this planet uninhabitable the human race would end. Exploring space to find other places to live provides security to humanity. Exploration drives discoveries that will ultimately enhance our lives and the lives of generations to come. Robotic probes are fine at gathering basic information but it takes people to drive the imagination of true discoveries. The first person to step onto the surface of Mars will do more to prevent war and strife on Earth than all the social programs ever conceived.

 

[xdangerousxdavex]

We'd better stabilize society than explore outer space that doesn't give us anything today.

 

[rightwinger]

Even the military is going more towards drones

NASA needs to push more R2D2 and less Buck Rogers. There is little to be gained by putting men in space

Sure there is. The way we're fucking up this rock... it wouldn't hirt to have a couple others.

A space colony would still need resupply

Unless we figure out how to make it self sustainable

But we'd need to do something like, oh, fund NASA for that to happen

The money would be better spent to take care of the planet we have

 

[pauls]

NASA has contributed a lot more to the USA than they have collected through funding.
The provide a good reason to study the sciences, from medicine to exobiology. They provide good paying, high tech jobs in the private sector with their partnerships and even have stimulated new businesses as well as contribute to existing businesses.
The aluminum engine block and heads in your car are likely a NASA alloy and the pistons are made of a hyper-eutectic alloy developed by NASA and released for commercial use. You have no idea how much NASA has contributed to the commercial industries, food storage, medicine, radiation treatment, Aerospace and aircraft, physical therapy and the list goes on and on.

For investments in our future just remember that if anything happens to this little blue marble NASA is the one that can help find an alternative home. If we can spread out onto other planets and take the knowledge we have now we could make life possible even if Earth is destroyed.

 

[jwoodie]

For investments in our future just remember that if anything happens to this little blue marble NASA is the one that can help find an alternative home. If we can spread out onto other planets and take the knowledge we have now we could make life possible even if Earth is destroyed.

Despite the Chicken Little argument, space exploration is an extravagant expense we might have been able to afford if we hadn't been borrowing and spending ourselves into oblivion. Unless there is some Unobtanium nearby, we had better get our finances in order first.

 

[pauls]

Well, there are many precious metals in asteroids that we could mine. There is fresh water in comets. Water being in such short supply it might be come necessary to supplement the water we have on earth with comets.

 

[Dajjal]

I have followed the space program since sputnik one and the cause of going to the moon may have been the arms race with Russia, but there have been many scientific advancements due to the space race. We should continue to explore space, and NASA are the only ones who can really do it. I think Obamas biggest mistake was to downgrade NASA. I hope your next president increases their funding, and makes it possible for men to go to Mars.

 

[starman]

I'm all for increasing NASA's funding. Not so long ago, its budget was $20 billion annually, whereas Americans blew about $ 80 billion on tobacco alone.
Particularly in the long run, NASA's achievements are far more than academic. Increased investment in space need not compete with saving the environment; it may actually be the key to it. Years ago, Princeton professor G. K. O'Neal proposed relocating industries to space. The moon for example, has no ecosphere to mess up, and besides mineral wealth its lower gravity makes easier to get things done. In addition abundant lunar (and mercurian) He-3 may someday enable us to produce energy elsewhere and beam what we need here.
Regarding the search for alien life, I do however, have a slight criticism of NASA priorities. IMO they've invested to much on Mars too little on the search for exoplanets. For all its mystique, Mars is hopelessly small--only about a tenth of terrestrial mass, and almost airless. If missions like Kepler had been emphasized by now they probably would've found a truly Earthlike planet out there (kepler 452b is probably more venusian than earthlike).

 

[jwoodie]

Y'all are operating in a (budgetary) vacuum. Time to come back down to Earth.

 

[I amso IR]

I'm all for increasing NASA's funding. Not so long ago, its budget was $20 billion annually, whereas Americans blew about $ 80 billion on tobacco alone.
Particularly in the long run, NASA's achievements are far more than academic. Increased investment in space need not compete with saving the environment; it may actually be the key to it. Years ago, Princeton professor G. K. O'Neal proposed relocating industries to space. The moon for example, has no ecosphere to mess up, and besides mineral wealth its lower gravity makes easier to get things done. In addition abundant lunar (and mercurian) He-3 may someday enable us to produce energy elsewhere and beam what we need here.
Regarding the search for alien life, I do however, have a slight criticism of NASA priorities. IMO they've invested to much on Mars too little on the search for exoplanets. For all its mystique, Mars is hopelessly small--only about a tenth of terrestrial mass, and almost airless. If missions like Kepler had been emphasized by now they probably would've found a truly Earthlike planet out there (kepler 452b is probably more venusian than earthlike).

I am so IR responds;

There you go, tax smokers!

 

[I amso IR]

Hey, wait a minute, I am a smoker! Aarughh!

 

[MarathonMike]

I'm not convinced of Tyson's 8 to 1 payback but I am all for increasing funding for NASA. And I have just the way to do it. Shutdown the worthless Dept of Education. That would be a far better use of tax dollars.

 

[HR Pufnstuf]

There are few things that the government does well but NASA is one thing the government does well. Surely, with the trillions of dollars our government wastes a few hundred billions to refund NASA. Also, more importantly the nation needs something to be proud about and something to dream about. Mars may not possible yet but if we put our entire national will behind it (like when we went to the moon) we could begin figuring out how to overcome the myriad of problems we face.

 

[starman]

There are few things that the government does well but NASA is one thing the government does well.

I'll say. Late in 2003 two American, a Japanese and a european spacecraft were en route to Mars. The Japanese craft missed the red planet altogether the european one conked after landing but both US craft--Spirit and Opportunity--far exceed initial estimates of mission lifetime.

Surely, with the trillions of dollars our government wastes a few hundred billions to refund NASA.

Think of what we could've done with the trillion or so wasted on Iraq since '03...

Also, more importantly the nation needs something to be proud about and something to dream about. Mars may not possible yet but if we put our entire national will behind it (like when we went to the moon) we could begin figuring out how to overcome the myriad of problems we face.

I'm skeptical that current problems can be solved by present government. The key solution is sacrifice yet it's unpopular hence no way to win an election. Try to get elected by slashing popular social spending. Or telling people to have fewer kids or consume less, to save the environment. The problem is not knowing what to do but lack of power to do it.
Sacrifice is also the key to meeting the challenge of space. Face it the average joe doesn't want his tax money spent on that, but on things of more immediate personal benefit. It's no accident NASA is so underfunded.

 

[HR Pufnstuf]

What we need is another Kennedy that can embody the US sense of exploration and national pride for a project that would inspire us to be more than we are today.

 

[Damaged Eagle]

Any investment in technology is a boom for the US economy. The space program has provided high-strength light-weight metals and plastics, advances in radio frequency applications (microwave ovens and cell phones), the oceanographic society work with NASA for advances in living in harsh environmental conditions, etc, etc, etc,... All of which generate countless billions in revenue in the private sector.

So yes invest in NASA.

I'd also like to see a larger investment in the development of fusion and Casmir power sources to provide high energy sources.

We need both the ability to...

1. Decentralize our population from this insignificant planet on the edge of a minor galaxy in a remote region of the universe.

2. Be able to wean ourselves off the fossil fuels because wind and solar can not provide a sustainable or large enough power source to cover our growing requirements.

*****CHUCKLE*****