Opinion: Spending on space is wasteful.
March 5, 2021
Since NASA’s Perseverance Rover landed on Mars last week, it seems like space has been on everyone’s minds. There’s no doubt about it, space is cool. The idea that we are one tiny speck in the ever-expanding universe is hard to wrap our heads around, but humans are naturally curious creatures so we are inclined to try. The U.S. may be a prominent figure in space exploration but is sending robots into space the best use of our tax dollars, especially with the serious challenges our country faces such as COVID, climate change and income inequality?
Since the founding of NASA in 1958 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, federal dollars have been going toward researching and exploring space. A little over a decade later, the U.S. landed a man on the moon – or maybe not depending on who you ask. Space exploration is incredible, but we have to remember that NASA’s funding comes from the pockets of everyday Americans.
The U.S. is the richest country in the world, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have problems. In 2020, more than 50 million Americans experienced food insecurity, which increased due to COVID-19. Closer to home, Watauga County experienced a food insecurity rate of 16.8% last year. The pandemic has been hard on Americans and food insecurity is just one example of how people are struggling.
With people struggling to eat in the richest country in the world, is exploring space how our tax dollars should be spent? About 5.9% of the federal budget is spent on Medicare and healthcare, 5.7% is spent on housing and community and 6.3% on education. Spending for these programs is in the single digits so where is all our money going? The military which receives over half of all discretionary spending. Of course, America’s outrageous military spending is a whole different issue. Only 0.5% of the federal budget goes to NASA but 0.5% of a $4.5 trillion budget is a lot of money, $23.3 billion this year to be exact.
$23.3 billion is a lot of money for NASA, which has little to no direct impact on everyday Americans’ lives. Sure, space is cool to learn about and the advancement of science and technology is very important, but parents who can’t feed their children probably don’t care about some rocks on Mars.
NASA should not be a priority when issues such as poverty, food insecurity and homelessness exist in America. Our tax dollars should be spent on us – improving our infrastructure, helping the poor, bettering education and solving climate change. To be clear, government funding for research is very important and NASA should not be abandoned. Knowledge should be accessible and space shouldn’t be treated like a personal playground for the ultra-rich. Right now we need to focus on fixing the problems here on Earth before we try to figure out the age-old mysteries of space.
Sam • Sep 26, 2023 at 9:50 pm
You REALLY want to criticize nasas budget when there is so much pork and wasteful spending in our government? Jesus Christ, get a life and open your eyes. NASA is one of the few government programs that DOES directly benefit all of us. And if you don’t understand how, then you haven’t tried to understand and shouldn’t be writing an article positioning yourself as someone who knows anything about NASA or government spending.
JR • Apr 19, 2023 at 8:24 am
I believe nasa is a waste of money. The world was a better place when there was no internet and social media, kids played outside and with toys. People in general were much happier.
Thrash • Mar 7, 2023 at 10:32 am
I’m disappointed in the lack of understanding the facts:
“About 5.9% of the federal budget is spent on Medicare and healthcare”. From that very same link you will actually find that Medicare and Healthcare is 22.67% of the federal budget – about 1.61 trillion dollars.
“The military which receives over half of all discretionary spending.” Discretionary spending (again from the link you provided): $1.6 Trillion. Military spending: $752 billion = 46.5% – less than half – not more.
And yes, NASA does in fact have an direct impact on not only American lives, but the lives of everyone on our planet.
deez • Nov 21, 2022 at 9:02 am
Cutting nasas budget? do you realize how little nasa has? nasa only has 12 billion dollars in its budget and the military spents trillions and you want to cut nasas own budget? everything that you had was invented from nasa such as computers if you want to cut nasa’s budget say goodbye to GPS as most GPS networks are connected to probes from nasa do your research guys.
Chris • Nov 16, 2022 at 10:24 pm
NASA has a large impact on everyday people’s lives. Enjoy your camera phone? Thank NASA for that. Enjoy more fuel efficient airliners. Again, thank NASA for that. In fact they are even developing a hybrid propulsion system for airliners and have also made an all electric airplane. Did you know that? Ever seen someone in construction use cordless power-tools…again, NASA. You mention food security…you should look up NASA’s Harvest Mission. You mention climate change, yet failed to state that NASA is one of the agencies at the forefront of studying climate change and finding solutions to this ever-growing problem. You mention that NASA should not be a priority…but it isn’t a priority. It accounts for less then 0.5% of the federal budget. That is incredibly small and many other agencies have budgets that dwarf NASA’s. The truth of the matter is that space exploration and solving the problems that it entails, have produced hundreds, if not thousands of benefits to everyday Americans. Look up the NASA spinoff program. It will astound you. When NASA develops technologies, either by itself, or with its many commercial and international partners, they make that technology available to private companies which then turn around and create a product to help everyone. NASA partners with small businesses on all of it’s projects and missions. What about all the companies (and their subsequent employees) that benefit from NASA contracts? NASA’s budget was $23.3 billion, as you say. You fail to mention that NASA was also responsible for over $70 BILLION in total economic output that year, and $7.7 billion in additional tax revenue. In fact…just spend a bit of time on NASA’s website. It will astound you. Taking away money from NASA would do much more harm and actually result in less research and less technology to fight the very problems you listed.
Alan grant • Oct 20, 2022 at 12:17 pm
I think this is very true and we have plenty of facts to prove it look around all this so we can damage our earth we should be ruining away from the problems we should face and mars are going like the earth is the sun blows up anyway so why we could be making this be her for a little longer than going to find a new one. I may be a kid, but I love animals and this earth, so if we keep damaging it like trash, we will end up like dinosaurs. so let’s help it
Michael • Sep 17, 2022 at 1:54 pm
Why are we spending any money on space! Except for our satalites to run phones and communication. We need people to do jobs that benefit the people. Build more housing for poor and mental I’ll and police them to protect the tenants and the neighbors . The people should not pay the bill “to create jobs”Give me 1 billion and I can create safe housing for everyone.
Shopdog • Aug 25, 2022 at 2:38 pm
All everyone needs to do is sign on Youtube and watch George Carlin and his take on the environment and saving the planet. That man had it right years ahead of our time!
Joe mama the 2 • May 19, 2022 at 8:10 am
YAY 😀
Luna Challis • Apr 9, 2022 at 11:11 am
reminder that the us spends more money on the military in about 2 weeks than they do on nasa per year
Mike Jordan • Mar 17, 2022 at 12:44 pm
12.8 billion dollars wasted and what to show for it? How has it changed humanity in any way? In a planet where the average temperature is -80 degrees Fahrenheit and an atmosphere 100 times thinner than Earth which is mostly made up of carbon dioxide how in the world could any reasonably thinking human being think it is a habitable environment? No hard working human being would ever be able to afford traveling there let alone living there. It is easy for all of those overpriced nerds to get excited about the stupid missions seeing that it’s not there money.
For a planet like our own which is comprised of over 70% water and so little of it has being explored, what not scrape NASA and use all that money to explore the planet we live on. There is nothing wrong with what God created.
Ryan • Mar 9, 2022 at 7:42 pm
Hi there,
I feel it is important to remind you that although we should, yes, keep high focus on fixing problems here on earth, countless ‘on the ground’ issues have been resolved by discoveries made due to space flight. Beyond that, the Space Industry does not always produce a negative profit, and is actually more than capable of returning more than 1000% of the money we put into it, assuming we keep at it and continue our efforts to their fullest. You made an argument that the money Nasa receives does not impact every day American Citizens, but that just is not correct. Nasa’s achievements allowed you to write this article. We have complex computers and the internet because of Nasa, of course planes and gyroscopes have been revolutionized because of Nasa. If you even want shocking examples, insulin pumps, CAT scans, memory foam, portable computers (including cell phones), LED lights, artificial limbs, scratch resistant lenses, and even a deal of firefighting equipment have been created directly due to, or by Nasa. These are only a few examples… when you take all into account, you realize that the 0.5% of the American budget actually is perfectly fine. With a deeper look as well, where 5.9%, 5.7%, and 6.3% of budget is spent on healthcare, community, and education, you stop worrying about not having ‘enough’ money for each individual problem, and instead should question whether that money is being spent on the right things. Here’s an example, almost 40% of Americans ages 20 and up are obese, and over 71% are overweight… see where I’m going with this? To maintain being overweight, and especially to maintain being obese, you must surpass your appropriate body weight’s designated intake. It does not matter if you exercise or not, of course you should, but it doesn’t matter. You can’t become fattier if you’re not eating enough. That means, that the hunger problems in America are by no means caused by ‘lack of funding’ but instead are most likely caused by America’s gluttonous citizens. One final point that should be noted: you mentioned dislike for the fact that more than half of America’s funding goes to the military. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but this is vitally important to do. In the world we live in, national security is extremely difficult to uphold, and world wars are statistically over 100,000% more likely to occur than they were 500 years ago. Basically, they’re not going to be common, but they can easily happen. You’d be surprised just how expensive one plane can be. One B-2 Stealth Bomber is worth over $2 billion USD. Military funding is also used to research more effective ways to prevent someone from dropping a nuclear bomb on our heads, just something to think about. This is all I care to explain.
Have a great day.
Oliver • Apr 7, 2022 at 1:39 am
That’s what I was thinking. Nasa even invented the CMOS sensor which is used in our phones every day. NASA is not a waste of money. Maybe if people are sooooo concerned about it then maybe America should stop putting so much money into the military. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/12/humans-multiplanetary-species/ <—good link.
k l • Mar 8, 2022 at 3:12 pm
space exploration is a waste of recources. Bringing me to my next reason, billions of dollars are spent a year just to find little to no answers about space. Use of this money could be used for; paving safer roads, offering the citizens in povery with shelter, food, education, and healthcare. Spending this great deal of money could be used for
zach • Mar 2, 2022 at 12:09 pm
yea i dont really know lol
Felix Trex • Mar 2, 2022 at 9:24 am
Im still doing research about this and i cant find a single thing that means that space exploration is not a waste and i intreviewed some people and they say space exploration is not important
Zeph • Mar 11, 2022 at 8:08 am
You’re right. There aren’t that many sources that conclude that space exploration is important, but there is some good evidence that space exploration is really important in our lives.
Though space exploration has unknown and unquantified risks, if we don’t take risks, we’ll do nothing. If we didn’t take risks, we wouldn’t have explored the bottom of the ocean, or made an airplane fly. Human life is all about taking risks and making experiments, and if we suddenly stop, then what will we come to? Even though helping humanitarian needs is definitely a key factor in making our world a better place for everyone, who knows what we could find on another planet. With the technology that we have today, using taxpayer money to build and launch a rocket could be life changing for humanity.
Felix Trex • Mar 1, 2022 at 9:48 am
I think that the fact that we use all this money for space exploration hurts my mind because if we used at least 5% of US Goverment money we could feed at least feed 80% percent of the population who cant afford food or a home.I made some calculations and to buy Every home less person a home to live in would cost 207597875800 Us Dollars (Thats 208 Billion dollars estimated)
Gus Fisher • Mar 7, 2022 at 8:19 pm
Sorry to let you know, but NASA takes up 0.4% of the federal budget. It’ll barely make a dent. Go take money from military spending, that takes up way more money.
Mike • Mar 17, 2022 at 12:47 pm
0.4 percent of the budget is appalling, NASA is not worth a penny!
Oliver • Apr 7, 2022 at 1:41 am
Existential risk
Humans have a one in six chance of going extinct this century according to Oxford Philosopher Toby Ord. In his book, The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity, Dr Ord lays out a variety of long-tail risks that are both existential and very difficult to mitigate. These include nature-based risks like asteroids, large-scale volcanic eruptions and stellar explosions. Although we can track many of these phenomena, we do not have the technology (nor are we likely to develop it anytime soon) to prevent large eruptions or redirect large asteroids. Initial efforts to nudge space objects are just beginning. This is to say nothing of the human-created risks of nuclear war or bioweapons intentionally or unintentionally released on the public, a scenario made easier to imagine by the current pandemic.
As long as humanity is grouped together on a single planet there will always be a possibility that all of us can be killed at once. It is equivalent to having everyone in a single building: there is always a risk greater than zero of a collapse or fire that kills everyone. By establishing, at first, small outposts and eventually larger scale settlements on other planets, the risk of our species being destroyed is significantly curtailed.
Realizing humanity’s potential
On a more positive note, human habitation in a greater variety of settings will radically expedite science and commerce. While we currently have small-scale experimentation with manufacturing items in micro and zero gravity on the International Space Station, the potential for us to set up large-scale industry in different physics requires us to have a presence on other celestial locations.
Large-scale settlements of people are hubs of innovation and human flourishing. Just think of how many more discoveries and marvels could be created by 80 billion people in the future instead of today’s 8 billion. Our current planet has a limited carrying capacity but our solar system can accommodate many more people than any single planet can.
Just as cultural and geographic variety contributes to the richness of our current society, further expanding the diversity of human settings would continue to expand the creativity of our species. Space travel itself has already been an incredible inspiration to numerous scientists, engineers and artists with many people citing seeing the moon landing as one of the most formative events of their lives.
Hastening science and technology development
The technologies we develop on our way to becoming a multiplanetary species will also benefit us here on earth. Today, satellites are used to monitor carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions to give us a better picture of the causes of global warming and promote accountability. In her first speech devoted to space, US Vice-President Kalama Harris said: “I truly believe space activity is climate action.” In a recent report, the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Space laid out the many ways satellite data is being used to address climate change and suggests feeding data from space-based assets into an “Earth Operations Centre” to provide a real-time picture of activities and phenomena that contribute to warming.
Benefits of space technology on Earth
Some of the benefits of space technology on Earth
Image: World Economic Forum
Less well known are the many other technologies developed on our way to space but used in our daily lives. The CMOS sensor was first invented at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the 1990s. No one could have predicted that this technology would eventually be part of all our phones, enabling high-quality digital images and affecting everything from how we document human rights abuses to how we present ourselves to potential mates on dating apps.
The limits of space settlement
It is important to note that becoming a multiplanetary species will not address what are commonly understood to be our most pressing problems here on earth. Increasingly, people see global warming and social inequality as twin crises that are the most urgent issues of our time. Although space-based assets can help us better understand global warming, investing in technologies or instituting policies to prevent an ecological catastrophe on earth will always be more efficient ways to address ecological degradation than terraforming another planet.
We can also easily replicate the social inequities of our planet out in space, as has been illustrated by numerous works of science fiction. Spaceflight is not an escape from those important challenges.
Virgin Galactic’s passenger rocket plane VSS Unity, carrying billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson and his crew, begins its ascent to the edge of space above Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, U.S., July 11, 2021. REUTERS/Joe Skipper
Virgin Galactic’s passenger rocket plane VSS Unity begins its ascent to the edge of space
Image: REUTERS/Joe Skipper
However, for certain classes of long-tail risk that add up to significant existential danger, diversifying our planetary footprint is the most effective mitigation strategy and one that provides a path for human flourishing that exceeds what could possibly be accomplished on one planet. For these reasons, significantly increasing government and private sector spending on crewed spaceflight is an investment in our national and international security.
Right now, NASA’s budget constitutes 0.5% of the US National budget. Doubling that and dedicating the new funding entirely to human space exploration would significantly expedite progress in this area while still representing only 1% of the total budget. It would broaden global participation in this critical endeavour if other countries made similar investments of 1% of government expenditure and further hasten progress.
Public support and understanding of the true value that becoming a space-faring society can bring will be needed to generate support for these large expenditures. We also need to ensure that we do not create debris with our current operations that could prevent widespread access to space in the future. When we look back on 2021 from 2121, perhaps the most significant event we will remember is when the path to space was opened for billions of our fellow human beings.
Bobby • Feb 6, 2022 at 5:04 am
Great article ,start a petition.
Keighlea • Jan 28, 2022 at 12:12 pm
There’s no point to spend money on space, when you can help people.
ALEXANDRA PARRIS • Jan 24, 2022 at 11:10 am
pls just think about the people and not yourself and say well the sun is going to blow up so why are trying so hard the find another plant because we killing it and all these comments hat disagree don’t care so just stop if want this plant to live a little more stop spending money on mars its not wroth that much i am not saying shut it i am saying lets not use so much.
Keighlea • Jan 28, 2022 at 12:07 pm
I agree
colton • Feb 9, 2022 at 10:35 am
me to
caylee • Feb 28, 2022 at 10:32 am
Agreed
Ethan • Jan 24, 2022 at 9:01 am
ok
Vahrun Taraporewala • Dec 7, 2021 at 10:57 pm
Dear Ms. Adams,
Your impassioned opinion editorial in the Appalachian, ‘Spending on Space is Wasteful’, that unequivocally recommends redirecting all government spending on space exploration towards more immediate humanitarian concerns such as that of food insecurity and homelessness in the country. I am forced to conclude that while your heart seems to be in the right place, your argument is deplorably narrow and lamentably naïve in its perspective.
A lack of research is evident in your casual pronouncement that space exploration has ‘little to no impact on everyday Americans lives’ and that NASA shouldn’t be a priority when ‘issues such as poverty, food insecurity and homelessness exist in America’. Space exploration has directly enriched our lives with technologies like GPS, an application that is used on a daily basis by over 15 million people in the US alone! It has indirectly supplemented our lives through technology transfers from initial space exploration and spaceflight missions, that have subsequently found diverse applications. From scratch resistant glasses to artificial limbs and cochlear implants, NASA’s innovations pervade science and medicine, offering a multitude of practical benefits and improving quality of life as well as health and security. In fact, freeze-dried food is one such example of a technology that was first developed by NASA for use by astronauts, that is now considered a solution to growing food insecurity, a major concern that you cite in your exposition, rendering your argument futile. These points clearly articulate that space exploration has indeed had a significant impact on American lives, even when it comes to larger economic, human and social issues.
Taking this argument further – satellites launched by NASA are invaluable assets in our drive to save the planet, providing irrefutable data on climate change and pollution. They significantly enhance our ability to predict the onset of natural disasters and conjure timely relief. If this were not the case, we would still be at the mercy of Nostradamus when it came to forecasting most natural events of the world, leading to an incalculable loss of life and livelihood! With the world population rising and real concerns about global warming threatening the future of our planet, it may be essential to consider new habitats, converting currently inhospitable and hostile environments such as Mars into viable locations for human habitation. Water scarcity may make it essential to draw on NASA space programme learnings that find ways to extract drinking water from urine, for instance. This is the kind of futuristic thinking that leads to the development of the human race and ensures its survival. Your article evidences a very microscopic view of existence, and neglects the immense service of the space program towards mankind.
Furthermore, your opinion that the 0.5% of federal budget that the US allocates to space programmes is extraordinarily high, overlooks the fact that almost all G20 countries today spend similarly on their space programmes as well. With the looming threat of militarization of space and its direct impact on world order, it stands to reason that the US must secure the long term interests of its citizens by actively leading development on this front. Your disdain for America’s military spending that you term “outrageous”, suggests that you do not place great value on national security and protection against threats from other nations and terrorist forces despite lessons from the world’s violent history, so I’m not surprised that you do not treat this with the necessary gravitas.
The rapid growth of the space industry generates several new employment opportunities, jobs that provide incomes to address the homelessness, poverty, access to Medicare and healthcare that you suggest financing. This is in addition to the significantly larger proportion of funding that the American government is already diverting towards alleviating the suffering that you highlight. The $2.59 trillion spent in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, for instance, is a shining example that our government is certainly not turning a blind eye to immediate crisis and is deeply concerned with the well-being of its citizens, spending almost 64% of the federal budget on addressing this matter. Your blissful ignorance would suggest that your perspective that space funding is exorbitant or that it comes at the cost of generic human welfare is deeply flawed and overlooks its many direct positive benefits.
Furthermore, the dismissive flippancy with which you proclaim that “space is cool”, or trivialize the “rocks on Mars”, presents a childishly ignorant perspective that lacks balance, oversimplifies a complex issue and comes through as a unilaterally biased rant. The poor language used throughout the article leads me to conclude that perhaps your article wasn’t meant so seriously, showing a shallow knowledge on the matter. Poorly conceived, your article lacks clearly evaluated points, and demonstrates a fallacious and imprecise understanding on the purpose and impact of our national investment in ‘space’. Clearly your lack of knowledge has been displayed throughout the article.
Ms. Adams, I urge you to consider that one of the greatest assets of the human race has been the indomitable spirit of its great explorers. The fact that “humans are naturally curious creatures” is indeed a gift, not a fault. The many innovations and inventions that arise from enquiry, have paved the way to our tremendous success as a species on this planet! From Christopher Columbus to Chandrayaan, and from Marco Polo to the Mars Rover, advances in every earthly discipline have leapfrogged ahead because of discovery, both expected and unexpected. From the silks of Asia to the “finding” America, the spirit of voyagers who ventured into unknown frontiers and their breakthroughs have tremendously enriched and elevated our lives. Once upon a time, we believed the earth was flat. Now, as Captain Kirk famously said, ‘we may look upon space as the final frontier, but that is what we believe now.’ It is only through investment and discovery into our space programmes, that we will know for sure.
TK • Sep 18, 2021 at 6:16 am
Why spend billion on space exploration? We don’t need to find another planet to inhabit, we already live in paradise. So why not use more money on looking after our planet the people and ecosystems in it. I look at American’s and feel sorry that your politicians can put the people’s well-being ahead of military and space exploration spending. I cant imagine paying taxes and living in a country that can’t provide free health care for its people. I hear that you even have states where they cut your supply of water off of you can’t afford it – that is a fucked up callous society.
And as for all the technology gained from space exploration funding, that would have been developed anyway.
William Renfroe • Aug 19, 2021 at 8:14 pm
As pointed out by practically everyone else here your Opinion piece shows how little you actually know about what the spending on
“space” actually means… lets take climate change for example NASA is, in a somewhat limited capacity, looking into ways to create clean drinking water… they already have ways to clean urine to use in drinking water, this is how astronauts currently get most of the water they use, they are also looking into ways to make hostile environments like Mars livable and lets get one thing clear right now even worst case scenarios for climate change are *nothing* compared to how hostile Mars is, so things like atmosphere scrubbers, air purifiers, creating crop foods that require small amounts of water, wind turbines, solar panels and other renewable energy sources, are all things that would help us here on earth with Climate change either with mitigating its effects or possibly reversing it.
We do not have a problem with a lack of food here in the U.S. we produce enough food to feed more than half the world and yet we waste massive amounts of it, after all “food insecurity” can also be considered lack of healthy foods and or lack of affordable foods, not just a lack of food availability. The food insecurity issues we have in the U.S. are tied directly to the low wages a vast majority of Americans are paid, combined with ever increasing cost of goods and especially rent.
Income inequality is not something that can be changed by how the federal government spends money… increasing minimum wage might help but it is more likely companies will just increase cost of goods equal to revenue lost from having to pay people more because the U.S. has become the poster child for why Capitalism isn’t good, instead of why Capitalism *is* good like it has been in the past…
Also I find it hilarious you are complaining about 23.3 billion dollars being invested into NASA is somehow “wasted” when the screen you look at when doing so is LED and LED was created with NASA funding tinted car windows and sunglasses use tech created with NASA funding. The seatbelt you use, NASA funding. The car seat you either use/used/ or will use for your child NASA funding renewable energy tech originally was funded by NASA for “space” reasons Solar Panels have been used by NASA on satellites since we had satellites. The internet? NASA. GPS? NASA, your phone or wireless devices? NASA. your Bluetooth? NASA. Your modern vacuum NASA. These are all just the tip of the iceberg as well NASA is responsible for thousands of things we use in our lives the modern world would *not* be the same without it and complaining about 23.3 billion when we spend nearly a trillion on the military is just astounding reduce that budget by 2% give half of it to programs so they can fix everything you complain about with money to spare and the other half to NASA so we can find new tech to reverse climate change and end world hunger, as well as create new tech at rates that make the last 100 years seem like a snails pace…
I am sorry if this reply seems rude but at the same time I don’t care, because your opinion piece is so frustratingly ignorant of the topic that it boggles my mind even more than the COVID vaccine skeptics, or Trump supporters, or even QANON supporters….
Allan • Dec 20, 2021 at 9:12 pm
Yep. Said it all.
Alexandra parris • Jan 24, 2022 at 11:03 am
your rude instead of running away from our problems we should be facing it is not going to help if t the sun is going to explode one day so mars is going to die to so why are trying soo hard. we should be trying so hard to help this beautiful planet you are very mean so if you have nothing nice to say don’t say it.
ur mom • Mar 9, 2022 at 7:39 am
its called an opinion.
Paulette Adesman • Aug 12, 2021 at 12:23 pm
Sherry A. Said it all. 100 percent in agreement w her comments. Amen.
David Malsbury • Aug 7, 2021 at 8:31 pm
All the comments have some form of merit. The point is we need to take serious look at all the government spending and do some deep soul searching before dipping into the till in ALL sectors. Every single department needs to be totally honest about justifying its budget from a Confucian style moral perspective. That will never happen of course. So, we get the squandering we deserve.
MikeinSonoma • Jul 22, 2021 at 9:03 pm
A couple good responses pointing out all the benefits of the space program, just ignored by a few others. I think Canada saves a lot of money by what they don’t spend on their military. The NASA budget per capita would not pay for their healthcare. Yeah Iraq war when all said and done is going to cost $6 trillion. The ongoing, keep up the cost of all the dead and broke and they came home lifetime healthcare. What did the people of this country get for that 6 trillion? What did we get for that money? $703 billion military budget, NASA’s budget $22.6 billion. That’s not counting the lives lost in the military. NASA is about 3% of the military budget.
I’ll be willing to bet there’s a lot more people against the military budget and are behind NASA, how about we just count our share of tax paying going to NASA. Considering all the counties in America then voted for Joe Biden they produce 70% of all economy I bet most of those people behind NASA. But we won’t even go into the fact that NASA is a direct relation to using Sirius XM radio your GPS and a whole lot of other things based on satellites. That didn’t start private they started in NASA.
SHERRY ANDRACHEK • May 8, 2021 at 9:15 am
NASA is just another way this country steals from its people to help the billionaires get richer. Since the American taxpayers have been funding NASA for decades now, they should all be considered “shareholders” in NASA, and be receiving dividends from all the additional billions of dollars these billionaire companies are making due to all those satellites up there helping them make more money. But, they “ripped us off” AGAIN!! Ho-hum as I watch my 2 sisters who so very wisely married Canadian men enjoy their free medical and 1 year paid maternity leave, etc.
SHERRY ANDRACHEK • May 1, 2021 at 6:30 pm
Thank you so much for this aricle!! There are a whole lot of us out here who are sick and tired of watching the space program blow up billions of tax dollars on such nonsense such as looking for the little green martians on Mars – since they obviously read too many comic books as children! My 2 sisters who live in Canada(married Canadians) enjoy free medical and 1 year paid maternity leave for their tax dollars(which most of the other European countries also comparably enjoy) while this country has the highest maternal death rate of women within 20 months of getting pregnant since they are worked to death like oxen workhorses up until the day they deliver(to pay for the space program’s nonsense) while carrying an extra 25-30lbs on top of their bladders and other vital body organs and the baby sometimes crowds the upper major body organs and rushed right back to work, some still hemorrhaging from childbirth due to the space program’s greed to make those huge salaries and have what they think is a prestigious looking job. These other countries are NOT impressed, they PITY our women & children having to live like this, and also see they have ruined so many of our bladders, etc. and view our men as the stingy, selfish, greedy murderers that so many of them now are. And they are now watching the children they have produced behaving like this grow up to go on shooting rampages. They are definitely NOT impressed with our space program or our men. And, by the way, God gave the men those big strong muscles (and not us ladies) for a reason. As God told them in Chapter 1 Genesis of the bible to “till the soil” and ONLY told the women to “bring forth children” since he expected the men to provide for the women & children. In this country they use the women as the main “workhorse” of the family, usually doing the work of 2 people, billionaires use them to make millions & billions off their hard labor, while the men just mostly play or review, coach, referee, etc. sports anymore and/or float around in space. Someday they will have to answer to God for this.
MuChao • Mar 11, 2021 at 12:04 pm
JFC, this line of BS again…
In the US, we spent nearly $250 billion on alcohol sales alone in 2019. But sure, let’s point the finger at NASA for spending 1/10th of that and on research which, whether you want to admit it or not, has *direct* impacts on your own life. Many of the technologies which are a common part of our day-to-day lives were initially developed through NASA and space exploration research.
If you want to point the finger at a waste of money, why not turn towards at the billions that we waste on: drugs, sports, needless wars, lining the pockets of billionaires, etc.
It might seem edgy to call out NASA for “wasting money on rocks from Mars” but it only highlights how little thought you’ve actually put into this stance…
Don Wendling • Mar 6, 2021 at 3:31 pm
Baloney
Salem Leo • Jan 8, 2022 at 6:00 pm
What a well-thought out and elaborate response. Please do elaborate. /s
Charles David Phillips • Mar 6, 2021 at 2:44 pm
Very interesting opinion. You might certainly get some impolite replies – this will be a polite one. I am in the space biz and so am biased, but understand your concerns. My relatives in rural Georgia (Wrightsville, Ga) have similar concerns. The best reply is to point out the MANY services we get from space – vastly improved communications, weather forecasting, etc. The money spent is spent mostly on the ground, so we get a lot of benefit from that. Planetary exploration gives a lot of benefits as well – generating new technology that is used in planetary exploration and Earth resources.
Alexandra • Jan 24, 2022 at 10:55 am
i think this is very true and we have plenty of facts to prove it look around all this so we can damage our earth we should be ruining away from our problems we should face it and mars is going like earth is the sun blows up anyway so why we could be making this be her for a little longer than going to find new one. i may be kid but i have a love for animals and this earth so if keep on damaging it like it is trash we will end like the dinosaurs.so lets help a it