Should we allocate more funding to NASA or are there other programs that we should focus on?
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Mars Will Just Have to Wait
“We are closer than anyone has ever been to discovering life on another world," according to Bill Nye, The Science Guy. But unfortunately, Obama's new budget plan will force NASA to cancel two planned missions in 2016 and 2018. The first mission would have aimed to figure out if there are any forms of life by measuring methane that would be emitted by living microbes. The other would collect pieces of Mars to bring back to Earth for scientists to study. Many of NASA's other programs are also being delayed to several years later due to problems with budget. Overall, Obama's budget request for 2013 proposes to cut NASA's space exploration budget by 20%.
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8 comments:
I do not believe that it is necessary to keep pumping money into NASA because most of their experiments will not actually benefit anyone. It's great that there might be some microscopic life on Mars but is it worth the money? If this money was to go toward research, I would rather see it paying researchers to find cures for diseases or more efficient energy sources. As I see it, the ends justify the means. If you put in a billion dollars (which is highly exaggerated), would you rather get a cure for cancer or life on a distant planet?
I have to disagree with Sam, I do think we should give more funding to NASA. I saw a clip of The Daily Show in which the special guest was Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist, and he was saying how space enthusiasts expected that the US would be on Mars about thirty years ago. This didn't happen because we were no longer in a space race and there was no fear of the Soviet Union making quicker advances than us. He said that space exploration made us think about the future, and we had economic growth because people wanted to become scientists and engineers, and there were advances made in those fields.
I agree with sam i dont think we should increase the Funds that we give NASA each year because i think we have other problems we should take care of like researching how cure disease and to make sure are economy is running good. I think those should be are first priorities before we pump more money into NASA
I agree with Nicola, we should definitely not cut the NASA budget any further, and in fact, we as a nation should be funneling more revenue into the program. Throwing around statistics like a 20% cut in NASA’s budget is misleading – in 2011, NASA’s budget amounted to 0.53% of the national budget, only half a percent of all federal spending. Furthermore, as is probably already known and suggested in this article, the budget has only been decreasing for our space program. As we learned in class already, much of the public overestimates the cost of many small government programs, NASA included.
Additionally, as Nicola pointed out and a quick Wikipedia search verified, there are real economic benefits of NASA programs. The $25 billion spent in 1958 paid for itself by 1971 in the form of increased economic activity/ job creation, and continued to provide returns on the investment up to 1987, in which the final revenue was over $181 Billion. Why would we ever want to cut a program that actually generates its own revenue?
I think the justification for government announcements such as these are to provide the public with a sense of security, that the government is actually taking action in the face of economic hardships. The truth however, is that such action, like proclaiming these supposed massive cuts (20%) in such fiscally small programs, programs where the budget is a mere half a percent of all government spending, is ultimately misleading and more political spin.
I am all for trying to find other forms of life in the universe, but I do agree with Obama's decision. All though it would be great to fully fund NASA and try to find more information on Mars, it simply isn't the biggest priority for the U.S. right now. We could use the money we have to trying to help the economy. However, Alex does bring up an interesting point. The increased funding to NASA could increase the number of jobs and potentially help the economy. But I do think that a few space programs aren't enough to do a lot of help.
I believe that it will benefit all of us in the long run if NASA were to keep up with space exploration. Considering earth is dying, life on other planets, and researching solar systems might be our best bet. NASA isn't given much money from the government as is, and cutting it even more would be a mistake. Researching our solar systems own planets would eventually lead to researching other solar systems. NASA deserves the funding in order to explore the unknown universe.
I agree with the majority of the comments on this post; Obama is smart to cut NASA funding.
I've said this before, but, just to reiterate my opinion, I think our government should focus on the immediate, important issues in the country before it spends billions on 'extracurricular' projects, if you will. How can a country run if much-needed resources are being poured into projects that simply perpetuate alien fanatics?
However, I do agree with Shawn that the funding would be beneficial in the long run, I think it's more important to focus on the current decade, rather than our great-grand-childrens' era. Even if Obama chose to continue to pour funds into NASA, how much money would it take to make substantial breakthroughs? I don't think America can afford the high price of long-term planning at the moment.
I agree with Nicola, Alex, and Shawn. It's important to note that NASA's research has led to many technologies including cordless power tools, CAT scanners, and many other innovations that we take for granted. So if we keep cutting NASA's funding, then we would have a smaller chance of finding more technologies that can benefit citizens as a whole.
And to quote Mr. Neil deGrasse Tyson again, he stated that "right now, NASA's annual budget is half a penny on your tax dollar. For twice that—a penny on a dollar—we can transform the country from a sullen, dispirited nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its 20th century birthright to dream of tomorrow.”
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