The funding for the United States space program has been a debated topic since NASA fist started in 1958. Many people have misperceptions on NASA and think it’s a useless and expensive program. Although it may seem like this, after looking deeper into the actual costs, the inventions NASA has sparked, and ponder the knowledge gained, the space program has a lot of positive things that people don’t know about. Stopping the funding won’t solve any big world problems, which is what sometimes people believe. Overall, although someone may not think NASA as a whole is the best, most can at least find one thing they appreciate about it.


If you ask someone what they think about the money put into space exploration here in the U.S, they would probably say it’s way too much. Then ask

them how much they know about the past and present of the space program, and they’d probably say they know little to nothing. It seems today that when it

comes to the space program, it’s known as some money sucking corporation that we’re throwing our tax money into. With some more knowledge, these

opinions may change. Although it may appear the space program is incredibly expensive and accomplishes nothing, after comparing costs, taking into account

inventions, and pondering the knowledge gained, the space program may seem to have a decent bang for its buck.

A brief historical account about NASA will help get an idea of where and how it came about. In 1957, the US was in the Cold War against the Soviet

Union. A space race started between the two as a contest began to see who could use space to their advantage. In that year the Soviet Union launched

Sputnik 1, an artificial satellite. NASA was formed in 1958, which was also the year when the United States launched Explorer 1, a satellite that took readings

of the Earth. In 1969, the U.S. sent the first shuttle to the moon. Eventually, the Soviet Union and the U.S. started cooperating and sent two space shuttles to

meet in space, where they connected, making this the first international space flight. In between this time where space exploration was regarded as very

important to the United States, in between 1962 and 1971, NASA was funded with 1.5-5.5 percent of the national budget. Comparing to the costs of today

which average .5% of the national budget, those percentages were very high (Garber).

Overall, in those first 20 years, many things were discovered and accomplished. The main ones being these: Robotic surveyors sent to Venus, and all

the other outer planets, the invention of a reusable space shuttle, an orbital workshop in space called the Skylab, weather monitoring and communication

satellites, and remote sensory satellites. The progress in those 20 years is quite a remarkable thing because to create these things to go into space, much

more powerful things were needed on earth such as computers and other technologies (Garber). As a result, there was rapid development for those things

during that time.

Since then, NASA has been accomplishing many more things. News recently has been covering their moon and mars exploration, where they’ve been

discovering ice and water on both. There may not be as much rapid development of things, such as in the first 20 years due to less and less funding, as well

as the increased difficulty from the “easy” things being already discovered and done.

One of the first things people are highly uneducated about is how much NASA really does receive money wise. To completely sum up the money put into

the NASA space program, .55% of the federal budget was put towards it in 2009. Dollar wise, that’s about 16.8 billion dollars to the 2.9 trillion dollar total federal

budget (NASA Budget). NASA uses half of a percent of the U.S. budget. How does that compare with other budgets? Well, let’s look at the Department of

Defense. The whole NASA budget for a year is worth about 7 or 8 B-2 Bombers (B-2 Spirit).

Altogether in a year the U.S. defense, including homeland security, spends 55 times more then what

NASA spends (Whitehouse). Just one aspect of the federal budget is very high compared to NASA, and that

doesn’t even include any of the other budgets. NASA’s budget is obviously miniscule on a federal budget, but

how does it look when comparing it to what Americans spend every year?

In 2007, Americans spent 205.6 billion dollars on tobacco and alcohol (NYTimes). That’s about 13 times

what NASA spent in 2009. On top of that, think of all the health expenses caused from smoking and drinking.

Also in 2007, around 42 billion dollars were spent on pets alone (Fried). Why is the cost of NASA worth it

to us then? Dr. David Livingston, an experienced businessman and a professor in a space studies

department says this about what NASA money spreads to, “…manufacturing, research and development, salaries, benefits, insurance companies, doctors,

teachers, scientists, students, blue-and white-collar workers, and corporations and businesses both large and small” (Livingston). Not only does NASA money

just go to things that fly, or help fly things up to space, it goes to many other things that people don’t usually consider. That seems to be a bit more beneficial

then smoking and drinking, yet it still has 13 times a smaller amount of available money then put into smoking and drinking. The money being put towards

NASA obviously isn’t that bad, but what really has NASA done for us that is worth all that money?

Unbeknownst to most people today, NASA can be accredited with quite a few inventions that help us humans’ live healthier, easier lives today. Some

examples of these are the CAT scan, kidney dialysis machine, athletic machines, water purification devices, MRI’s, and the list goes on and on to over 6,300

things (Otto). It’s pretty safe to say that a lot of those technologies wouldn’t be around had it not been for the NASA program. Not only has that helped people,

but it also makes money come back into the country. Those 6,300 plus things open up a lot of income opportunities, jobs, and more advancement for that new

product’s specific inventive field.

What else can these inventions show us? It seems that the money put into NASA results in tons of new discoveries, beneficial to the taxpayers that pay

for it. Also, we’ve discovered that for this .55% from our federal budget, it has seemed to have been worth it in medical advances itself, not even mentioning all

the other things. It can also show us that we can continue to look forward to all the possible inventions NASA will probably be making as long as they continue

being funded. Overall, you can appreciate that the funding for NASA has brought about discoveries and benefits to humans’ everyday lives, even if you don’t

necessarily agree with what they do up in space. That have helped here on earth, even if it doesn’t seem like they have.

Something that ties in with all the inventions that have been sparked by NASA is all the knowledge that has been gained, and that can possibly be gained.

From 1957, when the first satellite was launched by the Soviet Union, to today, landing probes onto Mars to take pictures and soil data, the knowledge gain has

been abundant (“Space Exploration”, 1040). “…from the high resolution photos of planets, their satellites, and rings to the global weather monitoring and

forecasting system” (“Scientific Research”, 35). Our knowledge gain has allowed us to put up satellites, which in turn has opened up GPSs, weather

forecasting, and even some TV companies. Some of the pictures satellites have brought us of amazing things in space are priceless, and some of the

information we’ve gathered from the moon and Mars is just an awe to even think about. Anyone can appreciate those pictures as well as any information on

something that’s almost 240,000 miles away from the earth. The future of knowledge is unimaginable. We may find something on the moon to help us create a

new fossil fuel, or we may discover something that can benefit us tremendously. For the money put into the program right now

though, it’s worth at least striving for.

An overlooked advantage to NASA is the relationships it shares between other countries. A great example of this is the

International Space Station, often referred to as the ISS. The ISS is an International Research Facility that is still being built in the

lower orbit of Earth. Many laboratory tests, as well as other space research is conducted in the large structure. A few different

countries are involved in this including Japan, Canada, United States, Russia, and Europe (“International Space Station”). Here a

common bond is shared between countries, acknowledging the things learned from space should be for all humans, and not just

for a specific nation. These nations can and do work together to advance all humanity.

As mentioned in the introduction, most people’s opinions on NASA today are negative. As was also mentioned, most people have little to no knowledge of

this subject and make generalizations because of “knowing” one piece of information. The most common thing people say is, “Why spend that much money in

space, when people today are starving to death?” This question can be broader as well, asking why spend money in space, when the earth down here is still

having troubles.

The best way to think of this situation is to think about what really is causing all the hunger problems. It’s known that hunger is directly related to poverty

(Shah). Solving hunger may seem easier to people, but really, when you want to solve hunger, you want to solve poverty. When you look at countries like

Africa, where there’s no form of rational government, there’s really no hope to solving a problem as big as that. A lot of people think that stopping the funding for

NASA will stop problems like these, but in reality, all it would do is maybe support the problem of hunger for a little while, and then would have to be refunded

over and over, with corrupt government officials overseeing it.

The biggest misconception would definitely be just the plain fact that NASA is given and spends ridiculous amounts of money every year. Mentioned

earlier, NASA is given a relatively low amount of money from the federal budget. A survey conducted asked people how much they think percentage wise of the

federal budget NASA received. The average response was 24% (Dittmar). It’s evident from that stat alone a lot of the things said about NASA today are

probably from misinformed people, which in turn gives rise to more people thinking negatively towards NASA.

Although NASA does do a lot of good things, there are a few things that people have some good points against NASA, which I agree with. One of the

things NASA is aiming for is future colonizing of planets, such as Mars. For me personally, I think humans were made to live on Earth, so that’s where we

should stay. Others think that it’s a waste of time and planets other then Earth don’t have the ability now or in the future to sustain human life. This is a more

personal decision though, so there’s no really right way to think about it. Also, another thing I don’t really agree about is finding life on other planets. I just don’t

really see how that can help humans today so much so that we have to put money into it. Once again, it’s a more personal decision when it comes to things

like these.

There may be a few negative things that everyone can pick out of the NASA program, but the positive things should override them. Anyone can think that

NASA is wasting our time up there, but no one can deny that NASA has brought upon many benefits to humans here on Earth. When people think NASA should

stop being funded, a question you can ask them is, “Would you think 7 military airplanes a year is a good trade to keep NASA around?” You can also tell them

that tons of things they use every day were sparked by the people who work at NASA. The ISS is a great thing to mention especially in today’s times where it

seems there are really no strong bonds between more than one nation. Almost everyone appreciates weather forecasting, GPS units, and pictures of our Earth

from space, so shouldn’t that also mean that they appreciate NASA too? That’s the point. Most people do appreciate NASA, but they don’t know they do.

Instead, they think about all the negative things they hear without putting any real thought behind it. In reality though, NASA has benefited almost every person.

For only taking .5% of the federal budget, I’d say that’s a pretty good trade off.

Overall, when you look at the accomplishments of NASA, knowledge, invention, and cost wise, it’s fair to say that for the amount of money they get, they

have done a lot more then what people credit them for. From the satellites that now guide almost everything we ride in, to helping create life saving medical

equipment, NASA achievements can be seen everywhere. Imagining what they may come up with within these next years should give everyone a more

positive attitude toward NASA, and what they can and have accomplished.

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