We live in desperate times, still these times do not warrant cutting our links to the future.
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| from smbc-comics.com |
The federal government released their planned 2012 just a day or two ago and I have been severely put down by it. First off, NASA budget was not cut, but instead frozen at the level it is currently at, around $18.7 billion (here are the specifics from NASA themselves). Thats a nice sum of money, enough for some research, a few launches here and there, but it lacks enough to build momentum for where we should be going in the next decade.
We have the minds, we really do, and we have the willing masses.
I am curious, how much do you think NASA should be funded?
$18.7 billion is a lot of money but maybe not enough...do you know what an average launch costs though? The space industry definitely needs to be moving forward. Have you heard much about the large privatising of the industry? Space tours on the Virgin Galatic...
ReplyDeleteI believe a space shuttle costs about $450 million to launch, to develop the famous Saturn V moon rocket it took around $43 billion, adjusted for inflation, and to launch a Saturn V its around $2 billion. Privatizing the industry will help significantly for launch costs but you have to remember the NASA budget isn't all launches, they develop new satellites and research projects, plus we have been building the ISS which has the price tag between $50 billion and $150 billion depending on the lifetime of the station.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how much NASA should be funded, mostly because I don't know how their research may improve our society. Are some of the things they do purely academic? Which I'll agree is interesting, but in this day will not get you funding. If you could post on benefits of space exploration and research it would be much more clear for me to determine if their funding should be increased.
ReplyDeleteI had the same thought as Michael. I think it is important but it will not get funding without direct links to the ability to help humanity. See the Gene Cuisine post about genome mapping. I have no idea what the budget is for that project or area of research but I would guess it is higher. I think people would be more willing to invest in the medicine field because there are direct links to how it can help humanity.
ReplyDeleteMichael and MIchelle made my point, too. Has NASA made a strong enough argument that its funding should be increased, especially in such difficult economic times?
ReplyDeleteI am not sure they have, they did get another shuttle launch, the government is hoping on more projects like Space X
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