Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperBowl4
Biggest waste of money and time. We have many homeless and many problems here on this planet that could use this money WASTED ON SPACE EXPLORATION. SUPER LAME according to me. GO CHIEFS!
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What on God's green Earth are you talking about? This year we spent 21.5 billion on NASA's budget, or 0.49% of the federal budget.
0.49%. In case the decimal threw you, that's less than a 1/2 (
HALF) percent.
Our space exploration budget has been operating on a shoe string budget for decades. Since its inception
in 1958, the U.S. has spent just 601 billion dollars on its space program, not even 2/3rds of a trillion dollars. Or less than what we spend on public education annually. And you think the space program is a waste of money. The fact is that our space program is probably the leanest program in the history of modern Man.
We should be spending more, not less. If we'd spent just another half a percent (1/2, 0.5) for the last 30 years, we'd have a permanent colony on the Moon by now, Americans would've already walked on Mars, and we might've already sent a light sail laser-powered probe to the nearest stars. And all of that new tech would've meant significant expansions in manufacturing, production, energy efficiency, etc.