Do you think too much money is being spent on the space program?

Question

I just think more attention and money needs to be directed to the problems here on earth.

Answer 1

No.

Answer 2

There has to be a balance in expenditures in the space program with other issues.  It is never wise to not invest in the future, space exploration.  

Answer 3

There isn't really a tradeoff.  When money is spent on space, the money doesn't really go into outer space.  It is spent on Earth where it benefits us.  Most of the problems here are Earth don't require more money to fix anyway.  They just need us to stop making the problems worse.  

Answer 4

Cutting the space program to save the federal government money is like trying to save up big bucks by not buying pretzels to go with your beer anymore. The space program's funding is one of the smaller potatoes in the budget basket, and, for the dollars spent on it, the space program has made good returns. To be sure, the space program has been poorly run, but it has been worth what it has cost nonetheless. In fact, if the United States government didn't have a space program, I'd be in favor of abolishing the United States government, inasmuch as it is abusive upon the world and a burden to its own citizens and ought to be dismantled for its history of moral and legal infractions.

Answer 5

ur  smart we need to solve our earth problems such as porverty, globle warming,ect

Answer 6

How much money do you think is being spent on space versus "problems here on Earth?"  And what exactly are those problems?  And where do you think the money spent on space exploration gets spent?

The entire budget for Project Apollo was $23 billion in 1970 dollars.  That included roughly $11 billion to develop the Saturn V rocket, which wasn't strictly intended only for Apollo.  But we count its budget in the project because Apollo was to be its primary customer.

That figure is for the whole project, from 1961 to 1972.  It works out to about $2 billion a year.  Now in practice most of the money was spent up front in development costs.  But the average is still useful.

Now compare the U.S. welfare disbursements for 1969 alone:  $75 billion.  In other words, during the height of the space race the United States still spent about 30 times as much money on just one form of domestic assistance.  If "problems at home" include national security, then factor in $300+ billion yearly defense budgets.  That's more than 100 times the expenditures on space.

Money spent on space exploration carries over into direct benefits in consumer technology:  computers, materials science, medicine, communications, biology, nutrition, energy policy.  True, it may be possible for those advances to have been achieved by other means.  But the fact remains that space exploration is not the waste of time its critics make it out to be:  it has demonstrable performance not only in scientific knowledge but also in return-on-investment.

The two myths of space exploration -- that it's expensive and wasteful -- simply don't stand up to an examination of the facts.

Answer 7

NO WAY....

maybe other stuff but NOT the space program.

Answer 8

No, people need to understand space, it helps us understand ourselves!

Answer 9

Personally, I don't think so. I can understand maybe a minor budget cut because of the current economy, but NASA takes a very small piece of the federal budget. One thing that I would like to see is them getting out of the Mars-phase and start researching a trip to Europa.

Answer 10

No, in fact we need to spend more. How much does the space program cost you personally a year? Do you know? Do you think we spend more on space or pet food? I believe currently we spend more on pet food every year in the US (over 16 billion) than on space (14 billion). Why aren't you asking about the amount of dog and cat food we could be plowing into problems?

Misinformed people think the Space program consumes a huge chunk of the budget, when in fact it's a tiny slice. Besides the benefits of knowing about the Universe, it's jobs for thousands of aerospace workers, it's prestige, it's technology development and spinoffs, it's cool. How many lives have been saved because of weather satellites? A hundred years ago, hurricanes would kill thousands of people who had no idea what was coming. Is that a waste of money?

When you donate all the money you're probably wasting on CDs and pizza to these problems on Earth, you can be critical of the space program. Until then...