Money For NASA

Improved Essays
Artificial limbs, cell-phone cameras, cordless tools, ear thermometers, firefighter gear, freeze-dried foods, invisible braces, MRI and CAT scans, memory foam, solar panels, ski boots, water filters, sunglasses. What do all of these items have in common? Well, they would not be possible without the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA (Spector). Not only does NASA 's technology contribute to space, it also benefits the lives on Earth, too. Therefore, NASA should be given more money so that they can continue to develop a productive space program. The United States of America should budget more money for NASA because the space program leads to discoveries in space, creation of new products, and stimulation of the economy. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration should be allotted more money than currently budgeted because space technology directly assists in the exploration and discoveries in space. NASA has been responsible for some of the world 's greatest space discoveries. After all, in 1969, the United States was the first country to land a man on the moon. One of NASA 's many missions was OSIRIS-Rex. This was the first mission to take samples from an asteroid, bring them back to Earth, and study them. These studies allow scientists to focus on the composition of the solar system, as well as how water came to Earth. This mission is also able to determine the impact that asteroids have on planets, such as Earth ("NASA 's OSIRIS-Rex Mission"). If the budget for NASA continues to decrease, the amount of discoveries made in space will also decrease. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a former United States Senator from Texas, exemplifies this idea. “I am convinced, however, that in many cases where reductions and cuts have been made in science and research programs in NASA, that we are not justifying the mission that NASA has for rejuvenating the creativity in our scientific community. The underlying value of the things that we have been doing on the Space Station and the missions that NASA has had in science in the past and the positive impacts of those efforts have added to the economic competitive and security interests for all of our country. So I refuse to accept that a fully and adequately funded space program is something that we cannot afford in this Nation. Finally, there is a practical reason why the President should require.” (Committee on Commerce) As seen in the purpose of the OSIRIS-Rex mission and from Hutchinson, the space program needs to be given more money in order to withhold the space missions that lead to new discoveries in the universe. Technology developed by NASA does not only benefit space exploration. Many companies use it to create new products that are used everyday. As mentioned before, there are so many products that could …show more content…
Not only does the advancing technology allow for the invention of new products to be sold, thus allowing the economy to grow, NASA itself provides many job opportunities. It also purchases many goods needed for the various projects that NASA is working on (McBrien). Statistically shown, NASA 's Ames Research Center located in the San Francisco Bay Area engendered 5,300 jobs and $877 million in economic activity. Ames Director S. Pete Worden explained how the Ames program impacts the economy, “As Ames explores space and our planet, it stimulates economic growth by employing scientists and engineering professionals, promoting technology innovation, and preparing the workforce of the future..." (Hanner) So, not only does NASA carry out space explorations and contribute to creation of new products, it also helps the economy …show more content…
It can be thought that technology developed by the space program can only be used for space exploration, but in fact, there are so many products that humans use everyday that involve NASA technology (Spinoff 2015). Some people think that since America is already in debt, why should the government spend it on the space program. But, NASA is actually a beneficial investment for the United States’ economy because a lot of money from this program is invested back into the economy (“Should America Continue”). NASA is so beneficial to all aspects of life, from scientific discoveries to the economy, and therefore should receive more money so that it can continue to grow and

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    t There has been debates on whether or not NASA’s budget should be increased or cut. Personally, I agree with the people who think their budget should be cut down. Currently, $9.928 billion is spent on Nasa annually and for 2015 they sought $17.5 billion. With that money we could be funding more important causes like world hunger and disease research. Therefore, I believe that NASAs budget should not be expanded due to more important issues that can be resolved with the funding.…

    • 368 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We should increase Nasa 's budget. But to understand why we should do that we have to take a look at the…

    • 1507 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jobs give us the money we need to support our families. Pay bills. Keep your house. Pay taxes. Space explorations have been also a big part of our society.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has so many technologies that benefit everyday life they had to create a magazine that shows the different technologies called NASA Spinoff. Many-redesigned space technologies are very beneficial to society. An example of this is NASA scientists helped develop a commercial kiln that turns plastic into useful petroleum products (Coleman et al 126). In addition, a system originally designed to transform the Martian atmosphere into rocket fuel is helping microbreweries recapture carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbonate their beer (Coleman et al 92).…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    NASA Deserves More Funding As a federal agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) receives it’s funding from the annual federal budget passed by the United States Congress. For the fiscal year of 2017, NASA’s budget was $19.5 billion. This number being only about 0.489% of the total US budget at $4 trillion. However, the American public on average, believes NASA’s budget has a much larger share of the federal budget than it actually does.…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Space Exploration Dbq

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The amounts of educational content and unique items we’d find in space would be phenomenal. If space exploration and expansion received the same amount of funding such as agencies like the N.I.H., the result wouldn’t be a waste of money, but rather a investment that’ll wield aspiration and an increased motive to explore…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Now that space exploration is not a military objective, the government does not prioritize its funding as much. Science based programs, including NASA, only account for 1.13% of the government’s budget. National defense on the other hand, receives 23.91% of the taxes collected by the government (“Your 2014 Taxpayer Receipt”). This clearly shows that defense is the government's main priority, and that is understandable. Instead of forcing the government to pay more for space exploration, the main objectives of NASA could be changed to focus on defense from extraterrestrial threats, such as asteroids.…

    • 1485 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The modern times has seen even more NASA budget cuts and a rise in private contractors looking to space. The budget cuts may even be costing the US more than its saving them. A writer from the washington post says “Since the shuttle 's retirement, the United States has been forced to rely on Russia to take its astronauts to the station, an expensive and troubling arrangement that now costs $76 million per seat” (Davenport). There are multiple astronauts on the space station with multiple launches a year, the price of using rockets could severely add up. Most recently in the bid for cheaper space travel are the contracting of private corporations.…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Our Nation's Future

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “To remain the leader in aerospace technology, we must continue to perform research and invest in the people who will create the breakthroughs of tomorrow, preserving a critical component of our nation’s economic competitiveness for future generations.” (Pg.1 ) He uses past missions NASA has done to reference the investments that led to those great discoveries like the “… Apollo missions, the space shuttle, the international space station and a myriad of robotic explorers…” (Pg.1) He seems credible to his sources because he states the things NASA has done and could do for the…

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Therefore, these issues, out of many, are ones that should be considered most relevant. Many people believe that accomplishments are not reached in space, so why should the government waste money on it? However, I believe there is not enough financial aid given to the space related companies for them to prove themselves, even if they have landed on the moon, six times. In a chart from a 2006 estimate on how each federal dollar is spent, space and technology is stuck with an "All Others" category with only six pennies out of each federal dollar to work with. These six pennies are also shared with many other items, like general government.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Space Exploration Dbq

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages

    For example, David Livingston argues that although space exploration costs an exorbitant amount of money, much of it goes right back into the paychecks of those involved, funding “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” (Source A). Space exploration functions as an umbrella term that encompasses hundreds of smaller faculties, each of which strengthening from overarching investment and improving the international economy. However, some, like Professor Russell Roberts, continue to argue that it should be a private business venture. He digresses the unimaginable romantic appeal of exploration, but states that regardless of “spin-off technologies,” the money should be left on Earth (Source H). Though this perspective reflects a healthy dose of realism, it fails to buy into the revolutionary potential of space exploration.…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    These past few years the US government has drastically lowered the amount of funding NASA receives, hindering what they are able to do. However, recently privately owned companies such as SpaceX and Boeing have begun to design commercial space ships, and have even had major success and break through with those ships. Space is one of the last places, that we’re able to truly explore and find new things that could possibly help us back here on earth. Given this, NASA should receive a higher amount of funding so that it may keep up with the privately owned companies, explore new planets that could be used for colonization, and explore and discover of new and exotic places that we would never think were possible. Many people oppose the position…

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Though science has overcome many explorations that impact our world and society, it does include some limitations that are regulated. For example , money plays a huge role for budgeting all of the experiments that allow scientist to gather more information that could possibly be used for future inventions or solutions. The expenses going towards NASA’s “Mars 2020 Mission” are regulated by the President, who he has proposed $17.46 billion for the year of 2015. With that said, the incredible amount of money that is being funded by Obama each year for NASA is ,somewhat, a huge part of what the future holds. American innovation rest on the investments we make today.…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Also some of our everyday technology comes from NASA, which was created for space exploration. Without this program our lives would be totally different then they are today. Overpopulation is one of the biggest problems in the world right now, but everyone just looks past it like it is not important. According to Paul B. Farrell, “Today humans are the…

    • 1286 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Firstly, NASA has contributed many inventions and machines to make life on Earth better for everyone, from new theories and inventions for air travel to satellites that have helped scientist see how badly the world is affected by global warming. NASA is also part of the reason why air travel gets faster and…

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays