Nasa's Greatest Accomplishments

Right now, at this very moment, a vehicle the size of a small car, powered by plutonium, is driving around on Mars. At the same time, 3 people are living in constant free-fall 250 miles above the Earth in the most expensive home ever constructed. And lastly, two spacecraft, both more than four decades old, are hurtling away to the outside of the solar system, both bearing messages from mankind to the inhabitants of the stars. Each of these accomplishments represents a wealth of technological achievement and an endeavor towards scientific progress. They represent some the greatest achievements and accomplishments of mankind in the modern era. And from it, millions of people across the world have been inspired to invent, create, and pursue knowledge …show more content…
But aside from being extremely iconic, all these endeavors into the cosmos were the result of significant effort and funding on the part of the United States and other various space agencies. So, they foremost require money, or they will literally not get off the ground. In the United States, the ability of NASA to explore space in a consistent and revolutionary capacity has been limited by a dwindling budget, which took up at its height less than 4.5% of the federal budget and, in the modern day, takes up about 0.5% of the federal budget (Kring). As such, the budget of the space program must be sufficiently funded in order for mankind to enjoy the aforementioned benefits of its efforts. While it may be necessary to divert funding away from space exploration for certain important policy on occasion, funding the space program will almost always benefit technological development, advance scientific knowledge, and inspire millions of …show more content…
From the expected fields of astronomy and physics to more unexpected fields like geology and psychology, space exploration has provided uncountable volumes of information to dissect and discuss for many different areas of study. And, like with technological advances, these gains in knowledge have direct roots in specific programs of space exploration. For instance, new information on black holes and solar system formation has been directly accumulated from the Hubble Space Telescope, a tool that “…could reveal stars, planets, nebulae, and galaxies in all their fully-detailed glory” (Moskowitz). Or for an example far closer to home, the Voyager probes to the outer solar system discovered volcanoes on Io, the moon of the Jupiter, and 10 new moons around Uranus (Moskowitz). From this, it can be concluded that the funding of space exploration is a clear driver of scientific