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>It's shocking how little appetite there is for redirecting 50% of the budget which is currently allocated to the military to space exploration. 50% for the mi

>It's shocking how little appetite there is for redirecting 50% of the budget which is currently allocated to the military to space exploration. 50% for the military? All the figures I can find say it's 16% of federal spending. Edit: As others have pointed out. OP may have been suggesting we redirect 50% of the military budget to space not that the military budget is 50% of the national.

pc86 9y ago
They're saying cut the military's budget in half and put the rest toward space exploration.
pgwhalen 9y ago
I believe he's just saying 50% of what is currently allocated for the military, so by your math, 8% of the federal budget.
- jerf 9y ago
  And the answer is if you accomplished a miracle and cut military spending in half and freed up 8% of the federal budget, there would be a rioting mob charging towards the money... no... that doesn't really capture how much we're talking here... there would be a rioting mob charging the suddenly-available huge pile of MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY and there's very little reason to believe space exploration would be any of the winners.
  - ExactoKnight 9y ago
    Having near certain evidence of life existing on another planet, due to seeing oxygen present in the emission spectra of an atmosphere of another planet, would be a true game changer for space probe and exploration funding. Astronomy funding stagnates when its about rocks and geology. Bring real evidence of aliens into the mix and you've defined humanities focus for the next century.
    - Retra 9y ago
      If we discovered actual humans on a near-exact clone of earth, we'd still be about 50,000 years from something relevant here on Earth. Outer space is staggeringly expansive. Staggeringly. Like "your space probe is sad joke" expansive. We could develop our own alien life right on Earth within that timeframe.
      - ExactoKnight 9y ago
        You're thinking about this wrong. As long as we can send probes and/or communicate within compressed timeframes than physical transportation of humans doesn't matter. E.g. Breakthrough Starshot can get us to many exoplanets within 20-30 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot
        Retra 9y ago
        "Many" exoplanets? How many planets does Alpha Centauri have? It is ~4 ly away. If you're willing to go ~10 ly, you get 6 more stars to look at. And it gets far worse from there.
        ExactoKnight 9y ago
        It's now estimated there are more Earth-sized planets than gas giants on most stars, and that every star has at least 1 planet, likely more. So that's 7 or more planets. That's many.
    - jerf 9y ago
      I'm not the one who downvoted your message because you can't downvote replies to your own post, but I suspect you got downvoted because you crossed threads. If you follow the "parent" up from my post, you'll see that it didn't involve the discussion about finding oxygen. I agree with the text of your message; it just isn't an appropriate reply to what I said. In fact if such a thing was discovered I'd say all bets are off in terms of the response.
jbooth 9y ago
In addition to the clarification of intentions, military spending is in fact 54% of federal discretionary spending. Entitlement programs like SS and Medicare/Medicaid are raised on a separate tax (you can see it on your paystub), and have zero discretion in how they're spent. It's determined by statute and is automatic, not part of the budget process, and the money never really mixes with the rest of the federal budget. If you take those out, and take out interest payments which we also don't have much choice in, military spending is 54% of the money that's actually at issue when Congress makes budget decisions. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0177/6150/t/2/assets/DeathAndTaxes2016-Watermark.jpg https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0177/6150/t/2/assets/Death...

pc86 9y ago

They're saying cut the military's budget in half and put the rest toward space exploration.

pgwhalen 9y ago

I believe he's just saying 50% of what is currently allocated for the military, so by your math, 8% of the federal budget.

jerf 9y ago
And the answer is if you accomplished a miracle and cut military spending in half and freed up 8% of the federal budget, there would be a rioting mob charging towards the money... no... that doesn't really capture how much we're talking here... there would be a rioting mob charging the suddenly-available huge pile of MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY and there's very little reason to believe space exploration would be any of the winners.
- ExactoKnight 9y ago
  Having near certain evidence of life existing on another planet, due to seeing oxygen present in the emission spectra of an atmosphere of another planet, would be a true game changer for space probe and exploration funding. Astronomy funding stagnates when its about rocks and geology. Bring real evidence of aliens into the mix and you've defined humanities focus for the next century.
  - Retra 9y ago
    If we discovered actual humans on a near-exact clone of earth, we'd still be about 50,000 years from something relevant here on Earth. Outer space is staggeringly expansive. Staggeringly. Like "your space probe is sad joke" expansive. We could develop our own alien life right on Earth within that timeframe.
    - ExactoKnight 9y ago
      You're thinking about this wrong. As long as we can send probes and/or communicate within compressed timeframes than physical transportation of humans doesn't matter. E.g. Breakthrough Starshot can get us to many exoplanets within 20-30 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot
      - Retra 9y ago
        "Many" exoplanets? How many planets does Alpha Centauri have? It is ~4 ly away. If you're willing to go ~10 ly, you get 6 more stars to look at. And it gets far worse from there.
        ExactoKnight 9y ago
        It's now estimated there are more Earth-sized planets than gas giants on most stars, and that every star has at least 1 planet, likely more. So that's 7 or more planets. That's many.
  - jerf 9y ago
    I'm not the one who downvoted your message because you can't downvote replies to your own post, but I suspect you got downvoted because you crossed threads. If you follow the "parent" up from my post, you'll see that it didn't involve the discussion about finding oxygen. I agree with the text of your message; it just isn't an appropriate reply to what I said. In fact if such a thing was discovered I'd say all bets are off in terms of the response.

jbooth 9y ago

In addition to the clarification of intentions, military spending is in fact 54% of federal discretionary spending. Entitlement programs like SS and Medicare/Medicaid are raised on a separate tax (you can see it on your paystub), and have zero discretion in how they're spent. It's determined by statute and is automatic, not part of the budget process, and the money never really mixes with the rest of the federal budget. If you take those out, and take out interest payments which we also don't have much choice in, military spending is 54% of the money that's actually at issue when Congress makes budget decisions. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0177/6150/t/2/assets/DeathAndTaxes2016-Watermark.jpg https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0177/6150/t/2/assets/Death...