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Ignoring your sarcasm and focusing on your second point : One big example is SpaceX. I don’t think they’d be as successful as they are right now if they didn’t

Ignoring your sarcasm and focusing on your second point : One big example is SpaceX. I don’t think they’d be as successful as they are right now if they didn’t have some of that initial funding from NASA to help them bootstrap to where they are today. This is one stellar example of how federal research funding dollars can generate positive societal benefits through the transfer to private industry. Of course there are some companies that just siphon federal dollars without much to show in return, but for SpaceX they have really returned multiples on those initial “investments”.

ydlr 5y ago
I think you just found a mission statement for NASA that congress can get behind: Welfare for Billionaires.
jqpabc123 5y ago
So we need the ISS so we can use taxpayer money to fund billionaires to develop rockets to launch to the ISS? See here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reasoning https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reasoning Where would we be without SpaceX? Pretty much where we are now --- struggling to find enough chips to build cars and Raspberry PIs.
- JKCalhoun 5y ago
  It would be nice if we could do both.
  - jqpabc123 5y ago
    Yes. But unfortunately, the one being addressed won't have any real impact for generations while more immediate needs are being ignored. NASA has spent trillions studying the effects of weightlessness on people. In comparison, they have spent virtually nothing on protecting the plant from an asteroid strike or mitigating the effects of global warming --- both of which are way more pressing concerns. Studying people in space is about as practical as addressing global warming by funding research on Dyson spheres.
    - JKCalhoun 5y ago
      Global warming, I agree, should be everyone's highest priority. Asteroid strike ... hasn't it been a while since the Earth has seen one on a scale that would rival global warming? Worrying about an asteroid strike seems like something that has stirred the public imagination but has a crazy low likelihood.
      - jqpabc123 5y ago
        It's been a while --- but most scientists consider a significant asteroid strike to be a near certainty --- they just can't say when. Based on *known* asteroids, the probability by 2300 has been calculated at about 1 in 2000. But don't relax just yet, we find previously unknown asteroids all the time. Just last year, one (2021 UA1) flew by Antarctica undetected until after it has passed at a distance of about 1400 miles. But even if we detect one, there is no real working plan in place to try and deflect it. Thanks NASA --- this is why we give you the big bucks! Physicist Stephen Hawking, in his final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, considered an asteroid collision to be the single biggest threat to the planet.
- bgun 5y ago
  While HN complains that we want cars without chips to begin with.
  - jqpabc123 5y ago
    HN is just a web site where people can post opinions. "HN" doesn't complain --- you can't reasonably attribute one post to "HN".
  - SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
    That was 2 days ago? Please make a dumb car (techcrunch.com) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30144101 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30144101

ydlr 5y ago

I think you just found a mission statement for NASA that congress can get behind: Welfare for Billionaires.

jqpabc123 5y ago

So we need the ISS so we can use taxpayer money to fund billionaires to develop rockets to launch to the ISS? See here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reasoning https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reasoning Where would we be without SpaceX? Pretty much where we are now --- struggling to find enough chips to build cars and Raspberry PIs.

JKCalhoun 5y ago
It would be nice if we could do both.
- jqpabc123 5y ago
  Yes. But unfortunately, the one being addressed won't have any real impact for generations while more immediate needs are being ignored. NASA has spent trillions studying the effects of weightlessness on people. In comparison, they have spent virtually nothing on protecting the plant from an asteroid strike or mitigating the effects of global warming --- both of which are way more pressing concerns. Studying people in space is about as practical as addressing global warming by funding research on Dyson spheres.
  - JKCalhoun 5y ago
    Global warming, I agree, should be everyone's highest priority. Asteroid strike ... hasn't it been a while since the Earth has seen one on a scale that would rival global warming? Worrying about an asteroid strike seems like something that has stirred the public imagination but has a crazy low likelihood.
    - jqpabc123 5y ago
      It's been a while --- but most scientists consider a significant asteroid strike to be a near certainty --- they just can't say when. Based on *known* asteroids, the probability by 2300 has been calculated at about 1 in 2000. But don't relax just yet, we find previously unknown asteroids all the time. Just last year, one (2021 UA1) flew by Antarctica undetected until after it has passed at a distance of about 1400 miles. But even if we detect one, there is no real working plan in place to try and deflect it. Thanks NASA --- this is why we give you the big bucks! Physicist Stephen Hawking, in his final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, considered an asteroid collision to be the single biggest threat to the planet.
bgun 5y ago
While HN complains that we want cars without chips to begin with.
- jqpabc123 5y ago
  HN is just a web site where people can post opinions. "HN" doesn't complain --- you can't reasonably attribute one post to "HN".
- SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
  That was 2 days ago? Please make a dumb car (techcrunch.com) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30144101 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30144101