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NASA's budget is the highest of all government run space agencies and is three times that of Russia, which is number two.
by Mobiu5 12y ago
NASA's budget is the highest of all government run space agencies and is three times that of Russia, which is number two.
- Zelphyr 12y agoIsn't that kind-of like saying "My water is WAY cleaner than yours!" when we both live in a swamp? My point being, sure, we spend more than the other guy on space but compared to just about everything else we spend pitifully little on it.
- Mobiu5 12y agoPerhaps, but I wouldn't underestimate them! They have a lot of ground-breaking projects happening even though you don't see them in the media very often. They do a lot with what they get.
- ahoy 12y agoSo your point is that russia's space program and the ESA (etc) are also underfunded then, yes?
- csallen 12y agoNo, Mobiu5 is countering MrZongle2's point that a non-NASA entities are likely to beat NASA to Mars. I happen to disagree with his analysis, however, because he's not taking non-government entities like SpaceX into account.
- mikeash 12y agoI don't see him making any reference to non-NASA entities at all. All he said is that a trip to Mars made by somebody, anybody, might happen someday, but the odds of sufficient financial support for this attempt are poor.
- csallen 12y ago> Somebody may get humans to Mars ... [but] the odds that the United States government will be behind the effort are slim at this point. i.e. non-NASA entities have a better chance than NASA
- mikeash 12y agoDoesn't follow. Edit: I see he has other replies that clarify that this is exactly what he's thinking. "I'm fairly confident that I'll see humans on Mars before I die. I just don't believe NASA will be behind the effort." I still maintain that this is not indicated in the original comment, but that starts to become unimportant.
- Mobiu5 12y agoI was really just trying to point out that he was trivializing NASA. Maybe a private entity will beat them there, maybe not. But they're clearly far from being an incapable organization and still achieve plenty of cutting edge, "world-first" scientific data gathering, engineering research, etc.. As a side note. I'm willing to bet they will be the first (with collaboration between the other space agencies as they often do). Edit: Plus, I don't know of any other deep space crew carrier that currently exists. It sounds to me like they have a head start since they already have one in their possession, albeit untested.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- molmalo 12y agoYes, but you have to consider the difference in costs...