4 ms·
I would love it if NASA's budget was ten times bigger but the U.S. already spends more than everyone else combined.
by happyscrappy 11y ago
I would love it if NASA's budget was ten times bigger but the U.S. already spends more than everyone else combined.
- melling 11y agoThe last time the NASA budget was this low as a percentage of the federal budget was 1961. It's really bad that this isn't well understood on a site like HN. If we can't justify it here... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA#/media/File:NASA-Budget-Federal.svg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA#/media/File:N...
- beaner 11y agoI imagine many of the most expensive years were due to the space race with Russia. Basically, a side-effect of the cold war. Can that really be taken to represent the peak of human interest for the sake of science alone?
- hueving 11y agoWhy is a percentage a relevant measurement here? I think you would just want to measure budget compared YoY adjusted for inflation. The reason it doesn't make sense is that the US budget doesn't need to be balanced. It's not like spending a ton more on subsidies for something new (e.g. renewables/electric cars/healthcare) means that NASA lost money).
- happyscrappy 11y agoYou have managed to derail the conversation away from the science and imply that America is falling behind in space. Claiming the US should be even more dominant in space seems odd given the lopsided reality. Maybe you are invoking American exceptionalism.
- melling 11y agoI'm not sure why you're looking at space exploration as a competition where we want to dominate. It's not a competition. We should welcome everyone. Even if no one else participates we should still increase our effort, not reduce it. There's so much more to learn. As I mentioned earlier, this article explains it much better than I could: http://www.vox.com/2015/2/23/8052365/nasa-budget-europa http://www.vox.com/2015/2/23/8052365/nasa-budget-europa
- happyscrappy 11y agoIf there was real competition it would be easier to raise the budget. Anyway the science from NH will be very interesting.
- Alupis 11y ago> I'm tired of saying this, but I have to say it again. The NASA budget is four tenths of one penny on a tax dollar. If I held up the tax dollar, and I cut horizontally into it, four tenths of one percent of it's width, it doesn't even get you into the ink. So I will not accept a statement that says, we can't afford it! > Do you realize that the 850 billion dollar bank bailout; that sum of money is greater than the entire fifty year running budget of NASA. > How much would you pay for the universe? [1] "We Stopped Dreaming" - Neil deGrasse Tyson - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbIZU8cQWXc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbIZU8cQWXc
- bpodgursky 11y ago> Do you realize that the 850 billion dollar bank bailout; that sum of money is greater than the entire fifty year running budget of NASA. I'm not disagreeing with the general sentiment, but I don't like when people mis-use this example. The bank bailout was repaid in full--it was a loan. It didn't in the end cost the government anything.
- infinity0 11y agoDo you have some more details on this? I can't find any specific statements anywhere that it was repaid in full, nor even that it was supposed to be repaid; but then again I'm not knowledgeable about this area and could be issuing the wrong search terms.
- stingraycharles 11y agoI don't have any links to the details, but I do recall that the US government put some restrictions in place to its debitors, especially on bonuses. This gave the banks a strong incentive to pay back its loans.
- bpodgursky 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program "TARP revenue has totaled $441.7 billion on $426.4 billion invested.[3]"
- fit2rule 11y agoAmerica could stop spending so much money on killing and death, and be a real space-hero nation. Its an uncomfortable truth, but there are a lot of better things America could be doing with its war economy.
- happyscrappy 11y agoWhat is your excuse for other nations who don't spend enough on space programs? Or is the US the only country with an obligation to explore space?
- fit2rule 11y agoPlenty of nations should be spending more on space, but all of them should be spending less on war.
- hueving 11y agoThat's a pretty rudimentary and tired view. Having a single super power that acts as playground bully seems to leave the world in a pretty stable state. It's hard to ignore that fact. A massive cut in the military budget could have unintended consequences of another cold war, etc.
- DanBC 11y ago> leave the world in a pretty stable state. I genuinely can't tell if you believe that or if you're being sarcastic. US + others military intervention has left many bits of the world in a terrible state.
- DanBC 11y agoFWIW I keep writing to my politicians asking them to scrap Trident and spend the money on space instead.