Benefits Of The Los Alamos National Laboratories

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is perhaps the most well known space agency in the world. Since its formation in 19581, it has pioneered in space science, yet is also renowned for its large budget. NASA has the highest budget of any space agency, $18.6 billion2 in 2015, the equivalent of every American paying $54 towards the agency3, meaning 0.14% of total GDP is spent on NASA3 . This money is spent on the ISS, sending astronauts, probes and satellites into space, astrophysics and planetary science research, maintaining and developing NASA’s space telescopes (the Wide Field Infrared Survey telescope searching for dark energy and exoplanets, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope) and developing spacecraft2. Space exploration is an incredibly expensive process with one shuttle launch costing $450 million4 however NASA’s colossal budget benefits the USA greatly; the agency employs 18,000 people5 as astronauts, engineers, scientists and teachers and G. Scott Hubbard, former director of the NASA Ames Research Center estimates that every dollar spent on NASA returns $8 to the economy6.While this figure is an estimate, it demonstrates NASA’s worth and capacity for money making. NASA works on pioneering research and as its patents and licenses return to the US treasury, it

For the social science lens, we will be looking at the shift in the economics for space exploration in the recent years.

Revenues generated by the state come to 4,413.988 million. Cattle and dairy are top in animal products produced by the state. Scientifically controlled farming on drylands and cattle ranching are important in the success of this state's economy. The leading crops include pecans and hay. Mineral wealth also contributes to its growing economy. New Mexico is the leading producer of copper ore, uranium ore, natural gas, and salt. Due to the number of government facilities, the federal government is the leading employer in this state. There has been an increase in population and climate in recent years. This increase also increases high technology manufacturing such as mineral processing, production of chemicals and food, and electrical equipment. There are millions of acres of land under federal control as to help generate more revenue from tourism. Some places for tourism include the Aztec Ruins National Monument, White Sands, El Morro, Ft. Union, Salinas Pueblo Missions, and the Carlsbad Caverns National

In the past 50 years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has sent out many planned space exploration missions which have lead to numerous advantages in society and culture. NASA’s technologies benefit American lives with the innumerable important breakthroughs by creating new markets that have spurred the economy and changed countless lives in many ways. NASA is a federal agency and receives its fundings from the annual federal budget passed by the United States Congress. However, there are conflicting opinions that consider whether or not funding for NASA is a waste of government spending.

There are endless opportunities for jobs and for science altogether. If people stop funding NASA we won't be able to invent new things, have jobs for people who need them, and help the world grow.

Although it is true that there is no concrete outcome “for using taxpayer money” to fund space programs, it does not mean in any way that the money is not being used to help our society grow (Source H). The bulk of the money funded to space exploration goes towards the incomes of thousands of skilled employees who create such successful space missions. It can be assumed that less than one percent is being used from the federal dollar on manned space programs, as space exploration falls under the “All others” category which spends six percent of every federal tax dollar (Source C). Space exploration programs have the potential to discover new technologies and expand on what we have here on Earth, but in order to succeed, there needs to be slight altercations with how each federal tax dollar is spent. National defense gets nineteen percent of each federal tax dollar – a proportion that is too extraordinary considering the United States has access to a nuclear arsenal which is far less expensive and just as effective as maintaining conventional forces (Source C). The United States is pretty much the military for half the world, so instead of collecting all the money from our tax payers here in America, we should collect from other counties that we protect as

For many years the city of New London in southeastern Connecticut had gone through vast economic decline, so much so that by 1990 the State had declared the City a “distressed municipality”. Things continued to decline for the City when in 1996 the U.S. closed the Naval Undersea Warfare Center which had employed over 1,500 people (Kelo v. New London, 2005). By 1998 the unemployment rate for the city of New London was twice that of the state of Connecticut and the population had plummeted to below 24,000 residents.

The concept of space exploration was first introduced to the American public in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy famously stood before congress and vowed that America would put a man on the moon “within the decade.” With hopes of defeating the Soviet Union in the “Space Race” and gaining a leg-up in the Cold War, NASA funding reached its all-time high in 1965-1966 when about four percent of the federal budget was devoted to exploring space. Since then however, funding dedicated to exploring space has nose-dived to about one-half of a percent of the federal budget (Tyson), with plans to cut that figure by an additional $260 million in 2017 (cite NASA funding cuts). Experts in the space-sciences field argue that increased funding in space exploration would re-ignite the American economy and return America to the scientific prominence it was once known for, while, on the other end of the spectrum, naysayers suggest that exploring space is an economic sink-hole that the United States can no longer afford to deposit to given its own earth-bound troubles.

It is often debated whether or not the Space Race was necessary. People have viewed it as a waste of time, money, and resources. America spent over $25 billion on the space program, equivalent to $100 billion today. Many believed that there were far more pressing matters on Earth, and that they should not explore space. Those people only saw the disadvantages that it had (Biddle, 2009). However, the Space Race was beneficial to humanity in various ways. Today Americans can use the knowledge obtained during the Space Race for countless purposes including commercial and military applications (Rabinowitch, 1963).The Space Race changed the face of science, international politics, and technology forever (Schefter 2005). The Space Race was not

Part of the problem is that technology improves and or changes rapidly. This can be good and bad if used appropriately. The reality is that action must occur quickly and funds often are not readily available is contributes to the problem. Additionally, “technology and institutional changes trigger complementary, overlapping processes that increased interdependency among

Inherent politics in technologies makes us hold the belief that some technologies are by nature political in a specific way. With these technologies, intractable properties of certain kinds of technology are strongly linked to institutionalized patterns of power and authority (p. 134, Winner, 1980). According to Winner, it does not matter how these technologies are shaped or arranged in order for them to serve their political goal. An example such as the atom bomb can be called an inherently political artifact. Due to its lethal properties the atom bomb demands control by a centralized, secure hierarchical chain of command closed to all influences. However, this chain of command might make its workings unpredictable. According to Winner, the

The first reason why the government should remain the use of its space program is the jobs that come along with the program. From engineers to scientist there are many jobs that correlate with the space program.”It is important to remember that the $2.5 billion investment made in this project was not spent on Mars, but right here on Earth, supporting more than 7,000 jobs in at least 31 states.” (Bolden, Charles.) Even though the unemployment rate is not as high as expected, if this program was cut the rate would grow immensely.

The world today revolves around technology and is in an ever upward spiraling path of new advancements. This path is now at what some people call the “final frontier”, or the space age. The discoveries being made on this front are overwhelming in comparison to the technology that the world had only twenty years ago. Space exploration was once left up to the governments, as they battled to be the first country in space, but with national debts raising and the cuts made in response, space exploration is beginning to become new grounds for private business owners. Private companies are already beginning to send off rockets at a fraction of the cost that government does, but if more money was put into the government space program, then they

"Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works."-Carl Sagan, Cosmos. What every community should strive for, is to be as close to the front lines of science and innovation as possible. Louisville, Kentucky is ranked a mere 58 out of 100 cities nearby in number of STEM programs and jobs available (Science, Technologies, Engineering, and Mathematics). STEM fields are responsible for progression in any given industry. Louisville has such dense light pollution all we can see at night is a few scattered stars and a glow, the dim glow blanketing the heavens diminishes the curiosity of scientific progress and achieving the impossible. In the age of the internet, we can easily start a trend that progresses STEM funding by having locals cut back on artificial lighting for the sake of improving our view of the cosmos. Spreading the word on social media with the ever growing popularity of the “hashtag” in order to push the money the city will save into STEM institutes and programs for the community. This essay will highlight how that trend will benefit Louisville by bringing in jobs, money and innovation.

The mysterious vastness beyond Earth has allured many scientists to explore and contribute much of their effort to the understanding of space. Although humans have been looking up at space for thousands of years, the physical exploration of this frontier has been only going on for the past few decades. Our current understanding of space is unparalleled to any time before in our history, but we still only know a small fraction of what there is to learn. Governments around the world spend about $40 billion dollars a year (Rockefeller, 2010) hoping to undertake tasks such as “human exploration of the solar system” to discovering the origins of life itself (Tatarewicz, 2009, p. 531). Recently, the private sector has also shown interest in space exploration in order to engage in profitable activities such as harnessing minerals from asteroids. Although it is easy to debate about the benefits and negatives of space exploration in its entirety, it is simpler focus on one aspect of it - the direct effect it has to those down on Earth. Rather than trying to decide whether or not going to other planets is worth it, this paper will argue about the value of the terrestrial benefits of space exploration. It is an important topic to think about as programs such as space exploration change lives and help acquire knowledge. Despite the large costs associated with space exploration, the multitude of discoveries in the past few decades has greatly improved daily life on Earth, the jobs the