Space Race A Pointless Waste Of Money Analysis

According to a pie chart called, “Federal Spending for United States - FY 2015” from the NASA Data Charts, the budget for space in 2015 is not a percentage significant enough to have its own section. Instead, it is a subsection of the heading Other Spendings, which is given 2% of the federal budget. Also, in the Neil deGrasse Tyson article, it is said that the American government only gives a 7/10 cent of a tax dollar to space exploration (Tyson 2). He gives a brilliant resolution by saying, “ I’d prefer that it were more, perhaps 2 cents on the dollar.” even though we used to “. . . peak NASA spending amounted to no more than 4 cents on the tax dollar”. One of the most important technological advance was the invention of the Hubble Space

NASA has been around for 50 years, and they already sent over 200 missions into space. Each mission has its own discoveries and its own flaws. They all changed the way we look at our solar system, galaxy, and the universe. Some of them were successful and some were not. These missions have helped NASA a lot. Curiosity, Apollo 11, and Hubble have helped the world by discovering new things, making spinoffs, and successfully completing their mission.

The Space Race was a time of great exploration, and created many new techniques in the studies of science and technology. Many new techniques of engineering and technological advances resulted as positives of the Space Race. The cause of this great exploration and learning was fueled by rivalry and competitiveness of two governments, the Soviet Union and The United States. The Soviet Union and the United States were in a race to see which could reach space supremacy first. This rivalry unfolded in front of millions of spectators, and instilled a sense of competiveness into the viewers. During the mid nineteen-sixties, the achievements of the United States space program caused them to leap ahead of the Soviet Union space program, which was very unexpected. The achievements by the United States during the Space Race in the nineteen-sixties created a gap in space exploration between the Soviet Union space program and the United States space program because the United States was able extremely motivated by government forces and was able to achieve great technological advances in their space crafts.

Stars, mankind has been staring up at them for thousands of years. Over those many years dreams and mythology have been created to explain those lights in the heavens. Mankind grew sick of just staring, and decided to find ways to discover more about it. Eventually over hundreds of years mankind has, been able to send men to the moon, launch satellites into space, and even send rovers to Mars. These feats of science would have been unimaginable hundreds of years ago, and to others that heard of it was only science fiction. With all these accomplishments, it seems humanity has a bright future of further discovery, but a recent development has surfaced regarding Space Exploration. That debate regards the future of space Exploration, and whether or not It should be continued through NASA or private companies. Various opinions have come from all over the scientific and astronomy concerned world. Others side that NASA should continue its lead into the future, because of its contributions to discovery and the scientific world. Others blame that NASA’s lack of progress in previous projects has lead to a disbelief of Nasa, and a turn to Private industries due to their smaller budgets and recent success. Even some see a balanced future of NASA working with private companies, and even healthy competition that will allow a faster progress into the future. Mankind has always had the desire to reach the unreachable, and it cannot go forward

“One small step for man, one giant step for mankind” - Neil Armstrong. Humans have been fascinated by stars and planets from the beginning of time.The human race has made some amazing discoveries; from drawings on cave walls, to putting somebody in space. Discoveries in space include finding new planets, technology, and theories. In recent years, there have been less discoveries due to a cut in NASA’s budget. This is because instead of the money going to NASA, the money goes to other organizations. The U.S should increase NASA’s budget because it helps find planets that could support life, creates more everyday objects, and gives ideas of how the earth might end.

The 20th century was a complex and eventful time period for the Soviet Union. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (also known as the USSR or Soviet Union) survived and advanced through a century that consisted of revolutions, changes in leadership figures and policies, and events such as World War II and the Cold War. As this union experienced a period of so much change, there is no doubt that these events had a variety of large impacts on the history and culture of the Soviet Union. However, a certain series of events and explorations that also reached a peak during this era often took a more subtle route of impact on Soviet society and culture. Space exploration in the Soviet Union and across the world took a huge leap forward toward the end of the 20th century. Namely, the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States of America lasted from the 1950’s to the 1970’s and engaged the country in an intense competition to the moon. While the Space Race did focus on achieving greatness in space, a deeper analysis showed that it revolved around the desire to obtain supremacy in not only the spaceflight sector of the world, but also as a powerhouse nation in general. The United States and the USSR pushed each other to complete the first to launch into space, send humans to space, and finally to reach the moon. Ultimately, one of the largest ways that the Space Race incluenced the culture and people of the Soviet Union happened through the creation of

The Space Race greatly affected American Politics and left a stellar legacy on Earth along with the discovery of many useful products used in space technology modified for modern day use. Evan Herbert exclaims how The Space Race affected American Politics by stating; “The presidencies of Eisenhower and Kennedy were put under great strain during this intense rivalry between these two world super powers. Eisenhower assertiveness was questioned after the Soviet launching of their Sputnik satellite. President Kennedy had to keep morale and support for the Space Race afloat when the American public question the purpose, necessity and budget for the en- devour”(Herbert 7). Herbert also adds a quote from one of President John F. Kennedy’s speeches after he states, “On September 12th, 1962 at Rice Stadium, President John F. Kennedy gave one of his most famous speeches ever given”. Herbert then states what John F. Kennedy articulates towards the end of his speech, ‘“Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there”’(Herbert 2). Bill Dietrich remarks about the legacy that The Space Race has given us in present times as he questions, “What has the Space Race accomplished?”, he then continues on his question, “Will future historians someday link the demise of the Soviet Union to its launch of Sputnik?”(Dietrich 1). Dietrich answers these two questions later in his article by

The Space Race was a 20th century competition between the former Soviet Union and United States for dominion in spaceflight capability and is still an event that generates controversy. Historians and contemporary analysts who claim the United States won the space race frequently cite “the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon” as the sole reason why the nation won. However, while this event was indeed a triumph, it was stimulated by a series of consecutive feats by the former Soviet Union. The U.S.S.R. was the victor of the space race because it successfully launched the world’s first artificial satellite, the Sputnik 1, leading directly to the launch of the first living creature into space with the Sputnik 2. Later, the U.S.S.R launched the first human into orbit inducing future endeavors like the launch of the first woman in space and the first-ever spacewalk. The U.S.S.R. then “kicked off the era of manned space stations with its Salyut series of orbital outposts” as the series fostered the development of the Mir space station. In essence, although these events were paralleled with the prompted creations and developments from the United States, the former Soviet Union’s space accomplishments paved the way for future innovations in space.

The introductory section of the Jerry DeGroot article “The space race is a pointless waste of money,” states that NASA spent a large sum of worthless money on a trip to the moon. Without doubt DeGroot argues that NASA is still stuck in the past, dwelling on the previous space trip that happened in 1960’s and by the looks of it they aren’t moving on. Next DeGroot goes on to say that NASA doesn’t care about global warming based on the fact that they failed a shuttle launch that would presumably help study what is going on with the planet. In fact DeGroots writes, “But NASA isn’t interested in global warming; it simply realises that wearing green is a way to get government money” (8). The next section of his article DeGroot then goes into the topic of a project being sent to the planet Mars.

The space race was a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union that occurred during the Cold War. They competed for dominance in space technology and spaceflight, which spurred many significant inventions and events. Some of these inventions and events include the first-ever landing on the moon, the first artificial satellite to be launched into the Earth’s orbit, the establishment of NASA, the invention of the microprocessor computer, the invention of satellite communication technology, and other direct and indirect impacts. Each of the different events and inventions that spawned from the space race have had significant impacts on the United States economy.

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.

Throughout the years, NASA has made many space missions to explore the universe. Although many missions have failed, many have also succeeded. Some missions have been unmanned, like rovers, but some are manned, like Apollo 11. NASA’s failures encouraged them to make new space missions. The space missions Spirit and Opportunity, Apollo 11, and the Hubble Space Telescope are all successful missions that helped NASA learn about the universe, to plan new missions, and have created spinoffs to help people today.

Many critics believe that NASA and space exploration should not be the main focus of the government. However, NASA is not just about flying rockets and putting men into space. There is science and engineering that is being developed to push humanity forward in life. This space program is essential to answering philosophical questions, creating new technology for practical everyday use, the international collaboration with other countries, and the long-term survival of the human

Advocates of space exploration often get asked the question: “Why should we spend money on NASA when there is an abundance of problems here on Earth?” Universe Today has been compiling a list of responses to this question by space-bloggers from across the web. Check it out, there are some great answers. In response to

Have you ever wondered about the possibilities of finding a planet like Earth which can sustain life? Through the continuation of space exploration, we can continue to look for earth-like planets and learn much more about the mysteries of the universe. Space programs and exploration have helped mankind to develop useful knowledge in different fields such as digital technology and medicine. According to Mindy Townsend, a writer for the social networking website Care2, we have to give credit to NASA for the development of the cell phone camera, which was developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), one of NASA’s research centers. (par. 2). Likewise, Townsend also gives credit to NASA for the technology used in the development of CAT scanners, microscopy, and radiography (par. 6). However, many people still argue that space exploration is a waste of money because they claim that money can be spent on other priorities such as education and health care. Even though space exploration is expensive, the United States government should continue funding space exploration to promote innovation in technology, find extraterrestrial natural resources in the near future, and protect planet earth from outer space threats like space debris and excessive solar radiation.