The budget for the FY2017 stands at $19.5 billion. This budget breaks down into major areas as grouped by NASA. The Science Mission Directorate with a budget of $5,601. With this money NASA is supporting over 90 space missions with 35 being readied for launch and another
60 currently underway. Some of these being the Voyager’s, still with Voyager I currently the most distant man made object from the earth and in deep space since 2012. The Mars Science
Laboratory Rover, “Curiosity”. Curiosity is a small car sized rover and after being launched in
2011 and following a successful landing on the Martian surface, has been giving us important data on the red planet with its suite of lab like instruments and sensors. The International Space
Station
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Finally we have the last section of budget, the budget for Safety, Security and Mission Services which funds management, operations and maintenance of NASA facilities, essentially the administration and everyday functioning of NASA.
For a long time, it was NASA and other government’s institutions that were the leaders as we, as a species, voyaged ever further from our confines here on Earth. Just as Henry Ford enabled more and more Americans to drive by cutting costs and lowering prices every year, new businesses like SpaceX and Sierra Nevada are creating a competitive, potentially lucrative markets in astronautics. By expanding the interest of Space technologies into a business realm outside of governments hands and science’s interests, we have put the steering wheel into the hands of people who have financial gains in mind. So not only are these innovators attempting to cut costs and move spaceflight forward, they’re looking to make it profitable by streamlining the process of putting humans into space. Everything from Reusable rockets like the Dragon 9’s first stage or talking of redirecting mineral rich asteroids to closer earth orbit for
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These concepts are being pioneered or contracted out by NASA to companies like SpaceX who in turn is monetizing space travel.
In response as to how I would set next year’s budget for NASA, I would first ask NASA,
“How much is too much money for you?”. While obviously I couldn’t ask to raise the budget to something unfeasible, with more aircraft carriers than every other country in the world combined and one of the strongest standing armies and air forces to boot, (and a sister in the
Navy and brother in the Marines, I might add) I would feel comfortable transferring a couple of tenths of a percent from our defense budget to our NASA budget, if not, a whole percent.
Reasoning for this is two-fold. One being that when NASA’s budget was at its highest back in the 60’s during the Apollo missions, a study was conducted examining the financial impact of the billions spent on putting a man on the moon. The study found that the roughly $25 billion spent during those years was $52 billion in return by 1971 and even more by a decade later. For every technological advance and groundbreaking scientific Eureka moment, there are benefits to the everyday person from the inventions and research NASA has put into from
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
NASA had a favorable spending variance of $498,000 this year which means they spent 498,000 less than budgeted. The actual fixed cost per ton was around $519/ton.
As if the 401.3 billion wasn't astronomical enough there is more money hidden within the budget that will go towards the same purposes, which is pulling those funds from civilians. The total of funds that were found hidden within the budget totaled to an actual figure of about 596.1 billion dollars (Higgs Pg. 3) with a breakdown of it as follows (in billions of dollars):
For the social science lens, we will be looking at the shift in the economics for space exploration in the recent years.
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.
How would you like to explore a never-ending frontier filled with endless potential and possible benefits for humankind? When put this way, space exploration sounds like an enticing adventure. However, is it all that it’s chalked up to be? We’re here to answer that question. There’s a specific issue that we need to consider when referring to space exploration; should we continue to fund NASA? We acknowledge that some people may already have strong opinions on this, and we ask you to keep an open mind and try to avoid bias. After all, we’re discussing our future.
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
The public’s lack of knowledge about NASA’s research explains why many people believe that the organization is receiving too much funding. According to NASA.gov, the organization has received 19.3 billion dollars for the 2016 fiscal year. This equates to about 0.486% of the government budget. While this may seem like a lot, the percentage has drastically decreased over the past few decades by almost 3.5%. NASA is receiving “more money each year, but at the same time a smaller percentage of the federal budget” (Steinburg 240). There are projects that NASA is currently working on that they cannot finish due to lack of funding. If NASA can find a way to receive more funding, then not only can the organization capitalize on these current projects, but it can also open up discussion for future ones as well. The possibilities of what humans can achieve is endless, the only restrictions are time and money, two of the most important factors in society. While time can’t be controlled, money can. Now it’s just a matter of getting more of it, which is going to be hard for NASA to do, especially when people feel as though they are receiving too much funding.
Neil Armstrong 's 1969 lunar landing was one of humanity 's greatest accomplishments. Since then, we have found that an infinite supply of knowledge and resources await us just outside our atmosphere. Today, however, critics are beginning to argue more and more that the cost of space exploration is too high, and therefore new technological developments should be left to the private sector. Whether funded privately or by the government, funding of space exploration is imperative because NASA is essentially the only agency with the technological capabilities to support aircraft manufacturing, air safety and air transportation. Space exploration has also resulted in remarkable innovations that has played a key role in aeronautics research, preventative medicine, and allows scientists to study asteroids, along with other space debris and their impacts on Earth.
“The current spending is only 0.4% of the U.S. budget, in 2005 it was 0.7%. This is an important question, not just for me but for the entire concerned human race. Because the NASA program is a key to the defense of not only this country, but the planet and the humans that seclude in it. In addition, NASA has recently discovered signs of water on Mars, and I think this is a valid reason. Also, the NASA funding cuts take a toll by reducing its employment; in which it affects the economy significantly.
America’s funding for NASA during the space race in 1966 was 4.41% of the federal budget yet in modern times this expenditure has fallen to only 0.5% of the federal budget. One might ask why, but the greater question is why isn’t anything being done about this dearth of funding for NASA. America should once again fund the exploration of space with a renewed ferocity because of the various educational, economical, and technological benefits of having well-funded space agencies.
To support the ideas space exploration brings, one must look at where the people’s taxes are going and if these ideas are worth the financial trust the citizens put into their government. Source A explains where the taxes from salaries
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.
Though the government still had not yet fully recovered financially from World War II, the increased tensions and anxiety of the Cold War drove them to spend an excessive amount of money on National Security and space exploration. The potential expenses of NASA originally made Eisenhower hesitant when it came to the issue of space exploration, but with the Soviet Union’s looming presence in space, he reluctantly decided that it was the expenses were necessary to the country’s national defense. Though organizations like PSAC helped fund some of NASA’s projects, the federal government still ended up spending sixty-billion dollars on NASA and the military combined. If it were not for consumer spending, then all the federal spending would have resulted in major inflation and would have effected the outcome of the war. Although some say the government’s excessive spending during the Space Race threatened inflation, others feel that it was beneficiary to the country’s weak economy. While there are some valid arguments supporting this claim, the Space Race tore through the United States’ economy and ran the risk of financial havoc. Though the creation of NASA greatly damaged the economy, the research and technological advancements that came out of the military working with NASA can justify the excessive spending of federal
While NASA may have once been the leading space organization in the world, the cuts and budget changes are not giving NASA what it needs to succeed. Today, NASA makes up around .5%, or $17 billion, of the national budget. This number is much smaller than the 4.5% in 1966. The United States government is cutting many different organizations and administrations in an attempt to balance the budget. The launching of a NASA space shuttle alone costs around half a billions dollars. Along with research and other things being made by NASA, it is extremely hard for the administration to launch shuttles. The government is being forced to turn its money from NASA, due to the high cost of building and launching rockets, and pay the private companies to take materials and government equipment to the International Space Station. Because of the cuts, various NASA projects are being shut down and abandoned. In 2005, the funding cuts threatened the longest running mission that NASA was running at the time; the Voyager probes. The Voyager probes are two probes that are headed into