Should NASA have a higher budget?

[Ethador]

Science is about WHY NOT?
So why not give NASA a bigger budget? Less war and more science, seems fine to me ...

[Deleted]

The money should be invested into healthcare. Space can wait, people dying because they can't afford medical care can't.

[Paulosio]

When you're in debt, the first things you cut are your biggest expeces. NASA's isnt even 2%, so it isnt even worth cutting. You could argue that cutting it even more would harm our research and space potential even more.

I like the one guys suggestion that for every 3$ cut, 1$ should be invested back into NASA up to a certain threshold.

Nasa only got 0.48% of the federal budget ($16billion) in 2012 according to the OPs link.

Meanwhile the US military budget was just over $1 trillion which is $1000 billion.

They could easily double Nasa's budget by taking it from the military budget and it would barely even be noticed.....

[Billy Idol]

My Anunaki friend say YES

[Jon]

Yes, could start by moving 95% of the military budget to NASA.

[madethisfor1post]

Would love to see NASA and NOAA rolled into 1 entity. I'm sure they could be of mutual benefit to each other.

[Realsykes]

Yes, could start by moving 95% of the military budget to NASA.

I'm sure thousands upon thousands of soldiers would love you for that option.

Anyways.

The final nail went into NASA's coffin when they signed off on letting privatized space travel and research.

It's moot at this point, sadly.

[Wells]

I'm sure thousands upon thousands of soldiers would love you for that option.

Anyways.

The final nail went into NASA's coffin when they signed off on letting privatized space travel and research.

It's moot at this point, sadly.

Money spent on manufacturing high end materials, paying scientists and building infrastructure is money better spent than on soldiers.

And privatized space industry is a good thing for NASA. It means they can focus on the more cutting edge and theoretical stuff like deep space exploration and superluminal travel and leave the space taxis to private industry.

[Deleted]

I'm sure thousands upon thousands of soldiers would love you for that option.

Anyways.

The final nail went into NASA's coffin when they signed off on letting privatized space travel and research.

It's moot at this point, sadly.

Why would they not sign off on privatised space travel and research ?
Its for the good of mankind.

[Sayl]

The final nail went into NASA's coffin when they signed off on letting privatized space travel and research.

It's moot at this point, sadly.

To help dispel that notion, here's a list of missions currently in operation. Take a few minutes to look through them if you like. Private industry has no interest in undertaking that degree of scientific exploration anytime soon. To see that sort of "problem" arise is something I'd love though, to be honest. NASA programs like COTS and CCDev are beneficial for the agency and everyone else.

[bufferunderrun]

I'm sure thousands upon thousands of soldiers would love you for that option.

Anyways.

The final nail went into NASA's coffin when they signed off on letting privatized space travel and research.

It's moot at this point, sadly.

i'm pretty sure that if a deep space exploration is going to be lunched a military presence on the ship is also needed, who is gonna protect the scientists if they encounter hostiles life forms or internal struggles arise on the ship?
And btw military budget is spent for the largest part in buying weapon such as carriers, airplanes etc. Intested of building a new carrier you can build a space-carrier.
Also private space travel aren't something to rely on, unless there is a profit no one is gonna putting money into it, and as thing are right now even in the event that something valuable is found in space or another planet no one is authorized to make business out of it.

[Deleted]

Who cares about using money to solve our problems here?

We gotta go to the big grey rock in the sky!

[Zecora]

Why would they not sign off on privatised space travel and research ?
Its for the good of mankind.

No, it's for the good of the companies who make money from it. Any benefits to mankind is incidental to that. Which does not mean that there won't be any, but don't mistake the motives for altruistic ones.

Anyhow, NASA is extremely underfounded, as is most space agencies these days.

[Deleted]

I'm sure thousands upon thousands of soldiers would love you for that option.

Anyways.

The final nail went into NASA's coffin when they signed off on letting privatized space travel and research.

It's moot at this point, sadly.

As far as I know, Nasa works together with a lot of these privatized industries. It's good.

[Adam Jensen]

If we reduced the U.S. military machine's budget by 10%, we could increase NASA's budget by 350%...

The future of mankind isn't in the development of battleships; it lies in the colonization of space and other worlds.

Bingo.

We don't need to cut DOD by 100%, but we do need to cut the DOD. It's ridiculous that the DOD gets more money than the GDP of most fucking countries.

[Spectral]

The money should be invested into healthcare. Space can wait, people dying because they can't afford medical care can't.

The United States spends far more than any other country on healthcare. Additional spending isn't an investment, it's money down the toilet of making sure our doctors and industry executives are wealthier than their counterparts in other nations.

---------- Post added 2013-01-20 at 08:30 AM ----------

Who cares about using money to solve our problems here?

We gotta go to the big grey rock in the sky!

This sardonic reply only works well if you pretend NASA has never solved terrestrial problems.

[Adam Jensen]

People keep saying "space can wait until x problem is fix"

If we wait until all the problems are fixed, then we're never going to space.