can anyone answer this question. why do we in america need a space program?seems like a waste of money?

Answer 1

some space activities are a waste of money
but some are necessary to save ur life
in another 20-30 yrs some asteorid is gonna hit the earth, i feel by 2030 (not sure), so NASA is sending out missions, and is planning to just blow that asteroid before it hits the earht
its indeed a very very big one
and can cause greta desturction
after effects can be chaotic
got it
its neceesary to some extent

Answer 2

Yeah, the space program is a waste of money, and we don't really need it.

I mean, without the space program, we wouldn't have satellites to provide global communications structure, and your cell phone, home phone, and cable prices would be much higher, if the existing options were available at all.

And yes, research in close to 0-G environments has helped us develop new super-strong materials such as titanium glass, which is tens of times stronger than steel, and could be used to improve our quality of life in more ways that I could possibly list.

While I can't cite any specific examples, I'm sure research conducted in space has helped us to understand how our bodies work, and make medical breakthroughs.

If we had a properly funded space program, we might even be able to make breakthroughs in solar power so that we aren't flooding our atmosphere with carbon monoxide and dioxide, smogging the place up with pollution. Heck, in the long run, we could even get new resources through asteroid mining or colonizing the moon or mars.

Of course, if you're a toothless hick in some backwater town who lives in a shack and doesn't have access to the Internet, TV, or phone system, can't access a hospital, and isn't planning on having children (and I seriously hope you are not) you probably don't care about those things.

The money would be much better spent doing a number of things. For instance, we could send more people over to die in Iraq. It costs money to send people over there, you know. It's not free. And they're not going to die fast enough over here.

We could also use the money to pay politicians so that they can afford more hookers to kill, and bigger houses.

Some people also have curiosity and want to understand things greater than themselves, but since you asked the question, I'm guessing you're not one of those people. Please don't vote anymore, and get off the Internet and spend some time learning how to properly punctuate a sentence.

Answer 3

ok...I received't bypass into any ingredient on why exploration and technology advantages us all contained in the acceptable. Or on the very incontrovertible actuality that each and every greenback spend replaced into used to employ individuals to furnish products and amenities. I see it really is largely a rant, you're literally not truly searching for an answer to the question. even if, a minimum of examine your own question and do somewhat wondering about what you're holding. Nasa's $16 billion the biggest slice? not even close. $16 billion is .8% (utilising your figures). How pray tell is that more beneficial than the nineteen% ($380 billion) on the defense force, or the 21% ($420 billion) on social protection, or maybe the 8% ($one hundred sixty billion) for activity? Oh, and through ways, the defense force figures above are literally not even mutually with the 'particular' off the books 1000's of billions for the conflict in Iraq, which through itself dwarfs each and every of the others blended. So if you're stressful about .8% of the funds, which may be swallowed up through the different figures without even replacing them, if we transferred the money, it really is nice. yet a minimum of verify what you're holding.

Answer 4

Why did England make boats?? I suppose we should just not care about what is out there. Just sit here and always wonder. I'd like to see them triple the money, I wanna see life on other planets before I die, It'd be best for the long run. Humans can't live on Earth forever, sooner or later we have to find an alternative...

Answer 5

I don't know about it being a waste of money, but I'm glad we have it. Traveling into space may answer a lot of the questions we have today. We don't really know what it could lead to, maybe something very good.

Answer 6

I don't see any use for it at ALL. I can think of a lot of good thing our government could be doing this that money. Insted of wasting it looking at some stupid rock 100 years away from Earth. But that's our government for you if it don't make since then do it. If it dose make since then stop it. What a bunch of Idiots

Answer 7

Maybe its because were so politicaly correct to make people from stop making babies and over populating that its easier to leave the dead beats behind and live in space

Answer 8

Human curiosity has always out-weighed responsibility in history.

Answer 9

55.33] O assembly of the jinn and the men! If you are able to pass through the regions of the heavens and the earth, then pass through; you cannot pass through but with authority

Answer 10

On the contrary, I say that it's one of our most precious--and under-appreciated--investments for the benefit of all humankind!!

And I will give you concrete reasons.

Since you and some others who've made up their minds may only read this far, let me start by saying if you want to re-divert some wasted money (a very worthwhile goal), the space program is hardly the place to find it!

The space program is *starving* for funding, thanks to short-sighted politicians and their constituents -- and yes, probably to a failure of NASA to educate the public about its immense benefits to humanity.

For waste, look instead to the consistently-obscene budget allotment for the military! NASA has equally consistently operated on the smallest budget of all the major Federal agencies, with the exception of the Kennedy days.

Even then, the space program was tossed less than a nickel of every Federal dollar.

That's the cost; now for the benefits...

There is hardly an area of our lives that *hasn't* benefited from the spin-offs of technology developed for space flight, or by the relatively recent viewpoint of "looking down" at our earthly home.

Start by considering a relatively obvious one, which nonetheless is taken for granted by many people. Every time you use the phone, the Internet, an ATM, or the television, there's a very good chance you are using one or more satellites. They were not placed there by the satellite gods, nor did cavemen have them to navigate by, using their GPS devices. The space program placed them there.

The vital farming, fishing and mining industries, among others, use environmental data collected from satellites and space missions. Likewise with our knowledge (which probably wouldn't exist yet) of the ozone depletion problem. Without satellite imagery we might be happily exposing ourselves to cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation while continuing to overuse the chlorofluorocarbon-containing products that caused the problem.

Unprecedented information about weather and climate saves a great many lives and reduces property damage from storms.
We've learned how humans are affecting our land, air and water, and are learning ways to prevent further damage to this vital ecosystem.

Offshoots of NASA technology for the medical field include CAT scans, pacemakers, and remote monitoring of Intensive Care patients. Space science has given us new and better materials for new and better products.

Productivity -- right at the heart of our economy's health -- has been vigorously and directly energized by computers, whose transformation from house-sized behemoths affordable only to industries and government to lap-sized devices affordable
to college students was made possible by the microprocessor. That invention was a result of NASA's drive to miniaturize computers for spacecraft. And the economy is *directly* stimulated by the tens of thousands of jobs created for the space industry.

None of this even touches on the *immeasurable* value of continuing to explore our surroundings! Less than two centuries ago, when the states were gradually being settled... or before that, when the oceans seemed insurmountable and not worth the effort to most... pioneers explored. Undoubtedly, there were people then, too, who thought we had uncovered everything worth finding, and that the missions were a waste of money. Would anyone, in hindsight, question the benefits of what they *did* find? The lesson is clear.

Today's frontier is a natural continuation of a search for knowledge that began with our ancestors tens of thousands of years ago, long before it was known that we orbit the sun, not the other way around, and that it was just one of billions of trillions of
other stars, each of which might be a sun to other worlds -- only a miniscule fraction of which we've even begun to explore.

Had we stopped exploring and learning long ago, we might still be at the mercy of "the gods" to bring us warmth, food, and safety over the course of our 20-or-so years of life... and we wouldn't have known it could be any better!

Looking at the earth from the silent remoteness of space, it must seem as if we've cooperated to manage our resources and temperaments wisely, for the betterment of our planet and our lives. What this peacefully distant view fails to reveal are hundreds of centuries of bloodshed, the fracturing of the land into countless kingdoms, territories and empires, ideologies and religions -- each arrogantly sure of their rightness and superiority.

From this distance we see nothing of the careless consumption, waste and pollution of our resources, as if they were magically endless. The lack of vision and understanding which afflicts so many -- including those who hold the world's fate in their hands -- is also hidden.

If I could somehow make it happen, I would give every political or military leader, and skeptics like a few here, a view from the space shuttle. I would direct them to look out the window of their protected little craft at the entire planet and say, "THAT is what you have to work with -- nothing more -- get it through your heads. Whatever you have in mind, it has to work THERE. It has to preserve THAT -- because it's the only home we've got!"

On this tiny, fragile speck of habitable environment, we are (so far) alive and protected by a very thin atmosphere, from utterly inhospitable surroundings. The danger is that we take this safety and beauty for granted. Unless we intend to start settling other planets, we need to prevent the very possible destruction of this one.

The space program has made us aware of the ozone hole... of the slashing and burning of half of Earth's tropical rainforests (source of oxygen, and the only home to two thirds of the world's plant and animal species). 80% or more of these forests could be destroyed by 2020. We humans made all that happen, and more, and have learned this fact largely via the space program. And we could top ourselves by detonating several thermonuclear weapons, among other suicides we could choose.

For these reasons, a large-scale, whole-planet awareness -- to which the space program has contributed immensely -- is crucial, and must be taken to heart by all the citizens of Earth. There *are* better ways to manage the planet.

In light of current instability and uncertainty with Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and so on (not to mention some as-yet-unknown conflict always looming on the horizon), the mission and messages of the space program are right on target, and sorely needed...the need for international cooperation...for reconnaissance, communication, navigation and defense...the need to expand alternate energy sources to sever our decades-long dependence on oil... the need for a new worldview in which we see ourselves not as Americans and Koreans, Christians and Muslims, Republicans and Democrats (and on and on...) but as one--human--family in a far greater neighborhood, and by which we abandon our ancient and ineffective nation-centric mindsets.

The space program is not a panacea, but it promotes all these things, and a hope for the future, more than almost any other single human endeavor I know. The benefits of technology, international cooperation, a world consciousness, and the expansion of knowledge for the benefits of all the planet's inhabitants (and not just two-legged ones) is well worthy of our respect and support!!