Question about NASA and their high costs....?

Question

Do the benefits of NASA's space exploration programs justify their high costs?

Was wondering if anyone had thoughts on the issue.

Answer 1

I think they do for a variety of reasons.

Our earth satellites have yielded benefits in communications, weather research, atmospheric studies and surveys of the surface of our planet. We've been in this learning process nearly a half century, and there is always more to be learned.

Often to know where you are going you have to understand where you are and where you have been, and NASA exploration, both earth orbit and beyond, have given us a lot of useful information.

There are also some fairly useful military applications that have been gleaned from manned and unmanned space flights.

Global Positioning is one of the many benefits of space exploration. Because of this technology airliners and even cab drivers can navigate precisely. Not to mention little old ladies in tenns shoes or navigationally challenged elderly drivers like me.

There has also been medical research that might not have been possible any other way.

Another benefit--perhaps one less discussed than the others--is that it has given our nation and other nations a common goal and opportunities for competition that are far better than war.

What we have learned from space travel has given us safer airliners, better airports, and a generally better world.

With or without NASA we would probably be spending the money on something. I think NASA is one of the better uses for the cash.

Answer 2

Depends on the definitions for space exploration. If you leave it at simply launching things into space for whatever purpose (be it studying atmospheric anomalies to taking brilliant pictures of far-off nebulae) or whether it is the physical exploration beyond simple Earth-orbit.

Now, We have reaped a great many benefits from NASA's involvement in not only atmospheric, climatological, earth science, and research on the relationship between the earth and various stellar bodies (of note being the life-giving sun), but also we have benefited from NASA's launching of satellites for communications and their research in various medical sciences in microgravity.

However, despite the clear and direct benefits of near-earth research, we cannot completely dismiss the value of the physical exploration of space. Many important technologies were invented during Apollo Program, and exploration programs push our developmental envelope like no other science program. Many inventions, such as the MRI, pacemakers, and smoke detectors, surely need no explanation as to their benefits to our health, and these were developed by NASA and later implemented for more common usage.

Only by trying to conquer the harsh bleakness of space can we begin to develop the means to defeat what ails us most at home; only by seeking to understand what is seemingly beyond mortal comprehension can we discover the secrets to health and longevity.