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I'm in the UK , but would love to know. Couldn't the money be better spent?

2006-12-18 04:02:58 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics Astronomy & Space

Oh well, thanks for your unhelpful and sarcastic answers.

And Lickmy@ss - I wouldn't, even if you looked like Orlando Bloom.

2006-12-18 04:11:19 · update #1

Well said, Muffin!

2006-12-18 04:12:14 · update #2

$329billion for the military?
Bloody Hell

2006-12-18 04:22:47 · update #3

Thank you eri - that's the sort of answer I was looking for

2006-12-18 06:07:01 · update #4

13 answers

NASA's budget is around 16 billion dollars. This is the smallest budget of any gov't agency, with the largest return of any. For every dollar NASA gets in it's budget, seven dollars are spent in the economy - on labor, research, instrumentation, fuel, education, public outreach, etc. It's the best investment we make, and probably could not be spent on anything better.

Considering the ridiculous military budget, I think that money could definitely be spent better. But don't take the money away from science.

2006-12-18 04:54:30 · answer #1 · answered by eri 7 · 2 0

Eri, I have to give you a lot of credit. That is one of the better thought out answers I have seen to this question in the past.

It is true that NASA's budget is around 16 billion currently. This equates to between 1-2 percent of the entire US government budget. Compare that to military being about 30 percent or some where between 300-400 billion. And that's just direct military. CIA, NSA, FBI, and other military-based organizations bump that number up significantly.

Sure, government money could be much better spent. NASA, however, gives far more than it receives, and is the only government agency that continually stays in the black on budget issues.

As Eri stated so eloquently... don't take money from science.

2006-12-18 13:52:37 · answer #2 · answered by AresIV 4 · 2 0

If I remember correctly, I saw a display at the Johnson Space Center in Houston stating that 1.7 cents of every dollar taken in taxes was spent on NASA. Although not stated by NASA, I'm quite sure that we have gained more than that from the advances in science that have resulted from NASA. For example, the processors designed for small computers came from this work, and I think ultimately led to the personal computer through IBM.
You might be able to find out how much Americans pay in taxes by Googling tax revenue...

2006-12-18 12:17:30 · answer #3 · answered by Wes 1 · 0 0

A tiny, infinitesimal percentage (nearly 5%) of the US Military Expenditure, and a fraction of a Presidential Campaign.

$329 Billion for the military

$14 Billion for Space exploration

That is, in case you thought NASA money was being wasted.

2006-12-18 12:14:18 · answer #4 · answered by Исаак Озимов 3 · 2 0

At its peak during the 1960's, the NASA budget reached just under $6bn, equivalent to just under $27bn in 1996.
However, since 1996 the budget has been about $14-16bn, i.e. just over half of what was being spent in the 1960s in real terms.
For comparison, in 1999, USA government spending totalled just under $1,700bn, when NASA's budget totalled $14bn. This is 0.8%, i.e. 8/10 of 1% of the government total.
Is this spending worthwhile? Each person must make their own decision, but as I have already pointed out, this is not a massive amount when compared with the government total.
Here are some other figures for comparison:
The Department of Social Security spends over 30 times as much as NASA.
Department of Agriculture : 4.6 times
Education : 2.5 times
Transport : 3 times
Treasury : 28 times
Defense : 21 times
The Iraq war apparently costs about $800 million per day!

Compared to consumer spending:
The American public spends:
34 times as much as the NASA budget on groceries
19 times on restaurants
66 times on medical care
11 times on religious and welfare activities
43 times on household spending
6 times on tobacco

Compared to the income of some US corporations:
Sears-roebuck earns 3 times as much as NASA spends
K-Mart: 2.4 times
Wal-Mart: 9.8 times
Boeing: 4 times
IBM: 6 times
General Motors: 11 times
Remember that these figures are a multiple of $14 billion!

When it comes to the benefits of space exploration, the web page at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/hqlibrary/pathfinders/spinoff.htm lists not 27 benefits, but 27 *books* about the benefits! Plus 25 articles, 30 NASA websites and 3 non-NASA sites. You could quite easily spend 4 hours a night for a couple of months reading through all this.
Computers / medicine / communications / weather forecasting / crop monitoring / pollution monitoring / mineralogy / plus fundamental knowledge about our universe ...

2006-12-18 13:47:45 · answer #5 · answered by Questor 4 · 0 1

Did your 'Oh My' question get removed?! Thought it might!
He was rather odd, I saw some of his other answers, too.

(NO CLUE ABOUT NASA!)

But you've got the answer anyway. Anyway, you gave me a RUBBISH Eastenders update!!! Ha!

Bloody Pauline, tell me something I don't know.

Over & out

2006-12-18 14:38:53 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

NASA's annual budget is $16 billion
each shuttle launch cost 300mn!!!

2006-12-18 12:14:13 · answer #7 · answered by Tharu 3 · 2 0

I'm afraid I cant find any information on this which is a shame because I would like to know too.

Oh and Lick My @ssss: Your a tosser!

2006-12-18 12:09:59 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

Probably more than an average persons yearly wage and thats just for the day

2006-12-18 12:06:57 · answer #9 · answered by weizy_26 4 · 0 1

1234 billion mayby more

2006-12-18 12:12:34 · answer #10 · answered by dream theatre 7 · 0 0

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