Quote:
Originally Posted by Jel
"According to the Office of Management and Budget and the Air Force Almanac, when measured in real terms (adjusted for inflation), the figure is $790.0 billion, or an average of $15.818 billion per year over its fifty-year history."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA
The initial comment was flippant, but my feelings on it aren't  Huge waste of money on what is (nowadays) nothing more than a gigantic ego trip. |
If not for technological 'ego trips' you wouldn't be on this thing called the Internet right now. The Internet has changed the entire world and how we live in it, it began with funding from the US government, money which could have been spent on the homeless and mentally ill. Investment in scientific and technological research has always had high return yields for mankind. A lot of technology developed by NASA has in fact been transferred to medical science and helped millions of people. I'd have to search but I think MRI, magnetic resonance imaging, has its roots in the space program. And no technology is contributing more to the study of mental illness and the brain than MRI.
NASA has been the victim of budgets cutbacks, receiving less than half of the funding it received in the 1970's as a percentage of the federal budget. It's sad that an American has to hitch a ride now with the Russians or Chinese to travel into space.
I understand your point though, the US military budget is ridiculous, billions given to defense contractors could be transferred to all sorts of other programs including those that help the homeless and mentally ill.