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Reagan Truscott

Professor Christy Trotter

English 1201

14 April 2019

NASA’s Budget

Have you ever gone exploring, just curious about what is behind a door? Have you ever

thought about traveling the world and seeing all the places that our world has to offer? Well,

what if you explored in a more let us say, vertical direction, not Mount Everest up, straight up,

right into space. That is what many people all over the world want to do, but why would we want

to explore out there when we still have to explore here, why spend billions of dollars to leave,

when we could spend that money to ensure that our own planet stays safe and sustainable. But

contrary to popular belief, space exploration is not the only driving goal of most space projects

that are currently in progress.

The initial drive for exploring space came about during the space race that was between

Russia and the United States during the Cold War. This idea of space was pushed so much on

the public then, with the budget of these government space organizations souring to become a

significant percentage of the budget. Space was idealized in everyone's mind during this Cold

War era because getting to space and being the first country to land someone on the moon would

show the other country, that they were the superior superpower country of the world. Even

though Russia, or what was the Soviet Union, was the first of the two to get a man into space, the

United States was the first to successfully land a man on the moon and the first to place a flag

there. This flag would forever be a symbol to what the United States had accomplished on that
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day, and ever since the success of the Space Race, the drive for space exploration, and with that,

the budget has been slowly sinking. NASA and other space organizations should have larger

budgets than what currently stands, as space exploration is underappreciated and the

technological advancements that space organizations make are unmatched.

Most people today would easily assume that that budget of NASA, a government

organization that is funded by taxpayer dollars, takes up a large percentage of the budget, and

therefore their own money. Only using their hard-earned taxpayer money to shoot random

rockets into space, and then moving onto the next rocket that they will spend double the money

on, for what seems to be no reason at all. That assumption could not be further from the truth.

When observing the official numbers that were released in 2016 that analyzed NASA’s budget

for the public, it showed that NASA’s “budget is $19.3 billion, out of $3.95 trillion in federal

spending” ("Is NASA Worth The Money We Spend On It?"). Initially, both of those numbers

seem absurdly large to the average eye, but when they are compared it is calculated that “the US

devotes about 0.5% of its budget” to space endeavors in particular ("Is NASA Worth The Money

We Spend On It?"). Even more so, “If you are talking specifically about NASA’s planetary

science program (New Horizons at Pluto, Cassini at Saturn, etc), that comes to $1.63 billion in

2016, or about 0.04% of the federal budget” ("Is NASA Worth The Money We Spend On It?").

So why do people believe that so much money is being devoted to NASA?

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Image: DeSante. "They Chose to Go to the Moon: How Birth Cohorts Shape Opinions on Funding for Space Exploration."

This assumption stems from when NASA did take up a large percentage of the United

States government's budget. Back in 1966, when the Space Race was coming to its pinnacle and

the budget of NASA and the push to be the first people to land on the moon was at its absolute

peak, the budget of NASA did take up a large sum of the federal government's budget. When this

rush for space began “NASA’s budget as a fraction of the total budget climbed from about 0.5

percent in 1960 to about 4.4 percent in 1966” and has been dropping ever since that peak in 1966

(DeSante). This sudden spike in the budget can be observed on the graph above and lasted all the

way up until the sudden and sharp fall between the years 1965 and 1975. Within those ten years,

NASA was able to accomplish what it had set out to do, land a man on the moon, winning the

Space Race. Ever since the success of the Space Race, the excitement around NASA and space

has never been the same, and neither has its budget.

The reasons that NASA does not get the funding and push that it used to if simply put, is

war. NASA was receiving a large budget to work with when the United States government

wanted to win in the Space Race, which was part of the Cold War. Ever since that era of time in

the mid to later the twentieth century, space has not been brought up in any form of war or
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competition with another country. When the percentage of NASA’s budget was at its peak, that

percentage was being associated with the war efforts. The money being devoted to NASA was

only being invested there because the United States wanted to win its war, so when NASA was

no longer needed to win any major or imminent wars, the budget plummeted and the federal

government has slowly been chipping away at the funding ever since, taking away more and

more every year. So, if NASA no longer has the main mission of aiding in winning wars for the

United States, then what is their current budget even being spent on, and are the current projects

worth the budget that NASA receives?

One aspect of NASA that a lot of people overlook is the inventions that come out of it.

There is obviously a lot of inventions being made by NASA and their scientists as far as those

that are intended for space. But some of those ideas have become beneficial to everyone else, and

most would have never predicted the benefits that have ended up aiding the common human

being (Farrell). Countless inventions have come about that NASA intended for use in space but

have been spun around to greatly benefit everyone else. There are also some lesser known

inventions that have come about from NASA, such as space blankets that are now used in

emergency situations to keep people warm. NASA also unintentionally developed the “standard

in food safety used all over the world in restaurants, delis, and food preparation factories” by

their program HACCP (Farrell). All of these ‘accidental’ inventions have greatly affected our

society and many more are bound to come from NASA.

The more well-known invention of space organizations is the satellite. Arguably, the

most influential thing that sprung from NASA is modern communication thanks to the satellites

that were developed by space programs (Is NASA a waste of money?). Satellites though are not

just strictly used for modern day communication; they are used for much more than that. The

GPS system installed in modern day phones and in a lot of cars allows for people to get from one
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place to another destination easily, all just using satellites in space. Satellites have become

essentials to everyday life for a lot of people in first world countries. But they are also aiding

third world countries as well. Since the data that NASA collects is distributed out onto the

internet for anyone and everyone to see, the data that their satellites collect on weather patterns

and many other things help those who do not have the accessibility of a cell phone in their

pocket. Another major benefit that comes from satellites is that we can track the weather in ways

that we never could before. Being able to track hurricanes in real time and accurately predict

their pathways has undoubtedly saved countless lives (Is NASA a waste of money?). With the

weather becoming more extreme than ever before, especially within this past year, this form of

technology will be needed to help to save lives and hopefully get people out of the pathways of

danger in time. Satellites are the perfect example of why NASA should receive more funding,

they were made for communication but have turned into technological marvels that can now

predict the path of a tornado or hurricane.

NASA not only helps the general population by giving out their research to the public

and the other ways previously discussed, but NASA also employs many people, helping the

overall economy of the United States. NASA is currently employing “nearly 18,000

professionals work around the country” working in the various buildings that NASA has spread

across the United States (Where We Work). So, the budget that NASA gets does not just go to

the building of satellites, rockets, rocket launchers, and the many other various projects, but it

goes to pay many people across the United States, helping unemployment rates. Many of these

people are scientists and engineers with higher wages than the average person, but many of the

employees that work for NASA all around the country, are just doing a simple nine to five job

that just happens to be analyzing statistics for a rocket that takes off into space in a few months.
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This not only helps these scientists, inventors, and various other employees pay their bills, but it

also helps the economy of the United States by employing these people.

Image: Dunbar. “Where We Work”

One of the more recent points that have been introduced into the debate, is the emergence

of independent space organizations. These organizations have begun to pop up in recent years

and people are beginning to question, why use portions of the federal budget, when we could just

rely on independent companies to do the same work, at no cost to us. On the surface, this

question seems simple, but the justification to keep funding going for NASA is that unlike the

independent companies, NASA is a government associated organization. Therefore, NASA is not

being driven by profits. Private companies, however, are “incentivized to pursue technologies

that will give them a return on investment like space tourism or asteroid mining or launching

satellites for other organization” (Is NASA a waste of money?). The idea of private companies

doing all the work so that the government does not have to divert resources to NASA is ideal.

But the truth is that private companies can do whatever they please, and that involves making

money, which is not NASA’s mission.

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Although private companies to make technological advancements that can compete and

sometimes even overshadow what NASA has produced, that is not a horrible thing. Having one

company in the United States alone that focuses on space is space is not very wise. Without any

form of competition, the goal to go to mars or land on an asteroid does not have to be in a

specific time frame. The Space Race during the Cold War is an excellent example of this. If the

United States and Russia had not been competing against one another to get to space, the

scientist and engineers working on the project to get to the moon wouldn’t have had nearly as

much incentive as they did. This idea of winning a race has been planted in our brains since

kindergarten, and if you don’t win a race initially, then you go back, train, and try again. The

same applies to NASA. If something does not work, then they will go back and try something

again. The race that space has produced is not a direct sprint anymore like it was during the

Space Race, it is simply who can conduct the most trials until something works. Since the age of

the Space Race though, the incentives have changed massively. There is still an aspect of

military use in satellites and other projects that NASA has produced, but the majority of the

projects that NASA, independent space organizations, and other government-based organizations

across the globe’s incentive, is simply their love for space, technology, and the general idea of

exploring the unknown. Independent space organizations are not all bad for everyone, yes, they

are in it for the profit that it will produce but having a little competition won’t be harming

anyone.

Although NASA is a division of the United States government, it does not see itself as an

all-knowing and powerful organization. Since the International Space Station was made NASA

has been collaborating on many missions with other companies from various countries across the

world. This collaboration between countries encourages the humans' race as a whole to work

together and although there are private companies that are based in the United States, NASA is
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the organization that represents the United States government and the United States needs a good

representative for its country at the International Space Station.

A point that is often questioned is why NASA wants to go on the missions that it does,

what is the reasoning behind all these projects? One of the projects that are currently underway at

NASA is the mission to explore certain asteroids that are roaming around the galaxy. The

reasons for exploring and researching these asteroids is that “In addition to unlocking clues about

our solar system, asteroids may provide clues about our Earth” (Why We Explore). Benefits that

come about from exploring asteroids and their various properties is that it gives us a glimpse into

the past of the universe, and possibly the past of personal rock, Earth. Another even larger

project that NASA is working towards is the mission to Mars. Many people question why we

would ever go on a mission to Mars, what is the point? Mars has been found to have

characteristics that are slightly comparable to own our Earth, and it has been a mystery that

humans have been wanting to solve since we achieved landing the first person on the moon. It is

impossible to know what will be found on asteroids and Mars until we actually get there, so for

now, the money being spent on going to these far off places is justified by the need to explore

and the success of all of the missions that have been conducted by NASA and others across the

globe (Why We Explore). Going to the moon was not justified by any other reason than being

their first and winning and race, so why question doing the same thing, the only difference to

those who do not understand the science behind it all, is that we are just venturing out further

than we did before.

Another argument that has arisen in recent years that has questioned the space programs

and their ways of doing things is why not do some things here on Earth. Technology has

advanced beyond what could have imagined when space research was introduced to the world.

Since then, the technology developed has been able to simulate scenarios as if it were somewhere
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else, so are we doing experiments in space when we could just simulate the experiment here on

Earth is the question. Well, the research that can be done here on Earth is being done here on

Earth, but there are still a lot of aspects of space that cannot yet be replicated with the technology

that we currently have at our disposal. Examples of topics that cannot yet be studied the same

way on Earth is those that have to do with ageing and radiation (Hansson). That is why the

International Space Station is still functioning and continuing research, if the station were no

longer needed, we would not put any of the resources, time, or manpower into it that we and

other countries around the world currently are.

If more money were to be spent on NASA, where would the money even come from?

The United States budget is already in the trillions and increasing every year, so if we were to

spend the money on NASA and devote some of the resources that we currently have to NASA,

what resources should we devote. Out of the 3.8 trillion-dollar budget of the United States

government in 2015 about one-fourth of that budget or, 1.1 trillion dollars, is devoted to

discretionary spending. Out of that 1.1 trillion, most of the budget is devoted to the military

(Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go). One-fourth of the total budget is a large amount

of money to be spending on developing the largest and most powerful army in the world even

more, so why can the budget not spare a small percentage being shifted toward NASA instead of

a tank.
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Image: “Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go”

One of, if not the, most asked question by people would be, why are we exploring space

when we have our own problems here at home on Earth? The fact is that humans do not know

what they will run into, if they will run into anything, out in space, but as humans, we want to

answer the fundamental questions of life itself. Space exploration helps us to understand our

origin, the origin of our own home Earth, and creates even more questions along the way the

more we explore. NASA and the other space organizations that are scattered across the globe all

have the same goal in mind and have found that when they develop these new ideas and make

them a reality, they often find that these ideas do not just benefit them, they benefit people who

have nothing to with developing space programing instruments (Is NASA a waste of money?). It

can be shown by the inventions, technological advancements, and much more that space

exploration has improved our society and allowed us to reach beyond what we know. The

fundamental mission of NASA is built on fueling that part of the human spirit that has the need

to explore what is beyond them and let everyone else experience it as well by sharing what has

been uncovered in places far beyond our little solar system (Why We Explore). Although the
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idea of pure curiosity and exploration is not a solid way to defend space exploration, it is what

space exploration was built on, and it will continue to be the driving force of NASA.

In conclusion, space companies were founded on war, but since then, they have helped

countless amounts of people with their technology and have improved humans through the

mission to explore and research. Although many inventions accidental, NASA has driven us into

what we now know as the modern age. NASA and other space organizations should have larger

budgets than what currently stands, as space exploration is underappreciated and the

technological advancements that space organizations make are unmatched.

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Works Cited

DeSante, Christopher D. "They Chose to Go to the Moon: How Birth Cohorts Shape Opinions on

Funding for Space Exploration." Social Science Quarterly, no. 4, 2017, p. 1175.

EBSCOhost, 2017, https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdf

viewer?vid=3&sid=aa16065e-a8c4-47d7-b373-2e14f5e16f2b%40sessionmgr4006.

Accessed 28 Feb. 2019.

Dunbar, Brian. "Where We Work." Edited by Rachael Blodgett. www.nasa.gov, 28

June 2018, www.nasa.gov/careers/where-we-work. Accessed 24 Mar. 2019.

Dunbar, Brian. "Why We Explore." Edited by Jennifer Wiles. www.nasa.gov, NASA, 30 Sept.

2013, https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/whyweexplore/why_we_explore_main.html.

Accessed 4 Mar. 2019.

Farrell, Conor. "Column: Is space exploration worth the money?" TheJournal.ie, digital ed., 25

Feb. 2014. https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/is-space-exploration-worth-the-money-

1331509-Feb2014/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2019.

“Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go.” www.nationalpriorities.org,

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/. Accessed

23 Mar. 2019.

Hansson, Anders. "Viewpoint: Life sciences in space — is It worth it?" Space Policy, vol. 10,
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Jan. 1994, pp. 5–6. EBSCOhost, https://journals-ohiolink-

edu.sinclair.ohionet.org/pg_99?303723383035777::NO::P99_ENTITY_ID,P99_ENTITY

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Is NASA a waste of money? Produced by Mark Rober, 2018. YouTube, www.youtube.com

/watch?v=lARpY0nIQx0. Accessed 4 Mar. 2019.

"Is NASA Worth The Money We Spend On It?" www.forbes.com, Forbes Media, 19 Apr. 2016,

www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/08/19/is-nasa-worth-the-money-we-spend-on-

it/#7446d9276447. Accessed 4 Mar. 2019.