Mars Science Laboratory Mission: Curiosity
Out of context: Reply #10
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- plash0
I can see people's point when they announce NASA being a "waste of money". The failure rate can be high, the research timeline is great and most of the public witnesses very little. Yet, their research, their discoveries, their knowledge is For the Benefit of All.
It is in the name of education and discovery that NASA everyday works to understand the mysteries of this universe. In his January 1961 The farewell address by President Eisenhower fretted about the tradition of “the solitary inventor, tinkering in his workshop being overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields.” NASA has employed armies of scientists and engineers globally in managing its complex missions. But the agency has also encouraged the spark of genius that comes from individual inventors. Significantly, in both ways of doing business, both have resulted in remarkable technical innovations that have served to advance progress in aeronautics research, space sciences and space exploration as well as to benefit the people of this planet.
Technology transfer has been a law enforcing mandate since the agency was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. This act requires that NASA provides the practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and results. This also provides NASA with the authority to patent inventions to which it has title, therefore giving ownership to the American people. You can get rich off of their labor and in fact NASA has documented more than 1,500 spinoff success stories.
The areas in which NASA-developed technologies benefit society can broadly be defined: health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, environmental and agricultural resources, computer technology and industrial productivity. Since 1976, the annual NASA publication "Spinoff" has detailed the influence and impact on society of agency activities.
Now, i don't want to make this too long. I know you've got better things to do. The DoD budget for fiscal Y2013: $613.9 billion which doesn't include the militarized space program and it increases with Department of HLS. While Medicare Part D will cost the United States another $1 trillion.
NASA fiscal Y2013: $17.7 billion and that number is decreasing. Now the rate of return on our investment, yes might be low and yes missions fail. NASA will be the first to acknowledge this fact. Yet, as it is true with the Large Hadron Collider, What is the price of Discovery, the price of the Truth?
We should be spending this.http://history.nasa.gov/spaceact…
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/659660ma…
http://comptroller.defense.gov/b…
http://spinoff.nasa.gov/