Nasa is a waste of funds!

[Boris Godunov]

Fine, fine...but admit it, you would have secretly, in the blackest recesses of your teeny-weeny heart, have enjoyed seeing such a thread up on the OT, even if just for a few minutes.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Ming, the keeper of law and order .

Damn, since seeing the new 'Dragnet', I can picture Ming talking like Ed O'Neill .

[Jack_www]

I have not had time to read all the posts in here. BUt I for one do not think NASA is a waste of money, in fact I think too little money is spent on NASA.

Some one has to make the first steps into space, and like many other explorations that man has done throughout history they are dangerous and many died. What if no one wanted to sail across the ocean in the 1500's?? WHat would life be like now?? Ocean travel would have never been improved if it were not for those first explores who risked their lifes to explore the world arround them.

THe same with space travel. Right now it is very dangerous and people will die in their efforts to explore space. There are so many things to learn in this Universe that it would be sad that we allow a few deaths to stop it. It we do we will never be able to learn more about the Universe arround us.

As we go into space more and do more resreach space travel will get much safer. Look at the first airplanes that were built. Many were not all that safe, and if we allowed that danger to stop flight all togather we would have never have the kind of planes we have today along with there great safety record. I mean we take risks just getting into the car and driving to work, but we do not let these risks stop us from riding in a car.

NASA is there to explore space, to learn about the wonderfull universe we live in, to expand human knowledge. It is not a waste and I think that we need it more then ever before.

[Kramerman]

THe same with space travel. Right now it is very dangerous and people will die in their efforts to explore space. There are so many things to learn in this Universe that it would be sad that we allow a few deaths to stop it. It we do we will never be able to learn more about the Universe arround us.

you worded much better what i was kinda trying to say earlier

[Static Universe]

Foolish Post deleted

[Sheep]

I think Space travel is not the way to go, loom we already have that Stargate thingy just need to dig it up

What we really should do is invest in time travel. Then if we really want to all we have to do is go into the future and hence space travel, or better stillwe can go to the past and my historical therories on aliens owning the world and humans being slaves will be proved right!

[Mr. President]

Reconstructing Iraq will be a waste of money. Gee, it's a dictatorship that makes aggression against everyone around it and kills its own people. Boo hoo. It's been so for hundreds of years.

Space exploration is not a waste of money. Successes in space lead to revitalization of science on Earth. America's destiny waits among the stars.

[JCG]

Space might seem like a "waste" of money in the short term, but not in the medium and/or long term.

The less money you put in it, the longer it'll take for greater benefits to appear, and for skeptics to recognize them.

And well...it's such a tiny part of the budget (yes, it has already been said), that even doubling it shouldn't be much of an issue.

For example, you could take a couple of billions off defense, it's not like anyone spends 3/4 as much as the U.S. in that area right now, IIRC .

[Rogan Josh]

I think we can all agree that the US is spending far too much money on the military, but that is another issue. I think we can also all agree that the budget for fundamental science research should be multiplied by a factor of 10 at least. But that is not the issue either.

The point is, how should we prioritise our research? Given a fixed pot of money, how much should we spend on manned space exploration, keeping in mind that every cent we spend on it takes money away from other research.

Imho, the manned space programme is too expensive for the return we get. We do not get the same level of advances out of manned spce flight as we would get spending the money on, for example, a cure for cancer, or particle physics ( ) or even unmanned probes.

If ol' GW were to announce tomorrow that the US military budget was now going to be spent only on scientific research, I would be one of the most strident manned space flight supporters. But let's face it, it isn't going to happen. So with limited funds, we must prioritise - and I say that means axing manned space flight.

[DanS]

I think we can all agree that the US is spending far too much money on the military, but that is another issue.

Nope. Don't think we can all agree on that. The US is spending a moderate amount on the military.

I think we can also all agree that the budget for fundamental science research should be multiplied by a factor of 10 at least

Nope. Don't think we can all agree on that. I would prefer to have any extra money returned to the taxpayers, thanks.

The point is, how should we prioritise our research?

Yep.

[Willem]

Originally posted by DanS

Nope. Don't think we can all agree on that. The US is spending a moderate amount on the military.

50% of the total budget, you call that a moderate amount?

[Jack_www]

I dont think the USA spends half its buget on millitary, but it does spend a lot on it. Anther thing eats up a lot of money each year too is the interest payments on the 5 trillion dollar debt. If we could get rid of this stupid debt their would be more money to spend.

[Imran Siddiqui]

3% of GDP is WELL in the middle.

After all, it isn't like we spend the most on military spending as a percentage of GDP.

[Velociryx]

Hey....that's SIX trillion in debt!

But seriously....yeah, it's a big number, and yeah, it looks ugly....but it really isn't all that bad. No more debilitating than a guy making 90k a year with a 60k mortgage.

Does he pay a good hunk of cash every year in interest? Yep.

Will it bankrupt him? Nope.

-=Vel=-

[Jack_www]

I never said it would bankrupt the USA, only that we waste so much money on the interest payments, that reducing the debt would be a good thing.