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Originally Posted by ratbastid
I'll say it again--NASA is a red herring. And I'm a BIG space nerd. In sixth grade I could just about tell you the name of every major system on the Shuttle, okay? I'm into this stuff and I WANT US aerospace to lead the world. But unless we fix our education system and our economy, before long we'll be unable to afford solid rocket fuel to launch our fancy shiny new orbiters. NASA just CAN'T be a priority right now, not with the other things we're facing as a nation.
josh, your point is well taken about our space program as a point of pride and inspiration. God knows it was for me, as a kid. But it's just Maslow's Heirarchy (that's right, I went there). Basic needs need to be dealt with before things like self-actualization and pride. And our basic needs--economy, infrastructure, education--have been left to fall completely apart by our current war-obsessed administration, and something needs to be done about them before we're a third world country.
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I understand what you're saying, and to some point, I agree. However:
o You're *never* going to fix all of the problems 'back here on Earth'. There will always be things we could spend money on.
o The 'spend money here at home first' argument seems to always be brought up whenever you talk about NASA's budget, but almost never when talking about other expenditures.
NASA's annual budget is about 17 billion dollars. that's a lot. The budget for the US military is about 430 billion dollars. That's not counting most of the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our military budget is bigger than the rest of the world's. The rest of the world *combined*. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't have a military. I'm not saying we shouldn't have the best military in the world.
Not to mention the fact that NASA does *real science* that not only has long-term benefits (we're eventually going to have to move off this ball of dirt), but short-term practical benefits. Ask Google if you don't believe me.
It's like investing - you take care of your immediate needs, but you also invest for the medium and long term. Yes we have to take care of our immediate needs, but we also have to take care of the long term, and NASA is a part of that.
Now, OTOH, dollar for dollar, robotic missions are a much bigger payoff than manned missions. They aren't as sexy, but it costs a hell of a lot to support a man in space. We should definitely have a manned space program (we're going to have to learn to live up there sooner or later), but the robotic programs should get their due.