The Issue of Budget Allocations and the Government
The issue of budget allocations and the government is always a hot topic for discussion. But what if the budget allocations fall on NASA and their space exploration programs? Is it still worth it? Some people would argue that the country can better spend its resources on infrastructure, food, and creating more jobs. However, the opposite is also true. Most people don't know this but for every dollar spent on NASA gives multiplies to ten dollars of economic benefit (Babu 10). Therefore it suffices to say that NASA is a worthwhile investment for the US government for more than the economic benefits and here is a discussion why.
NASA as the Innovation Pioneer
One of NASA’s department funded by the government is Research and Development. The department's goal is to come up with products or methods that can make space exploration a little bit easier and cheaper (Babu 15). Often, these departments end up innovating solutions for other every-day use appliances. These technologies are known as NASA Spinoff Technologies. Without the funding, the department could probably have never discovered these new technologies. Moreover, the applications of the innovations are not just limited to the space exploration field. Instead, they are appliances and techniques used every day and in every area of knowledge. If anything, one of the barriers preventing the organization from coming up with more products is the fact that most projects get shut down too early and before they make any real progress.
Among the many innovations...
Here are some that have revolutionized other fields. The Light-Emitting Diodes, for instance, were created to help in growing plants in space. Instead, they are used to heal human beings right back here at home. The Warp 10 is an award-winning high-intensity LED unit (Babu 16). Its application is to relieve pain associated with arthritis, increase blood circulation temporarily. The device is also used as a first aid tool because it is a non-invasive pain reliever. It has been coined as a soldier self-care because it improves endurance for lightly injured soldiers in combat (Babu 18). In transportation, NASA developed moisture and pH-sensitive sensors. These sensors help to warn the engineers and pilots on potentially dangerous corrosive conditions before any significant damage has occurred (Babu 21). NASA's inventions are also applicable in the nutrition sector. Through research that explored the potential of algae as a recycling agent, the final substance of research found its way into infant formula.
NASA's Role in Education
Another reason NASA must continue to receive funding is the role it plays in education. It is a well-known fact that majority of the children is school look up to people working in and under NASA. These children will also spend hours watching space documentaries on YouTube. One will even see children dressing up as Astronauts on Halloween. Without the continual funding, the steps NASA has made in uniting people over this small fact would have been impossible. Most of these children even beg their parents to take them on a trip to one of NASA's site location where they get to have fun and play pretend. Through this kind of interactions with people still in school, NASA plays the role of motivating children to stay in school. Similarly, children also get excited by the fact that there are other worlds out there that still need exploration. It suffices to say that the curiosity acts as a motivating factor to study hard in school to achieve the dream of being part of the movement.
NASA also has many education programs...
Where it sponsors some exemplary children with the intention that an adequate supply of scientists and engineers will be available and adequately equipped to handle future space exploration matters (Obama para 5). These programs start at the lower grades and continue to even higher education learning programs. Aside from the future, NASA continually makes educational feats by adding to the current curriculum. The discovery of new phenomena helps explain why the way things happen the way they do. These discoveries also help us understand why our planet works the way it sometimes does. Similarly, these discoveries and educations can also help us know how to best deal with issues shortly such as how to deal with a solar shower that disrupts our technology and other similar matters.
The Political and Socio-economic Aspect of NASA
After the cold war, super nations depicted space exploration as a matter of only national prestige. However, the paradigms have shifted in the current age where the main reason why space exploration needs to persist is to gather as much data as a mission can. Countries are going into collaborations with other countries from different continents for one single pursuit which is collecting as much information as possible from the missions. So it suffices to say that NASA helps foster good relations with other scientific programs from other countries (Machay and Alan 215). While different every-day politics serve as a means to divide people, space exploration through NASA serves a way to unite not only the nations but also individuals from diverse backgrounds working on a joint mission.
NASA also has large socio-economic impacts. For instance, NASA is known for spurring innovation and consequently business growth (Machay and Alan 210). Under some of its programs, NASA collaborates with private corporates to bring a project to life. The reason behind the collaboration is because NASA sometimes lacks the necessary funding at its disposal. While they may be good at research, the amount of capital needed for some of these projects stretches their budget thinly. As previously discussed, NASA also leverages interest in science and technology. This leverage motivates and inspires citizens and other foreign citizens to participate in science and technology. Through the subsequent collaborations, NASA then promotes multi-national collaboration and supports foreign policy.
NASA Provides an Answer to Fundamental Questions
Space exploration intends to find out as much as possible what lies beyond our reach. Through the NASA explorations, our civilization has discovered more than our ancestors could dream. All our forefather could do was to speculate how the universe came into being, what lies beyond our sun and the solar system, how other worlds may look and if they even exist. The discovery of galaxies has helped formulate how the world came into being through observation; scientists have also discovered the existence of dark matter and dark energy, phenomena that we know nothing (Mazzucato and Douglas 25). It is somewhat hilarious that if one were to learn every known thing we would only know of about 5% of what consists of the universe. NASA's programs made all of these findings possible. One of the most fundamental questions that people ask however is whether extra-terrestrial life exists. While the issue is yet to get an answer, scientists have discovered planets that might be hospitable to some form of life. It is still debatable if carbon-based life forms are the only type of life-forms.
Since some theories are that a black hole created the universe, NASA's data also confirms some of these theories. It is through these data that scientists try to reconcile both quantum physics and general relativity. Also, the question on time also comes into play when one mentions space. Through careful studies, scientists try to reconcile how we can warp time or how it works differently in and around a black hole. If further exploration proved fruitful, our civilization could as well benefit from time travel. NASA not only deals with space exploration. Some of their discoveries also help us understand how our planet works. With this information, we can try and work on saving our world or at least maintaining it to be habitable for the foreseeable future (Zeng et al. para 15). For example, new NASA space sensors could be the key to understanding why the planet is warming faster than the rest of the earth (Babu 32). Current technology offers little to no help in identifying these issues and how to address them.
In conclusion
In conclusion, we can lay to rest the question on whether funding NASA is worth it. While some may believe that investing in the here and now is more important, one can also counter-argue that investing in the future for sustainability is more important. Through accidental innovation, while pursuing space exploration, NASA has made our current lives so much easier. Also, through their education programs, they help develop future generations that could provide answers that humanity might desperately need at the time. NASA’s benefit goes beyond the monetary to even the socio-economic and personal. It is a high time that humanity realizes the value of a sustainable future for all.
Works Cited
Babu, Sachidananda R. "ESTO Investments in Innovative Sensor Technologies for Remote Sensing." (2017).
Machay, Martin, and Alan Steinberg. "Influence of Industry on Legislative Behavior toward NASA." Astropolitics 13.2-3 (2015): 205-222.
Mazzucato, Mariana, and Douglas Robinson. "Lost in Space? NASA and the Changing Public-Private Eco-System in Space." (2016).
Obama, B. "Investing in America’s future: preparing students with STEM skills." Washington, DC: White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Google Scholar (2015).
Zeng, Xubin, et al. "Challenges and Opportunities in NASA Weather Research." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 97.7 (2016): ES137-ES140.
