How important is a space program / NASA to you?

Im totally ok with it, long as taxes don't take a hike. They could cut defense a bit to fund the space program easy and still be well enough armed to blow up the earth a few times.

It's hard for us to explore space when we barely even have our shit together on Earth.

Neil deGrasse Tyson on why we need a space program.

I love Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Dismantle it. Space doesn't want you here.

It used to be way more important to me. As I've gotten older I seem to care less. It's just so unimportant to what I do on a daily basis or what seems to be more important in the here and now. Maybe I have a short view of things but I'm more interested in my country staying solvent rather then exploring space and learning about the nature of the universe. I'm happy with it staying funded but only if my country can afford it and not at the cost of more important causes like health care.

@manu_fan10ne: Whenever I hear him talk, I think to myself "Science is fucking awesome!"

The amount of money that gets dumped in vs. what's been accomplished, is disappointing but I do think it's important; significantly more important than a lot of the other stuff governments spend money on.

I guess that even if it doesn't lead to any significant discoveries, the technology and research that comes out of it will still be highly valuable.

So it's probably important.

Seems pretty important, at least if we want to do little things like ensure the survival of the human race. There's plenty of other shit Americans should get way more pissed about their government wasting tax dollars on.

Also I will always pick the joke poll option.

The future of space travel is in the private sector and John Carmack.

From what I understand, it would take very little funding (relatively speaking) to support most of NASA's operations. Curiosity only took ~$312 million per year to achieve. It's strange to me that NASA doesn't receive additional funding. Even if you call space achievements not worthwhile from a scientific standpoint (debatable), they tend to build morale and solidarity. It seems like a low price for something that is generally hard to attain.

I won't be alive to see it, but the sooner Mass Effect becomes reality the better in my opinion. I would pay a lot of money for even a glimpse of what the future of civilisation holds, and space is the answer I want to see!

I think the future of space exploration may be better off in the hands of the private sector. When I think of all the money wasted in an average department of the government I can't even imagine how much waste there would be in their space programs and how slow their progress would be nowadays.

I'd like to see us get our own shit together before we drop duckets on NASA. They're a luxury that we can't fully afford right now. Should we drop them entirely? Probably not, but we can't throw money at them either.

I don't consider ensuring the survival of life on this planet a luxury... but I can understand if you think things are so bad down here we're not worth saving.

I agree. And money will always motivate people more than the science that makes it anyway.

Cut military funding and give that surplus to NASA. I'd rather see space travel than the US engaging in more wars.

I believe that the continued pursuit of manned space flight is an important and laudable project, but it must be done responsibly when there are so many other pressing issues of public welfare that have to be considered.

It also irks me whenever the success of NASA is solely determined using the metric of manned space flight. The probes and satellites launched in the last two decades have done a lot to revise our theories of planetary formation, solar system structure, the early moments of the universe, and the origins of life. NASA has also done some really awesomely cool stuff like the Kepler satellite discovering tons of new exoplanets, the Deep Impact probe that shot a freaking comet, and Curiosity-a 2,000 lb, radioactive-powered, car-sized robot full of incredibly sophisticated and delicate instruments that is currently tooling around the surface of Mars.

If I've got any problem with the current direction of NASA, it's the need for a larger budget/system for the detection of Near-Earth Objects.

I was four years old when man first stepped onto the moon. It's very important to me. I do wish they would have taken the Video_Game_King down while they were there. Oh well, maybe in the future!

I want to get my ass to Mars, damn it!

No, I'm pretty sure I would prioritize government spending in at least half a dozen other places before NASA. Like perhaps our nation's underfunded system of public schools?

This is a slippery slope leading us directly to Xenomorphs. Is that what you want?!

Being the narrow minded cunt that I am, the only thing I care about is in the center of the Balkans. Everything else can burn.

I would like to keep it funded and it shouldn't take too much money to keep NASA funded anyway. It just seems like a scapegoat right now because the government doesn't wanna raise taxes so the only other thing they can do is cut funding in other programs and not a lot of people(public figures like politicians, talking heads, or activists for that matter) are fighting really hard for it. They seem to be fighting for things that they deem more important to save so NASA gets put on the chopping by process of elimination.

I'd be okay with that. Though if we cut military funding, we'd probably need that money to pay other shit off before we gave it to NASA.

@manu_fan10ne:

Very important. It's the future of the human race. The only things of equal importance are education and protecting the environment.

I saw this one a week or two ago. It's very true.

...yes?

I love this video. I'm still stuck in between on classifying it as either extremely inspiring, or incredibly tragic. Neil deGrasse Tyson is truly amazing. I am not scientifically literate, but I often find myself watching his lectures. Hopefully his contributions to the field of science will inspire more support for the funding of NASA, or some other space program.

We will only develop interstellar travel once we reach world peace.

So, we'll probably never get there.

I'm all for it as long as taxpayers' money doesn't fund it. We have way more important things to spend it on at this point.

It's sad to see the US falling behind in science and space exploration. NASA has been a very cheap investment for the country if you weigh the achieved benefits. It would be easy to double NASA's budget by cutting the nuclear stockpile in half for example.

But luckily China, Japan and the EU have stepped up to the plate. Not to mention private companies. And Russia has mostly been the leader in space exploration anyway.

Its really important it furthers our understanding of the universe we live in and all the shit that gets developed for NASA makes it way into consumer tech and products. WE WOULD NOT HAVE TANG IF IT WASN'T FOR NASA. THINK ABOUT THAT.

Incredibly important. Scientific progress of any and all kind should always be a priority.

First off, lets own up to the fact that we will NEVER have our shit together on earth, unless the developed nations of the world does the impossible and collaborates to eliminate societal problems.

So instead, lets at least learn what we can from space - the real world benefits of the last fifty years of space exploration have been immense.

Space is where we have go as a species at some point, if we dont you know, blow ourselfs up first.

If we don't have a space program how can we eventually get to cool awesome future scifi things? Exploration and the search for knowledge just for the sake of it is great. Also we get tech that eventually goes on to the public from NASA and that is a good plus.

In a government full of grown adults that can't create a proper budget (sequester, hooooooo), I think it's impossible to also rely on that government to sustain a space program. While I'm incredibly in favor of NASA funding (STEM major here), I just don't see it being practical.

Oh yeah definitely. They could call it a long time investment.

I like doritos

Well as an Engineering major, I'm extremely bias as NASA funding could be money in my pocket. But really the importance of NASA really can't be understated. As almost anyone who has had to do any sort of science project can tell you the hardest part is just coming up for the idea for the project. It is the same for actual scientists. The primary driving force of scientific advancement is not education or economics it simply comes down to asking the right questions and finding tough problems. Most Scientists and Engineers will be asked to "fix this", "make this cheaper, faster, and cleaner", or "find a better way to do this." Less likely you get to advance science for science sake. If your very lucky you might get to find new ways to kill guys better which leads to lots of innovation.

However with NASA you get asked to stop meteors from destroying the Earth, solve the mysteries of the universe, or just plain old get this guy's ass to Mars. Those are clearly the right questions to ask and usually lead to the discovery of many problems. That's also not o mention that it can also solve a lot of those same problems you would seen before but with much more motivation behind it. "Fix this $2 billion instrument in space", "Make this cheaper, faster, and cleaner or it won't reach Mars", or "Find a better way to do this only using resources found on the Moon".

I remember hearing Neil DeGrasse Tyson on a podcast saying that they detected a big-ass meteor in outer space that might crash into the ocean in a few decades. I don't personally care much, but it's probably important they stay funded just in case. Also the outer space is cool.

We gotta take stock photos, from the moon, to pwn in muh CoD, dawg!

Teabag that Venus.

I want to be alive when we find extraterrestrial life. We're so fucking close, I will be bummed if I don't live to see it.

Give Nasa all the money.

I was born about a month after Armstrong and Aldrin went for a stroll on the moon. I still believe it is the most significant accomplishment in human history above written language and agriculture, but these days I'm not so certain we should be looking to the government to keep the dreams of space alive. As we progress through the 21st Century, I really expect private business to make the biggest breakthroughs and develop the tools needed to take mankind to the stars. Don't get me wrong, government funded space exploration still needs to exist, but it won't be as vital as it was last century. NASA and similar organizations across the globe will pick up the slack for all the crap science that isn't sexy or profitable. If you want to know if ants can be trained to sort tiny screws in space, NASA is where you go. If you want to see attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion and c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate then book a flight on Virgin Galactic.

It is so unimportant to me that I rarely think about it. I think space travel in SciFi is pretty cool but in real life it is a waste of money.

There are so much many better ways that money can be spent.

I guess it'd be nice to know if there's a big rock heading our way to kill us and that we are able to do more about it than just dying.

At this point in time there's nothing much to be gained by actually sending manned spacecraft. Most experiments can be carried out by robots and data sent back to Earth. Plus you only have to send the payload there so theres no extra weight from the fuel you need to come back let alone the shuttle/craft. Manned missions are more of a political statement than a scientific need.

It's a nice thing, but completely and utterly meaningless aside from satellites for the time being, obviously in the future space exploration will become extremely important but for the time being there is little to be gained in so doing (though that's not to say something couldn't randomly happen to change that at any time). When the whole world is either unified or divided into a handful of economic groups like the EU is when it makes more financial sense for those large conglomerates to start extensive astronomy projects.