Petition to increase NASA's budget

[Mxster]

NASA is great and the manned space program cuts were a true losd.

Signed the pet'

 

[Sloper]

Nasa's budget is tiny. One half of one percent. And people want to cut that when we're spending ~200x on other bs social programs and wars.

You can't throw money at social issues to fix it. We need to innovate our way out of this mess. The only way to do that is to inspire the next generation of scientists/technologists and NASA is the best bait we have. Oh that, and iPhones.

Signed.

 

[lothar]

That goes against the very idea of having a government agency that uses science for the betterment of humanity. They always give innovations over to private industry, so that they may be used in widespread applications.

Great...Another person who practices the "Privatize the profits, socialize the loses" philosophy.
Just because something is not free does not mean it is not for the betterment of humanity.

If tax payer government funding is derived to make any product, it should be able to earn profits from licensing said products and use those profits to fund some of it's operations.

 

[kyrax12]

I rather the U.S liquidate its military and spent all the money on NASA instead.

Imagine 650 Billion a year into NASA.

We might even create Plasma engines soon!

 

[ussfletcher]

Great...Another person who practices the "Privatize the profits, socialize the loses" philosophy.
Just because something is not free does not mean it is not for the betterment of humanity.

If tax payer government funding is derived to make any product, it should be able to earn profits from licensing said products and use those profits to fund some of it's operations.

That would be an incentive to sell products, not to create things for the sake of science, and exploration. This is the same reason that no government agencies seek to make a profit (with the exception of the IRS). When you push certain products or services then it ceases to be in the best interests of the nation and instead becomes a business. The government should not own businesses.

We can argue about whether or not they have our best interests in mind, but that is a product of the bureaucracy.

 

[lothar]

That would be an incentive to sell products, not to create things for the sake of science, and exploration. This is the same reason that no government agencies seek to make a profit (with the exception of the IRS). When you push certain products or services then it ceases to be in the best interests of the nation and instead becomes a business. The government should not own businesses.

We can argue about whether or not they have our best interests in mind, but that is a product of the bureaucracy.

If the government is going to grab my tax dollars, I damn well want to make sure my money is put to good use for my own benefit and the benefit of American citizens, not just for "Privatizing the profits and socializing the loses" of corporations like Goldman Sachs or "green" energy companies connected to Al Gore and his circle of advisers.

Government doesn't have to license it's product for a profit...It can license at cost or whatever it feels appropriate but definitely not giving it for free with no strings attached as you seem to be advocating.

No. The reason that you see that no government agency is turning a profit besides the IRS is because if they do, their funding would be yanked out in the next budget. This is why at the end of the year, there's always a rush to spend money in all departments and make sure not $1 is remaining. Any department that doesn't or isn't able to use all it's appropriated funds for a particular budget year doesn't get to save it in the bank for next years budget. Use it or lose it.

I hope you feel the same about "green" energy funding.
Another company just went bankrupt on $2.1 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.
Since you are against government pushing certain products and services, I presume you're against these subsidies as well?

 

[Stayfr0sty]

Dont need too, Indiana Jones already found aliens!!

Seriously,
they must be worried now that China has space program if they want to increase the budget.

 

[FoBoT]

We are about to get an elevator that goes up there now, who needs NASA?

j/k

i am pretty sure flying cars are supposed to be before the space elevator :hmm:

 

[ichy]

So basically the people that support and/or signed this petition just want us to keep throwing money at NASA instead of fixing the actual problem.

One moment, a politician calls for "going to Mars".
4 years later another politician is elected with another congress and changes to mission to "Build a base on the Moon by 2020".
8 years after that, another politician gets elected and changes the mission to "Colonize Venus".

Yeah. Money is only half of the problem. NASA needs a challenging but realistic goal that we stick with and an appropriate budget. If you let them run wild with extravagant amounts of money you'll have all kids of crazy schemes (look up some of the wasteful crap that was proposed for the Apollo Applications program in the 1960s) but you can't do space exploration on the cheap either.

Also, let's be honest that manned spaceflight is about exploration, not science. Pure science in space will always be performed more efficiently by robotic spacecraft. The ISS is a horrific white elephant that has yet to produce any really meaningful research (expect that teaching us about how long periods of time in space are bad for you!)

 

[ussfletcher]

If the government is going to grab my tax dollars, I damn well want to make sure my money is put to good use for my own benefit and the benefit of American citizens, not just for "Privatizing the profits and socializing the loses" of corporations like Goldman Sachs or "green" energy companies connected to Al Gore and his circle of advisers.

Government doesn't have to license it's product for a profit...It can license at cost or whatever it feels appropriate but definitely not giving it for free with no strings attached as you seem to be advocating.

No. The reason that you see that no government agency is turning a profit besides the IRS is because if they do, their funding would be yanked out in the next budget. This is why at the end of the year, there's always a rush to spend money in all departments and make sure not $1 is remaining. Any department that doesn't or isn't able to use all it's appropriated funds for a particular budget year doesn't get to save it in the bank for next years budget. Use it or lose it.

I hope you feel the same about "green" energy funding.
Another company just went bankrupt on $2.1 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.
Since you are against government pushing certain products and services, I presume you're against these subsidies as well?

I am actually! I'm all for small government and not interfering in private industry. The difference here is that this agency is one of the few that actually reflects my interests, and it isn't funded nearly as well as social entitlement programs or the military.

 

[Brovane]

People always blame the "bureaucracy" at NASA but the real problem is that they keep having their goals and funding changed by politicians. NASA certainly had bureaucracy during the 1960s. The reason that Apollo got where it did was that NASA was given a clear goal, a timeline on which to accomplish that goal and appropriate levels of funding to meet it. All of these things are lacking today. We have a "plan" for a big rocket (SLS) with no clear destination and insufficient money to actually send anyone anywhere.

I agree with this 100%. NASA cannot have long term goals when the next administration might just change directions on them.

 

[Paul98]

Yes please, something sorely needed will benefit everyone and the return on the money spent will be many fold.