English
English 102
16 November 2011
NASA can be hope for a brighter future
Ever since humanity has been able to see stars there have been a dream to visit one, but it wasn’t until 1957, that mankind took the first big step to accomplish that dream. In 1957, Soviet sent their Sputnik 1 in to orbit around earth, and we entered the space age. NASA, the national Aeronautics and Space Administration were founded in 1958, when the Americans realized they were facing a space race of huge proportions. From the beginning NASA held only four laboratories with approximately 8000 employees, who previously worked for the former authority, NACA. Since that, NASA has grown to be one of the biggest employers in the public sector. In 1969, after big accomplishments from both U.S and USSR, the American astronaut, Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon. After that the U.S sent up five more manned crews to the moon, the last one in 1972. Since then, NASA has been a tremendous source of national pride. There has now been almost 40 years since NASA has sent people to the moon. What is NASA accomplishing today? Have the developments stopped completely? In the President Bush era several NASA projects started up, but became over budgeted and postponed. Since February 2006 NASA’s self-described mission is to “pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research”. NASA’s budget for fiscal year 2011 is around $18.7 billion — 0.5 percent of a $3.7 trillion federal budget, according to their website. Why spend billions of dollars exploring an uninhabitable environment, when many Americans don’t have health care? Isn’t it time for the government to cut back on the NASA spending? Or is the Space Program necessary in the future to be able to answer the cosmic questions of life, the unresolved questions that mankind is dealing with today: who are we? How are we unique? Why are we here? How did it all begin? Whether NASA should exist or not is an even
16 November 2011
NASA can be hope for a brighter future
Ever since humanity has been able to see stars there have been a dream to visit one, but it wasn’t until 1957, that mankind took the first big step to accomplish that dream. In 1957, Soviet sent their Sputnik 1 in to orbit around earth, and we entered the space age. NASA, the national Aeronautics and Space Administration were founded in 1958, when the Americans realized they were facing a space race of huge proportions. From the beginning NASA held only four laboratories with approximately 8000 employees, who previously worked for the former authority, NACA. Since that, NASA has grown to be one of the biggest employers in the public sector. In 1969, after big accomplishments from both U.S and USSR, the American astronaut, Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon. After that the U.S sent up five more manned crews to the moon, the last one in 1972. Since then, NASA has been a tremendous source of national pride. There has now been almost 40 years since NASA has sent people to the moon. What is NASA accomplishing today? Have the developments stopped completely? In the President Bush era several NASA projects started up, but became over budgeted and postponed. Since February 2006 NASA’s self-described mission is to “pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research”. NASA’s budget for fiscal year 2011 is around $18.7 billion — 0.5 percent of a $3.7 trillion federal budget, according to their website. Why spend billions of dollars exploring an uninhabitable environment, when many Americans don’t have health care? Isn’t it time for the government to cut back on the NASA spending? Or is the Space Program necessary in the future to be able to answer the cosmic questions of life, the unresolved questions that mankind is dealing with today: who are we? How are we unique? Why are we here? How did it all begin? Whether NASA should exist or not is an even