When we faked the moon landing - I mean, landed on the moon - that was a magical moment. For centuries, mankind dreamed of going to space. We looked up at the stars and wondered, "What's out there? Are there other planets? And do they have validation for parking?" It seemed like traveling such a mind-blowing distance was impossible. Then, in 1969, 500 million people watched the Apollo 11 land on the lunar surface, and Neil Armstrong took his first steps. It was a giant leap for mankind. And best of all, parking was free for the first two hours.
But do we still care about space exploration? In the movies, we can't get enough of it, from The Martian to Interstellar to
Star Wars. However, in real life, our excitement may have waned. Rocket launches aren't the events they used to be.
Nor are they as frequent. Since 1969, the budget for NASA has dropped from
4.5% of the federal budget to less than 0.5%.
Now, 0.5% of the federal budget is still a lot of money - 18 billion dollars, to be exact (I'll take it!). And the United States still spends way more money on space exploration than every other country. They also make more "Uranus" jokes. Are you familiar with Uranus? Dig in, and do some research.
Congress recently approved an enormous $600 billion dollar budget for the U.S. military. But what would happen if that $600 billion went to NASA instead? Could we colonize other planets? Explore new solar systems? Meet aliens for Tinder dates? A video from Tech Insider reveals the answers.
[[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJpX1KZHPCI]]
With $600 billion, we could finally visit Mars, and see if they need moms:
"The military’s budget for 2016 would pay for a crewed mission to Mars with tens of billions to spare. NASA estimates it would cost $450 billion to land the first humans on Mars by the late 2030s or early 2040s."
Just imagine - in the 2040's, you could visit Mars, and give it a crappy one star review on Yelp. But that's not at all. Those nerds at NASA have other awesome projects that could be totally funded.
"What else might NASA do with $600 billion? Let’s look at how NASA allocated its funds in 2016.
That would easily meet current costs for NASA’s biggest ongoing projects including:
• Construction and launch costs for the most powerful rocket in history, the Space Launch System.
• The most powerful space telescope ever built, the James Webb Space Telescope.
• Partner with SpaceX on its first mission to Mars in 2018, the Red Dragon Mission.
• Pay for NASA operations on board the ISS through 2024."
I mean, come on, "Red Dragon Mission"? How cool is that? Hopefully we can allocate more money to NASA and explore more of this amazing universe. And if the government's going to keep being stingy, I notice there's a lot of space - no pun intended - on the space shuttles. Maybe NASA could take inspiration from NASCAR: Get sponsors, and plaster them all over the rockets. They could even name the shuttles: The Coca-Cola Challenger. The AT
&
T Atlantis. The Wal-Mart Endeavor. Get on it, NASA.
