Preview

Should NASA Continue To Be Funded By The US Government?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1278 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Should NASA Continue To Be Funded By The US Government?
Should NASA continue to be funded by the U.S government?

Remember the “Space Race” against Russia? What would have happened if we had shut down NASA before that? Getting a man to the moon was a Cold War victory! Shutting down funding for space exploration would be utterly devastating. Did you know that we can do research in space that we can’t do on earth? In space, we can understand more about gravity, and how machines work in different conditions, special medical research can be done in space, and there are many ways NASA improves on your everyday life that you didn’t even know. NASA is an American space program put forth to explore and learn from space currently funded by the U.S. government. Some say that Nasa should be cut off from government
…show more content…
Have you ever heard of the neuroArm? It was the first robotic arm to successfully remove a tumor from a human brain, and that was a big feat for the doctors, but do you know where they got the technology for that electric appendage? None other than the scientists working in zero gravity up in the ISS, (International Space Station). It’s design was based on a robotic arm called the Canadarm, used to do repairs on space shuttles and routine maintenance on the ISS. It’s technology was used to design a smaller, more gentle arm. That arm, made from technology provided by NASA has saved thirty five people that would have died otherwise. And then there’s bone loss. In zero gravity, it is very easy for your muscles and bones to deteriorate and degrade. Scientists have studied this process and found many solutions, consisting of exercises and vitamin supplements. This can be used not only for astronauts in orbit but for senior citizens and people with special symptoms and conditions. Also, testing non-human lab animals in zero gravity, scientists have studied mice with osteoporosis, and come up with a drug called Prolia®, a drug that can be used to treat people with osteoporosis. It was “a direct benefit of pharmaceutical companies using the spaceflight opportunity available via the national lab to improve health on Earth,” (NASA.gov). As I have hopefully convinced you, space exploration is necessary for the United States to …show more content…
Without the satellites sent up by NASA, we would have no satellite imagery for google maps, nor for any weather predicting programs. Oh, and you would also say goodbye to your internet, and yes, your television too. The satellites orbiting the earth are transmitting signals that give everyone wifi and most television broadcasts. Exploration in space has lead to the invention of a lightweight yet strong type of alloy that is used in many machines, such as submarines and in jet engines. It is a very useful material and without NASA, we wouldn’t have it. Using robotics developed by the space program, scientists constructed a mechanical exoskeleton that allows paraplegics to walk (right). These people have spent their lives without being able to walk due to paralysis from the waist down, and thanks to NASA they can now! “Overcoming the challenges of working in space has led to many technological and scientific advances that have provided benefits to society on Earth.” States the International Space Exploration Coordination Group. The idea that our tax dollars should cease to contribute to NASA’s future accomplishments has been shown to be ludicrous, nonsensical, and almost laughable. Without these studies, we will be slower in advancing in electronics and mechanics. Hopefully you now see that NASA should continue to be funded for technological and electrical

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Imagine this for a second. A young teary-eyed boy sits in the waiting room of the hospital as the doctor informs him about his father’s failing heart. As awful and heartbreaking as this situation sounds, that boy’s father is able to stay alive via a ventricular assist device that will continue to pump blood through his veins until he can receive a necessary heart transplant. This device is ever-present in the field of medicine and is responsible for saving countless lives. Well this device is just one of the numerous technological innovations that would not exist without the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) whose future is in doubt due to its detrimental budget cuts. In the frequent media’s light, NASA has been negatively portrayed as a useless organization and this has led to many believed the whole organization…

    • 1713 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the early morning of February 1st, 2003, the US watched in horror as the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over the blue Texas sky (Simberg). The wreckage of the ship and the remains of her seven crew members were strewn all across Texas and parts of Louisiana. Even the most staunch NASA believers contemplated their support for the agency as fire rained from the sky. It had been nearly 17 years since the last fatal disaster of the Challenger explosion, and this served as another frightening reminder that space travel still is not safe. The incident caused the question that everyone asked themselves that day: Is the journey of space travel and exploration worth the sacrifice of human lives? This line of thinking has ultimately lead to the debate over whether we, as American tax payers, should continue to fund NASA in its mission to explore and understand the universe. I propose that NASA is not only an important part of our government, but an absolute critical piece of our development as a human species.…

    • 2155 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people undermine the importance and contributions of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also known as NASA. As president Obama is forced to make severe budget cuts, NASA is among the most affected programs to endure the blow. This issue does not take aback many people, but experts say that what is occurring will affect everyone as well as the economy more than they may believe. These extreme budget cuts recently issued by Congress impinge on the NASA space program by having a large impact on culture, and risking the setback of innovation in today’s machine-driven society.…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Unit E Science 9 Project

    • 1429 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Space exploration is the discovery and exploration of outer space by the means of space technology. This means that useful and resourceful discoveries are being made every time that we send up humans into space. Over the years, space exploration has expanded technology to great heights, helped create new industries, and help create a peaceful relationship between nations. Space Biology is another huge reason why we should keep space exploration. NASA laboratories lead to new technologies that improve astronaut health and monitoring, while making scientific discoveries that benefit life on Earth. Another amazing that thing that space exploration has done for people on Earth is help make huge strides in the continuing development of artificial limbs. These are for people who have lost either an arm or leg and NASA has helped develop artificial muscle for a flexible robotic arm! Now, I am going to discuss three main topics about why we should keep space exploration. They are Economic, Ethical, and Environmental.…

    • 1429 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    This mostly was for why NASA fun the asteroid studies. I thought they should because it would help with protection, resources and our lifestyle. The resources would help a lot during inventions and buildings and other things. The lifestyle can change our way of life like technology it can make us more advance such as more durable stuff that can last longer than what we have. We could make more building that would be a little bit more stable.This all can help us because it can make all of us advance than other states. Thank you for reading this…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    ENG 122 Final Paper

    • 3007 Words
    • 9 Pages

    It is unarguable that there are problems here on Earth. From terrorism to health care and the economy, America and the rest of the world have problems that need to be solved. While there are problems here on Earth, the United States should continue to fund space exploration because it contributes to national security, stimulates the economy and leads to further technological advancements. America cannot afford to stop exploring space in an effort to solve other problems. Instead the U.S. needs to take a look at how space exploration is already working to solve those other problems.…

    • 3007 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    It allows humans to acquire different forms of data such as solar waves, meteor showers, and even for us to see stars die. Space is like a massive vacuum that has no oxygen so if a person gets caught in space without a spacesuit and supporting equipment they will die. Astronauts can also have complications adjusting to the harsh environments that are experienced on the moon and other planets, which is unhealthy and can be life threatening (apecsec.org). Often times, an astronaut will also experience sickness such as nausea while traveling through the atmosphere to reach orbit. Another health risk is caused by easier exposure to UV rays from the sun which can cause a variety of cancers to the human body. There is also risk of an unknown diseases being attracted while traveling through the atmosphere (occupytheory.org). Along with the great dangers of space exploration, it also comes at a very high financial…

    • 1689 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Space Race Research Paper

    • 1983 Words
    • 8 Pages

    We have always dreamed about reaching the heavens. From ancient civilizations to the modern day world, our obsession of going into space has grown from studying the stars to actual exploration of space. We have come a long way since primitive charts of constellations. From telescopes to satellites, we as a population have progressed greatly in the world of technology. In a mere forty years, we have had more technological advances than the Industrial Revolution. The Space Race has affected our everyday lives; we use the same technology that the astronauts used during their missions for example digital clocks (Dismukes http://spaceflight.nasa.gov). Many industries have benefited, communication companies, industrial manufacturers, and the…

    • 1983 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Do the benefits outweigh the cost for funding exploration and expansion into space? From the perspective of a sociologist, whose job it is include the origins, development, organization, networks, and institutions to study social behavior or society, funding NASA would be a wise choice because we could have space colonies creating many benefits for society and people. The article “Food, Leisure, And Social Life In Space Colonies” by Tom Marotta, a diplomat and city planner, made this position clear by presenting the significance of space exploration in today’s world to the future of our world. First, people want to know how to survive on the space colony. Space colonies are settlements in space that can vary in size and contain normal environments such as forests, farms, lakes, and rivers. They are just like a normal community but just in space. There are houses, jobs, and places where people can work on the colonies.…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even if we discontinue the funding of NASA we could still have some control over space in some way by setting laws so the states could have some control over the private companies that would fund themselves. If we keep funding NASA or set some control over the private companies we may be able to make some profit off of the space program and besides, would you rather live in space or on another planet, than stay on earth. And in any way the earth is going to inevitably die anyway so basically the only way to survive is to leave this planet and go to an entirely different solar system and find a faster source of space travel like a “Warp Drive” or a “Black Hole Engine” to…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    NASA Being Alone

    • 1205 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A cynical person would proclaim that we’ve wasted so much money in the past years on NASA, for us to only be alone should be considered the biggest upset in human existence, but why should it be? NASA, on its great odysseys throughout the universe has discovered thousands of interesting things, like the theory of black holes and the act of planets and stars dying. NASA's place in the government is also vital to human existence. NASA is currently looking for planets that can sustain or potentially sustain life so the inevitable demise of earth would just be a small tragedy in human history. Life is but a small almost insignificant part of the universe if you think about it.…

    • 1205 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Is it a good or bad thing? In Source-C the author shares that space exploration is a good thing. Sure they take money out of the…

    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Editor’s Note: On January 11, the New York Times blog “Freakonomics” published a lengthy post titled “Is Space Exploration Worth the Cost? A Freakonomics Quorum”. The post featured comments provided by a number of people, including David Livingston, in response to the question. The part attributed to Dr. Livingston was just a highly-edited version of what he originally submitted to the Times. What follows is the full article that Dr. Livingston submitted on December 31 in response to their invitation to answer the question, “Is manned space exploration worth the cost? Why or why not?”…

    • 2573 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    American Space Programs

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages

    When everyone says they want America to progress ahead, we need to ask ourselves, what can we do that way America can be at the top of the world? Well, the answer is simple. America can rise above all the nations if they take risks which can motivate citizens the relevance of space programs. A question that has been rising over the years is, is going into space programs worth it? Many can argue that it is a scrupulous field to join and that it’s risky. However, any type of job you do is treated as taking a risk. In today’s society, space programs should be given an opportunity to help those who are interested within the field because one can learn many unique ways to determine the impossibilities.…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nasa

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Its fact that space exploration is an exceedingly expensive business. It is a multi-billion dollar industry, with low initial expectations being achieved. For example by 2011, the average cost per flight of the space shuttle (alone) was estimated at $450 million dollars, or $18,000 per kilometre to low earth orbit. Many, many people in the world live in slums or worse on the streets not knowing were their next meal may come from. Still the population funds NASA to go into space, for what? To achieve advancements in technology or medicines. This money could be used to create some things right here on earth and possibly gain the same results, for the poor and ill. Also the high costs could lead to substantial economic loss and great difficulty involving money may appear causing possible strain on the nation. Overall, the significant amount of money spent each year on going into space could be used to achieve more realistic and…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays