Tyrphanax said:
Six tenths of one penny of every tax dollar ain't much to be spent on NASA.
It might not seem like we're making much progress now, but we really are. People asked why we "wasted" so much time figuring out quantum mechanics in the 20s, but if we hadn't, we probably wouldn't be talking on this forum right now.
Now that it's up there, Curiosity is kinda fun to follow.
6/10ths of the entire federal budget. But the manned and deep system programs are entirely unnecessary at this time. 100% of their budgets must be counted towards the deficit and the debt. 6/10ths becomes a % of the deficit that starts to look significant. The ISS, after the interest to China is counted in, will be about half a trillion dollars.
Even more concerning than the money is the MASSIVE diversion of scitech talent. I've read that the processors and computers on the ISS are from the '80s and early '90s. That is not breaking any new ground in microminiaturization or computing. The solar panels needed to be developed for commercial and military sattelites in any case. Most of the non-endurance experiments could probably have been carried out with good robot arms. We wonder why other countries edge us out in consumer electronics or machine tools that would increase our economy instead of draw from it. Our best R&D people are busy taking videos of another upside-down astronaut.
Not all R&D is created equal. In the Heroic Age, we had to do things that no one had ever done. We had to beat the Soviets so we wouldn't cede the high ground and allow others to continue believing that a horrible totalitarian system would overtake us. This led to a strong push for quick advances. With no threat to push us and no great rush to get there because we are already dominant, there is a very different dynamic. DARPA still has some sense of urgency and attempts to develope useful things within a generation. Commercial concerns in this country face incredible pressure without the best people.
If I was a Japanese or German official, I'd contribute my people's tax money to NASA's publicity-lobbying machine. I sometimes wonder whether the nickles and dimes other countries have thrown into our manned programs were acts of industrial sabotage. The Chinese are loaning us ALL of the money for this.
As far as inspiring the younglings, I grew up in the '70s and early '80s. Star Wars and Star Trek inspired much of my interest in sci-tech. The Heroic Age and Voyager did as well. The dangerous white elephant of a space shuttle did very little for me. It would cost next to nothing to create videos and movies with Heroic Age film. Imagine how many inspiring space movies and TV series, produced by the very best industry talent, we could have had with a tiny fraction of the manned space budget.