Columbia
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Phillip Tanaka
Swabbie
Banned
Without taking anything away from the seven victims of the Columbia tragedy, I was talking with a man whose life had leukimia, and was questioning whether their lives were more important than the many who die from causes not as spectacular, and the billions spent on the space program. Here's what I said below.
I read your comments on the shuttle crash. I have to say, amen. It is a tragedy, but like you said why arn't other tragic deaths treated just the same? The bigger tragedy is that things such as your wife's cancer, or indeed my neice's, don't make good news stories to the Dick Thornbergs (you remember him, from Die Hard) of the world. And you're right in what you say about the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on something such as the space progame. I mean, sure, I'm partial to sci-fi. I happen to be a big Wing Commander fan. But is making science fiction an reality really more important that the lives of millions, nay, maybe even one billion lives who could use that money to live in a decent world? Think. One hundred billion dollars. $100,000,000,000. It's a ludicrus amount that would, I believe, eliminate poverty in Africa. It would put anyone on a financial level with most countries. I only wish that one day, maybe if the headof thespace program were to suffer from a crippling cancer, that the same respects and financial committment can be made to what's important.
I read your comments on the shuttle crash. I have to say, amen. It is a tragedy, but like you said why arn't other tragic deaths treated just the same? The bigger tragedy is that things such as your wife's cancer, or indeed my neice's, don't make good news stories to the Dick Thornbergs (you remember him, from Die Hard) of the world. And you're right in what you say about the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on something such as the space progame. I mean, sure, I'm partial to sci-fi. I happen to be a big Wing Commander fan. But is making science fiction an reality really more important that the lives of millions, nay, maybe even one billion lives who could use that money to live in a decent world? Think. One hundred billion dollars. $100,000,000,000. It's a ludicrus amount that would, I believe, eliminate poverty in Africa. It would put anyone on a financial level with most countries. I only wish that one day, maybe if the headof thespace program were to suffer from a crippling cancer, that the same respects and financial committment can be made to what's important.
Mad Hatter
Spaceman
Living in a country where suicide bombers take the life of innocent people at the average rate of 200 a year, I often ask myself how come we're shocked and horrified at that number while the death-toll of 650 dead a year in car accidents rarely causes us to even raise an eyebrow.
It's all a matter of media coverage. It all depends on how glamourous death is, and no one can help it - dying in a car accident is not as impressive as dying in a space shuttle explosion.
It's all a matter of media coverage. It all depends on how glamourous death is, and no one can help it - dying in a car accident is not as impressive as dying in a space shuttle explosion.
Quarto
Unknown Enemy
Well, that's a valid question, I suppose... why do we spend all that money on space, and why do we care so much about a tiny, insignificant seven casualties while ignoring so many other deaths?
My answer would be that the amount that's spent on space is utterly insignificant. All this whinging about how the money spent on NASA could be better spent on Earth is useless, because NASA costs the American taxpayer next to nothing. I don't remember the exact figure, but it's something like a few dollars per year. That may be a waste of money, but it's rather insignificant compared to the amount of cash people waste on getting wasted. Yet, I don't hear anybody complaining about how we could save Africa if everyone gave up the booze.
Hell, people should be protesting about how little money NASA gets.
And what about their deaths? Why are they so important? As cliched as this may sound, these astronauts were lost in the process of expanding the frontiers of human civilisation. That's pretty significant stuff.
My answer would be that the amount that's spent on space is utterly insignificant. All this whinging about how the money spent on NASA could be better spent on Earth is useless, because NASA costs the American taxpayer next to nothing. I don't remember the exact figure, but it's something like a few dollars per year. That may be a waste of money, but it's rather insignificant compared to the amount of cash people waste on getting wasted. Yet, I don't hear anybody complaining about how we could save Africa if everyone gave up the booze.
Hell, people should be protesting about how little money NASA gets.
And what about their deaths? Why are they so important? As cliched as this may sound, these astronauts were lost in the process of expanding the frontiers of human civilisation. That's pretty significant stuff.
I would also say that some of the research that is done in space directly relates to the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Most people don't see the benefits from space travel and research, because many times they are indirect. However, they are real and have changed our lives quite a bit.
Quatro, I agree with you completely... which, suprisingly enough, is actually quite a rarity. NASA has been getting yanked around by the naughty bits since Challenger went up in flames, and it hasn't gotten any better. They need more funds. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be more spent on other things, no... but one holy crusade at a time. You know what they were studying up there? Cancer cell growth in 0 gravity, among other things.
Hundreds of billions on the space program? NASA got about $15 billion for the 2003 fiscal year. Compare this to the Department of Defense getting nearly $500 billion. That's right--the USA spends more than THIRTY TIMES as much on its military as on its space program. Even doubling NASA's budget is small potatoes compared to the military budget.
These lines are all from Kennedy's speech at Rice Statium on September 12th, 1962.
Regarding the budget amounts that Kennedy mentions, the current population of the USA is nearly fifty percent higher at present than it was in 1962, which means that NASA's current $15 billion budget is still only a dollar a week for every citizen.
And regarding the military budget, yes I was in error saying that it was $500 billion instead of $300 billion. However, the 2003 federal budget amounted to 2.2 trillion, which means that only two thirds of one percent of the federal budget goes towards space exploration. To those who say that money is being wasted on NASA, I say that far MORE money is being wasted through inefficiency in other areas. Cutting other major programs by a mere one percent would "save" more money than eliminating the NASA budget entirely!
To put this into an everyday scale, let us imagine the $2.2 trillion federal budget as the more ordinary sum of 22 thousand dollars, which is about the annual post-tax income of a non-college-educated person. Out of that 22 thousand dollars, just over three thousand goes to defense, and about equal amounts go to medicare/medicaid and social security. A mere 150 dollars is devoted to the space program.
Comparing the space program to the federal budget as a whole is like a man who buys a BMW and then puts regular gas in it to save money--the "savings" is extremely small in comparison to the whole.