What's NASA Worth?

Space cowboys, riding their expensive rocket engines into the sky, are wasting our time and money. Their job ended when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, but continues to give our strained economy no respite. This perception of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has become common among critics of the agency. Yet those critics seem to have forgotten the seemingly endless list of benefits the agency has produced.

With a budget of $17.3 billion in 2009, NASA is an expensive endeavor. The high cost of the program, combined with the perception of a lack of results, has turned people against NASA. Especially prevalent on the Internet, entire groups exist of people who believe that NASA is a waste of money.

While the continued operation of NASA is not a small investment, the cost is relatively minor when compared to other government programs, for example NASA’s budget is only 2% of what is spent on the US Postal Service every year. Meanwhile, US consumers spend more than twice the NASA budget on sport firearms every year.

Yet, even a small budget would still be a waste of money if NASA never produced any benefits. Fortunately, NASA’s portfolio of achievements and benefits is quite robust. Among the greatest benefits NASA has provided the world are those benefits to our society.

One great benefit NASA provides the United States society is the facilitation of our future expansion. The biggest driving force that shaped the United States into a superpower militarily, economically, and culturally has been what is called manifest destiny. Yet, with no more territory to expand into, Americans have had to put their manifest destiny on hold. Space exploration provides the last, and greatest, venue for exploration and expansion. Space is, as the fictional Captain Kirk put it, “The final frontier”.

While we cannot yet build spaceships like Kirk’s Enterprise, the space frontier has no shortage of discoveries to be found with our current technology. Within view of our little corner of the universe are billions of stars in our own galaxy, and billions of other galaxies, all waiting to be studied. The Space exploration NASA participates in is the ultimate way to satisfy the seemingly insatiable human curiosity.

The social argument for NASA goes far beyond human curiosity and expansionist tendencies. NASA has been a patriotic morale booster in troubled times, as well as a uniting force between bitter adversaries.

In was a frightening time in American history when on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. While the satellite was not an actual weapon, it was seen as a technological sign of Soviet military superiority. Both the American government and general public feared the Soviets having achieved something the United States had failed to with our own Explorer series of rockets.

The United States government reacted to the Soviet achievement by signing the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. Of the six objectives listed in the act, the sixth stated, “To make available to agencies directly concerned with the national defense of discoveries that have military value or significance...”. NASA was, at least in part, a tool of the Cold War.

The actual military necessity of NASA in the Cold War would be short lived. With the introduction of the George Washington Class nuclear ballistic submarine, in 1959, and the Soviet equivalent, the Soviet space superiority became a moot point. The submarines could launch a full scale nuclear attack while hidden in any ocean. There could be no Soviet nuclear attack on the United States that did not result in the destruction of the Soviet Union, or vice versa. This mutually assured destruction (MAD) could not be changed regardless of the technological superiority of either country.

The changes MAD brought into the Cold War pushed NASA’s role into being more of a symbolic one. It would become more of an issue of American pride than of Cold War weaponry. To that end, the symbolic achievement of walking on the Moon was chosen. This goal served little purpose in most American’s lives, but was nonetheless heralded as one of our greatest ambitions.

The eventual landing on the Moon on July 20, 1969 was a major event in US history. With 125 million viewing the landing, it currently holds the record for the highest television ratings. Americans rejoiced the American success and took it as a sign of our superiority over the Soviets. Regardless of whether or not the perceived superiority was true, the morale boost had a real effect on the American people.

Following the symbolic race to the Moon, NASA served another social role in the Cold War. However, instead of being a symbol of American superiority, it became a tool of goodwill and cooperation. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project between NASA and the Soviet Space Agency, where Soviet and US spacecraft joined in orbit, was a rare example of cooperative behavior between two superpowers locked in cold war.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Cold War tension that fed NASA with patriotic purpose was gone. However, NASA still serves a cooperative purpose. In the spirit of global cooperation, NASA has been the primary organizer of the greatest multinational construction effort ever undertaken; the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS is a space station built and operated by not only the United States, but also by Russia, Japan, Canada, and the European Space Agency. With a total cost of $150 billion, NASA has united these friends and former enemies together for the most expensive construction project ever undertaken.

However, many average citizens still believe NASA’s significance weaned following the moon landing, but scientists are a very different story. The experimentation done by NASA has produced innumerable scientific advances and greatly expanded our understanding of how the Universe works.

Without the space exploration provided by agencies like NASA, our scientists would know relatively little about our neighboring planets. While early astronomers and astrologers studied the planets, their findings were severely limited by their distance from the planets. Even with the greatest Earth based telescopes, it would have been impossible achieve feats such as detecting clues of water on Mars as the Mars rover Spirit did in 2004. In order to do in depth study of these bodies, one needs to actually send something there.

The information of foreign celestial bodies may seem useless to anyone other than astronomers, but that is far from the truth. The study of other planetary bodies has been invaluable to geologists in studying Earth. For example, because the Moon’s surface is not susceptible to the erosive forces we have on Earth, its surface is much older than Earth’s. The study of the Moon’s surface has been necessary to understand how the Earth formed.

NASA’s experiments are not just for studying the past of Earth, but the future as well. Those concerned with the effects of global warming, or deny it altogether, have to look no farther than Venus. Venus is the perfect example of a runaway greenhouse effect wreaking havoc on a planet. Without space probes, the existence and cause of the hellacious 465° C (870° F) surface of Venus would be unknown to us.

Biologists have benefited at least as well as geologists have from NASA’s experiments. Space based experiments have given biologists an incredible perspective of how life works. Experiments in microgravity haven given insight into the anatomy of humans, animals, and plants. Even the controversial stem cell research has been furthered by the experiments in microgravity.

Even biology experiments that seem like they can be done properly on Earth’s surface, require testing in space in order to remove outside variables influencing the outcomes. Because the atmosphere surrounding the Earth influences radiation, the study of radiation effects and tolerances on living things often needs to be conducted in space.

NASA has pioneered hundreds of scientific advances benefitting thousands of scientists all across the planet. Yet the information they discover is not horaded by NASA and their constituents. NASA shares their discoveries with any interested parties. Scientific data on their experiments are freely available on the Internet. So too are images the Hubble Telescope has taken. Even day to day operations of ongoing experiments are publicly documented.

As important as NASA’s experimentation is to the scientific community and curious layperson, most people could not care less about the surface temperature of Venus, even if it has ties to concerns in their lives. For those people who care nothing for NASA’s discoveries, they should take into account the vast number of inventions NASA has produced; many of which have become inseparable parts of daily life. Over 6,300 patents have been issued to NASA since its inception. NASA is a veritable invention engine, which has produced technological breakthroughs so integrated into our daily lives that it is difficult imagine modern society functioning without them.

The greatest example of NASA technology used in everyday life is television broadcast technology. If you have turned on a television in the past few decades, you are using NASA technology. Even if you use cable, satellite, or rabbit ears, your TV signal was distributed by communications satellites. This is how you can receive foreign television stations, or see news broadcasts from Afghanistan. Many commercial communication satellites are launched by NASA, and even their designs use NASA invented technology.

Satellite communication technologies extend wider than just television signals. Cellular phone networks, the Global Positioning System, some Internet traffic, and Sirius Satellite Radio all rely on satellite communications to function.

While entertainment and communications are important, what are more important are the technologies that can save your life.

If you have ever used that TV to catch the weather report, than you are taking advantage of more NASA technology. The weather satellites making it possible to have such accurate weather predictions are the inventions of NASA. Early storm warning provided by this technology has saved countless lives from hurricanes, tornados, and other storms.

Medical technology has seen a great many improvements due to NASA’s research. NASA technologies are use for diagnosis and treatments of diseases. Other technologies include advanced heart monitors, programmable artificial pacemakers, mobile kidney dialysis machines, and far too many others to name here.

As for more personal life saving technology, the modern smoke alarm technology you probably use in your home and place of business was invented for the space station, Skylab.

While seemingly less important than smoke alarms, the air and water filtration technologies NASA developed are not just a convenience. These advanced water filters are used to filter out toxic substances from drinking water which would otherwise be very unhealthy. Water filtration is a major factor in the health of those living in polluted areas.

The hazards of unfiltered drinking water exist in poorly preserved foods as well. NASA developed air filters has given an answer to that. These air filters are used to preserve foods and eliminate dangerous pathogens.

For the environmentally conscious, NASA has created more effective catalytic converters for automobiles. Catalytic converters are the devices mounted on automobiles which clean the exhaust, making them more environmentally friendly.

Furthering their environment saving efforts, NASA has aided in the search for efficient, clean, and renewable energy. NASA technology is now standardized in wind turbines used for wind power. Helping to lower the demand for electrical power, new insulation technology is used to lower energy usage for heating during the winter.

While NASA has been known for the high-tech creations listed above, mundane objects that seem to be very low-tech have their foundation with NASA. The temper foam used in memory foam pillows and mattresses was invented for NASA. While insignificant on their own, there are a great number of these small inventions in use today.

There are likely those out there who recognize the important inventions NASA has given society, but still believe that it is not worth a continued existence. NASA should continue to exist because it still has more it can give to us. Every year NASA releases new technologies into the world.

If you are one of those whom believe that NASA is and always have been a waste of time and money, think about what the agency has brought us. You could probably live without the creature comforts NASA provided, but a great many people literally cannot live without water filters, kidney dialysis, and a myriad of other medical advances NASA provided. Still more would have died in the path of hurricanes Katrina and Andrew if not for satellites providing early warning. Are these benefits not worth $1.7 billion a year?