The tech loss for our society is painful. Space technology has a way of working it's way to the consumer market. Investment dollars spent in high technologies yeilds big time returns to all citizens. Private industry has made some progress but the big investment is done by Uncle Sam and yields alot of new technologies and patents. People will see that the money should have continued to be invested to strategic area so the countries future. Akuma
The space shuttle program cost over $176billion. There is no way the relatively minor tech innovations from the shuttle made up for this cost. People say this so we are ok with dumping insane amounts of money into our "black hole" space programs. How much did it cost Steve Jobs and friends to make an apple computer in their garage? How much did it cost the Facebook guy to make his first website? How much did it cost Bill Gates to create his first operating system? How much did it cost GW Carver, Henry Ford, and Edison to nmake their initial breakthroughs? Combined, it probably cost these inventors less than 1/10000 of what we spent on the shuttle to make products that have proven much more useful.
The only thing Steve Jobs and many other did when you get down to it was reconfigure existing technologies that came from the government backed space programs. How many other technologies were developed out of the demands of space exploration. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emerging_technologies Akuma
THe computer, memory, rockets, satellites, computer software etc were invented well before the shuttle. The only thing the space programs and many others did when you get down to it was reconfigure existing technologies that came from the private sector. How many other technologies were developed out of the demands of the private sector?
176 billion sounds ridiculous until you measure it over the lifetime of the program (30+) years, which then drops it down to 5-10 billion a year. Not peanuts, for sure, but given other spending (i.e: military), it doesn't sound all that bad. The program employed thousands of people and without it, things like the Hubble would not have been possible.
6 Billion a year is a lot for basic research. The sun shot initiative to bring solar to less than $1 per watt only received ~$120million in money. So, you could fund about 60 private sector initiatives per year to really advance technology for the price of simply using 40 or 50 year old technology that is not advancing science.
NASA spends about $19B per year on space. I know people will reply that's not a lot. But, China gets by only spending ~$1.3B per year on space. How can a country whose economy might soon pass ours in size get by with less than 1/10 the space spending? That's because, besides satellites, there is no cost efficient use for space. If half or more of the dollars going to NASA had been spent on practical private sector research then maybe we would have tech to keep us from falling behind C,hina.
The NASA space program has enriched the lives of people on earth, unknown to most benefiting every day from the technology derived from NASA inventions, space travel, and space exploration. Do you have any idea how many inventions came about as a result of space exploration? inventions that we may take for granted, yet have drastically simplified or improved our lives. The profits generated from space exploration in the last 40 years are in the Trillions dollars range. Space exploration has been our best investment in the History of the USA. Our very survival as a species may depend on space travel, a field in which Nasa is world leader. Ignorance is a disgrace
Please give examples. It didn't cost $176B to invent the car, computer, laser, cure for Polio, etc..., etc... Why isn't China spending more money on space to grow their economy if it has such an advantage.