Most Americans have little understanding of NASA's budget and are under the impression that NASA has a lot more money than it actually does. At the height of all the excitement during the Moon landing, NASA's budget was a little less than 5% of the federal budget and that has been the highest their budget has ever been. Since then, NASA's budget has hovered around 1% and today, NASA's budget currently lies around 0.50% of the federal budget.
Gallup Poll Information:
Robotic space exploration is financially cheaper than the human approach in real terms, however the difference is not drastic. The difference between the two is in fact, very small, whereas the the difference of in efficiency between the two, in terms of planetary exploration, is great. Human missions can accomplish scientific objectives which are impossible or unlikely to be achieved by robots if robots are assigned to the tasks. Also as technology advances, the price of robotic space exploration continues to steadily increase. With prices rising, the costs of robotic space exploration will eventually become unsustainable within purely scientific budgets. The longer we wait on Earth, the more we put ourselves at risk. Extinction of all life on Earth could be anything from a solar flare to nuclear arms. If we increased the international space budget tenfold, it would still only take up a small fragment of the world GDP. Researching into the future of humanity and expanding the human race is worth a fraction of percent.
Gallup Poll Information:
- The July 10-12 Gallup Poll show that 58% of Americans say the space program has brought enough benefits to justify its costs.
- The Gallup Poll also showed that that 46% of Americans express support for the current level of funding for NASA and 14% of Americans supported an expansion of NASA's funding.
- When asked if they thought NASA was doing an excellent, good, only fair, or poor job, Gallup polls revealed that 13% of Americans said that NASA was doing an excellent job or good 45%.
Robotic space exploration is financially cheaper than the human approach in real terms, however the difference is not drastic. The difference between the two is in fact, very small, whereas the the difference of in efficiency between the two, in terms of planetary exploration, is great. Human missions can accomplish scientific objectives which are impossible or unlikely to be achieved by robots if robots are assigned to the tasks. Also as technology advances, the price of robotic space exploration continues to steadily increase. With prices rising, the costs of robotic space exploration will eventually become unsustainable within purely scientific budgets. The longer we wait on Earth, the more we put ourselves at risk. Extinction of all life on Earth could be anything from a solar flare to nuclear arms. If we increased the international space budget tenfold, it would still only take up a small fragment of the world GDP. Researching into the future of humanity and expanding the human race is worth a fraction of percent.