They're up to $17B now. All for what?

..departments, programs, and groups in the Federal Government that are wastings billions and billions why do people pick on NASA? There are a hundred other people that are wasting much more money and on far less important things.

At least they are pursing knowledge no matter how useful you and I think it is, I'm willing to let learning slide much more then other things. Besides, maybe they can see if the Sun can support life like Mars!

We oughta throw some of their $17B towards education, bridges, or something of use to the general public.

Do we learn anything from NASA?
yes

Is it worth it?
no

"Is it worth it?
no "

Yes it is without nasa there wouldn't be any internet, satelite and so on. And the most important thing is that nasa and other space company are mapping asteroid. And this is very important for humanity. And in human nature most of people are very interest in space.

And because of nasa, esa and so on we will live in other planet like mars for start (witch will have to be in within 200years or there will be some kind of wars). But I do agree with something they are wasting to much money on lift off from earth. I mean come on a company witch have a lot less money that nasa and they done a space plane that cost for taking in to space with less than 1 million $. Nasa will have to do some new planes because with this tehnology they have it is to expensive (and the plane cost the same like from 40 years ago).

You should say that country would have to cut in military, but not in all segment the research facility must be still very supported, I would cut like no more wars in other country here i goes a lot of money for what that soldiers can die.

Is it worth it...let's think about that considering a lot of items you take for granted today were originally developed by Nasa.

I just love how naive some people are, $17billion may seem excessive but let's look at events like Fathers Day and Mothers Day.

"According to IBISWorld, a publisher of business research, Americans are expected to spend $11 billion on gifts for Father's Day in 2008. This is about $7 billion less than the amount spent on Moms for Mother's Day"

Wow...all to tell your parents that you love them, which they should know anyway. It's a gimmic by companies to make you spend your money.

At least Nasa employs thousands of people, advances technology and at the way this race is going they might well be the only chance we have of getting off this planet in the future. Personally I would say it's underfunded for what it can do for everyone on this planet.

There have been been technologies that Nasa has producted for you than you can count that you don;t even know came from Nasa.

Seach google for nasa spinoffs and you can check it out for yourself.

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/

I think it is often very difficult to predict what benefits will emerge from scientific exploration. For example, sputnik, we were really concerned about it but our concern was based on pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo. We did not forsee our current utilization of satellites (for internet, cell phones, gps, etc...).

All I am saying is, try to keep an open mind. There may be hidden benefits to this kind of research.

You might think is not worth it but many, and I mean MANY, of the things you take from granted today have been directly or indirectly delevoped by the space programs in their attempt to put man in space. I'm talking about CAT scanners, which they started by the need of finding inperfections in their rockets. The food you eat when you're at the hospital, is a direct spin off from the space program. The water purification technology used by the Apollo missions is now used the the systems a lot of people uses today. MRI is also a direct spin off from the technology used by Apollo missions to enhance pictures of the Moon. You know those cordless power tools you use and love so much? they were first developed by the space program as well because they cannot run a power cord from inside the shuttle when they're reparing a satelite and they can't have cables running around inside the shuttle or at the space station! The suits racing cars drivers use now are based on what Apollo astronauts use. Smoke detectors. There weren't shock absorving helmets, like the ones football players use, before the space program. Even the athletic shoe design and manufacture is based on Apollo!!!

Don't tell me is not worth it. Think about the future! We can extract minerals from asteroids, medicine would bennefit from operations done under zero gravity.

There has been many benefits derived from the space program and there are even more potential benefits with future missions.

I hate when people say things like these, have you think about how much the goverment spends in Irak and Afganistan? NASA's budget is a fraction of what OUR government spends there now and what it spended at the begining of the war when we were looking for "weapons of mass destruction"

Think about these thinks before you post comments about something you don't know

I guees it took me too long to write my comment but I'm glad to see there is people who actually know what they're talking about and appreciate everything we've gotten and everything we learn from NASA.

"Not worth it" PPPLEASE!!!!!!!

Solar flares and outburst knock out power grids and satilites. Solar activity has caused 2 major blackouts that I can recall. As we become more dependant on our cell phones, tv, raido, computers we need to know when and how these occure. If a big solar storm hits the states hard and knocks out every electronic devices for a few days, takes down the power grid and communications what will you do?

If sutible warnings are given the power companys can adjust output and people can be warned to turn off their electronics for a few hours as the storm passes and satilites can be repositioned. What about the saftey of the guys in the ISS?

Mars may not directly impact us but the sun has a huge influance on us. $14 Billion is nothing compared to what could happen.

They have to gather more intel on the Sun so they can develop the Icarus spaceship which has to withstand the heat when it and it's crew have fly it to the Sun to deliver a payload that will rejuvenate it (because it'll be dying and getting pretty weak) and save the Earth from another ice age!

Now how are they going to be able to do that if they don't send probes to it now and gather a lot of information? Hmmm?

We should double NASA's funding! Our future depends on it!!

this is just the tip of the iceberg:

http://members.tripod.com/spaceracehistory/spin.shtml

Considering the amount of money burnt on places like Iraq and Afghanistan, I think sending a dime or two down NASA's way to let them find a way to get us off this hell hole planet is not an entirely bad plan.