Am I alone in thinking that NASA needs either a major redesign, overhaul, or total scrapping?
What exactly has NASA ever done to justify billions in annual funding?
Inspire kids to be astronauts…not worth the money. Tony Stark (Iron Man) inspires the same kind of greatness.
Populate museums with moonrocks…not worth the money. I can find meteor rocks in the Arizona desert.
Burn up millions of gallons of fuel…not worth the money. I can do that in my SUV.
My ears are open. If you can think of anything helpful or relevant that NASA has ever done that’s worth the money, feel free to comment.
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What has been the beauty of humanity? One work: Exploration. We have defined ourselves through exploration. Regardless of the money, mankind has always taken the ‘next’ step. Imagine what would happen if we just said, “We’re finished. Who cares about what comes next…we’ve done enough.” That is not our way. What is our point if we don’t move on and push our limits. Who says we were meant to stay here, on this planet? Until we know that we are supposed to stop, we keep going. Regardless of the money.
Now, if it is just an issue of governmental money being spent, I guess I can try to justify that as well. As much as this will cause all of the anti-government people to hate me, I will say that sometimes it is necessary for government to make the “push” when society won’t. HOLD THE PRESSES! Did I just say that government should force something upon society? Yup. There is a grocery list of issues that the government began the push for when society would not. Just to name a few of the often cited US issues, think of slavery in the 1800s being abolished and the civil rights movement in the mid to late 1900s. Looking at other governments in history and going back to the exploration theme, think back to Spain sending Columbus to look for a route to India. How much did that action, along with other explorers, change the world? Do you think the Spanish people would have agreed? Probably not.
So, we move onward. Why? Because we are supposed to. Until we know we cannot, or a higher power tells us not to.
Excellent response Shane! Sometimes playing devil’s advocate draws out the best in people, although your best is always out there for us to see in everything else you do as well.
Pushing, exploring, looking for that next big thing is part of what I believe makes people the best they can be and what has made America it’s best. We pushed the bounds of a fledgeling nation. We’re pushing the frontiers of both ocean and space.
With all that said, I’m sure we could both agree that NASA needs some kind of a re-write if they’re to continue to be relevant into the 21st century.
I would definitely agree that NASA needs restructuring. They lost their vision and drive. Part of that is the fact that we lost perceived competition when the Soviet Union fell. I say perceived because we still have competition, but we have become complacent and ignore others that are moving beyond us.
We should be the innovators, and clinging to the shuttle program was not innovation – it was complacency. Where is our American drive? Where is the spirit that every former generation had? I was born into an era of nothing. As a country we are striving for what we already have, and sometimes, we are striving for the glory of the past. We cannot have the glory of the past unless we renew our sense of innovation and our need to be the best.
I bring all of this us because our space program and NASA reflect the declining spirit of America.