font_of_truth
Champion Author
Wyoming
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Message Posted: Jul 20, 2010 10:14:01 AM
Today marks 41 years since AMERICANS first stepped on the moon. We can all point with pride to the scientific and economic benefits of that effort. From the NASA Budget on wikipedia, we see numerous illustrations that for all the money spent to explore beyond the earth, we have received approximately a 33% return on that investment. Compare that to less than 1% you receive on your money in a bank. There is probably NO other government program that provided such a return for the taxes it used.
Benefits of Space Exploration
One of the familiar complaints that NASA receives when its budget comes up for approval is that "...the money really ought to be spent down here instead of up there". Leaving aside the fact that NASA's civil servants and contractors all live here on Earth, and thus the money is spent here, NASA's fifty years of research and development have resulted in a wide range of inventions and processes, ranging from the complexity of image processing through the simplicity of fire-resistant kid's pajamas.
[http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/hqlibrary/pathfinders/spinoff.htm]
Congratulations Neal, Buzz, and NASA. In the future, I only hope the taxes I contribute will be used to support a return toward your original charter and the types of achievements that make me so proud to be an American.
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