Saturday, April 24, 2010

Blog #30 - What is NASA's future?


Earlier this month, President Obama stated that "we want to leap into the future" while at the same time dramatically cutting back on the American space program as a whole. In his announcement, he continues an earlier trend started by previous presidents Clinton and Bush II of privatizing government functions (think military security, private armies like Blackwater) and also ending the space shuttle program.  The president stated that he is still committed to going where no one has gone before, and that he expects NASA to get beyond the moon by 2025, but he wants to do it in a "smart way" which in the usual business-speak means doing the same or more w/ less money and people. 

His plan calls for the cancellation of the $100 billion Constellation program introduced by former president Bush in his last term who had said that he had wanted to return to the moon back in 2004.  Obama saved the Orion space capsule from the trash heap, originally to be used for the new moon landings, so that it can be downsized and be used to connect w/ the ISS (International Space Station). 

Furthermore, $6 billion will be spent in the next few years encouraging private companies to make their own rocket ships who can then ferry astronauts to the ISS.  Another proposal is to build heavy-lift rockets (its design will take five years to make and then construction begins soon after) to take astronauts to an asteroid, the moon, or another location (as yet undetermined).  The president's plan hopes to create 2,500 new jobs in the industry on top of all of this, but the plan also spends $40 million on helping those who lose their jobs in the cutbacks (like the space shuttle) to find new jobs in the aerospace industry. 
Space Exploration / TIME Cover: January 19, 1959, Art Poster by TIME Magazine
Here's a link to the text of his actual speech on April 15, 2010.  In the speech, President Obama mentions Sputnik and the impact it had on the nation; President Eisenhower's creation of NASA and the increased spending on math and science in American schools, and then President Kennedy's challenge to put a man on the moon and bring him safely back.


All of these changes that he wants, he states, reflect the new world in which we live.  We're no longer living in the Cold War in a space race; we live in an era of collaboration in which other nations (I'm reading between the lines here) should and can bear the cost of space exploration along with us.  And, not stated, but surely understood by all, we don't have the unlimited spending resources like the country did during the Cold War. 

He also outlines more positive changes that aren't listed in the article that I'd discussed above. 

If you want to watch the president's speech in HD, check it out. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/hd/spaceconf_hd.html

Your question:
1. What do you think the future of the American space program should be?  Should we continue with a limited budget like we President Obama has outlined? Or should NASA have more funding to continue on a more ambitious program (see the 5 reasons to explore space below from SA)?  Why?
  - Is there another alternative besides these two options?  If so, what and why is it better?

200 words minimum, due Monday, April 26.


For further reading:
Here's an article by Scientific American about the race back to the moon by other nations: it's called "Moon Lust: Will International Competition or Cooperation Return Humans Back to the Moon?"

Another article on Scientific American lists the five essential goals for exploring the solar system.  Check it out to help you write your response.  This is probably the best resource I found (and you may find more out there) to argue for the continuation of NASA. 

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ellie Toth
2nd hour
1. President Obama is right, we need to limit the budget for NASA because we are in such a terrible economic state;however, he should not expect NASA to go beyond the moon and do bigger and better things on such a low budget. It is hard for us right now to give a lot of money to NASA. I think we should continue to start slow experiences in NASA with our limited budget. It is hard to accomplish big things with a little budget but i think if NASA's experiments are slower, we can gradually start giving them more money to acheive the "beyond the moon," expectations by 2025. The gradually giving money to NASA will not leave our country more in debt than it already is, it will only make the program more acheiviable. President Obama, in my opinion should not expect them to acheive it right away though, because of their low budget. If he wants to acheive a lot soon, he should increase the budget. Although, we do not have the money to give them right now. Slow research will give us more of a chance for anything big in the future, and a chance for our economy to recover. We need to focus on one thing at a time at the moment, and hopefully our NASA program can continue on such a low budget that should gradually increase.

Anonymous said...

Jim Weitzel Hour #3
I agree with President Obama a little bit. The NASA program should be cut in funding a little bit but not as severely as he suggests. NASA has many ideas on many things. I think that they should narrow their prospective projects to just 1 or 2 at a time. It was a smart idea that the Space Shuttle program was ended, because that was a very expensive program, the scientists didn’t really spend a lot of time trying to optimize it so that it is as cheap as you can get. We should start trying to get a moon base on the moon, because if we accomplish this we can spend a little less money, because we wouldn’t have to keep spending money to return to the moon for just a little bit of research. Unless we find out that you can live on one of the planets nearby, I think that the money is best spent at home so that the problems we have on Earth like Climate Change are solved. Another possible solution to the funding crisis is we could offer prize money for a private company to make a rocket ship. This could be cheaper and the company itself would have to pay for their employees, not the federal government paying for a bunch of rocket scientists who might not really be going anywhere.

Anonymous said...

"Space... The final frontier... These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: To explore strange new worlds... To seek out new life; new civilizations... To boldly go where no one has gone before!" this was the opening monologue for the original Star Trek, which aired September 1966. I believe this statement still holds today, that space and other planets hold the future of the human race. Our planet will eventually run dry of resources, and we will need to get these natural resources from somewhere. It will take millions of dollars into the space program; not just NASA, but also other countries space programs. And the sooner that we get started on this goal the better, because the rescores on Earth are becoming scarcer every day. Did you know that spring now comes days earlier than it has for the past few years http://trueslant.com/davidknowles/2010/04/20/spring-now-arrives-10-days-early-thanks-to-climate-change/? This is just one example of how we are changing our environment. I think that we need to start funneling money to NASA to build safe, more versatile equipment for our astronauts. Also humans are always going to search for where we came from, and I think that answer to that question can be found in space, whether you believe inn creation, or evolution clues to our past will be found in space.
mark gausstineau

Drew S. said...

I think the U.S. should dramatically increase the space program of NASA’s budget. I also think that other developed countries should join are current space program to form a league of nations that have one common goal and all of the nations than together contribute a little bit to the program to make the goal possible. NASA should also heavily consider offering to corporations that have major operations inside of the U.S. to donate resources, knowledge and products that we can use towards the space programs goal in exchange for heavy tax breaks. Like for example, Goodyear donating tires for a manned rover that can be used to explore the plant, moon, or asteroid with. This, along with sharing the burden and load of the space program with other countries will dramatically help the goal of the space program without potentially the need of a major budget increase for NASA. I think this would be the most efficient way without a ridiculous budget increase. In the progress of building this spaceship or craft, I do not think the government should go out of its way and pay private companies to design and build components for the craft. It costs too much money and you can’t have as much oversight in the project. And it also becomes less of the peoples or the countries space craft, and more of some company’s space craft. I think this program would also if done correctly, would lead to stronger ties and bonds with other foreign nations, therefore benefiting the country as a whole in other ways too. That is why they United States should go about handling NASA and the space program.

Drew S.

Anonymous said...

Michael Rondello
2nd Hour

I think that because of the bad economy, the space program isn’t going to be able to accomplish as much as quickly as it used to. The space program in the United States has been very successful and prestigious in the past, but because of the economic situation our country is in, there will probably be a lot of cutting back throughout it. I think that the space program is a very important part of the history of the United States. For example, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin being the first men on the moon are very significant in the history and culture of the United States. I think that it isn’t the most important thing to worry about as we try to get out of the recession that our country is unfortunately part of. As we start to get our way out of the bad economic situation, then putting more effort into the space program will be an imperative priority. But until then, our main priority is to find the things we can do without for a while and get out of the recession. The space program is important, but it isn’t a top thing the government should put a lot of time into.

Hannah Grossman said...

The American Space Program is a extremely important thing and I think that in the future we need to travel more into space and see whats out there and discover new and exciting things. In President Obama’s speech he said that he is going to start by increasing NASA's budget by $6 billion over the next five years, I think that this is a very generous thing but I also think that we need to discover more and learn more about space so I think that it shouldn't be a limited budget so we can continue learning more. I hope that in the future we get further into space and to other planets like President Bush’s goal to go to mars, and to go on other missions we cant have limited funding. President Obama also said “exploration will once more inspire wonder in a new generation -- sparking passions and launching careers. And because, ultimately, if we fail to press forward in the pursuit of discovery, we are ceding our future and we are ceding that essential element of the American character.” and so much of this is true because if he fails then jobs will be lost and the space program wouldn’t give America any new or exciting information about the outer space.

Anonymous said...

Jim Stevens
3rd hour
1. I think that President Obama should not cut funds for NASA but should increase the funds for NASA. I think this because NASA is a very important organization and it is the doorway to many opportunities. NASA is so important because it discovers new technology and new possibilities involving outer space. Exploring space is such a huge accomplishment. The possibilities that NASA posses are endless. Also NASA shows a lot of pride in the American people. It shows all of our achievements. It shows our pride in new inventions and accomplishments.

Anonymous said...

Allison Levine
3rd hour

I think that the American space program is important, but in the poor economy that we are living in now, I believe we should limit NASA budgets as President Obama has stated. In this recession, there are more pressing issues that need to be addressed other than the space programs. It is not a priority or necessity to currently explore space. We no longer have as many spending resources as we did during the time of the Cold War. Once we become more financially and economically stable, we can once again continue space travel. Spending $6 billion encouraging companies to build rocket ships isn’t the brightest idea, in my opinion. It may create more jobs, but NASA is the one who should be working on space shuttles and rockets to ship astronauts to the ISS. If independent companies are the ones making these, people working at NASA—with lost funds and lack of need to create and travel—will lose their jobs; creating a pointless circle. I don’t really see an alternative to these options right now. We could send up satellites to monitor climate and other things that might be relevant to human life on Earth instead of sending people to Mars. This would be better because it would help us determine any severe weather and would help with our society. There is no need to worry about what’s on other planets or meteors; we need to worry about our planet. If stopping funds is the way to help with our country’s debt and economical recession, then Obama should stop funding NASA.

Anonymous said...

Allie Rubin
3rd hour

I think President Obama's plan for the space program is a very good one. Of course, more money would lead to a better program with greater benefits, but this plan already adds to the budget. At this time, budgets are extremely limited in America, and as the president said in his speech, many cuts are being made. The space program is receiving an increase of $6 billion dollars, which is very substantial. The space program will have many positive influences on the world as it continues, but it is unnecessary to put in an even larger amount of funding.

There are many people who may think that this is not a program that should be focused on right now as there are many problems on this planet that require attention and funding; however, I think the outlined plan for the program will bring in many benefits that will help people here. Some of the benefits discussed by President Obama are research that will make space travel easier and cheaper, information about the earth to help protect it in the future, and the creation of a new industry. Obama mentions allowing private companies to design and build space vehicles in order to create competition. This also will create many jobs for people.

The space program is vital to American advancement and improvement, but not so vital that it needs even more funding than what is being provided in the president's plan.

Anonymous said...

Alex wong 2nd hour

I think we should combine these two ideas and then we can find a middle ground everyone can be happy with. If we can all agree with having a budget, but not a super strict one, than we can keep tabs on the spending with out limiting the capabilities of our space program. With a budget we cannot have ambitious programs such as building colonies on the moon and mars until our national debt is gone. With the budget we should be able to send unmanned space craft to places to learn about our universe. We should also go further into the universe to find out more about our planet. If do not keep our space program going than we will not find other life forms or discover how the earth developed water and we cannot face problems fr4om space such as asteroids like in the movie Armageddon. Our space program needs to keep going because with out it how will we get the info that we need to understand our solar system and our entire universe. We need to find a middle ground in between the incredibly strict budget but also far away from the ambitious ideas that might never work.

Anonymous said...

Heather Robinson
2nd hour.


I believe the future of the American space program should be that NASA has more funding to continue on a more
ambitious program, at a time where our country is more stable and has more money. Therefore, currently speaking we should
continue with a limited budget until American gets back on its feet and can afford to fund NASA. Today, there are many
people struggling, without food and homes, and to spend America's money on NASA at this time, and not the people who need
it would be absurd. An alternative option besides limited budget and more funding would be private funding, private
corporations should fund the space program rather then the government. This is because the government could use the money
elsewhere such as helping the economy. Private funding is better because it would take away from America's large debt
instead of adding more money to the trillions we already owe. If it was a private funder then the money for funding would
come from that funder personally, not our governments money.

Unknown said...

I agree with President Obama’s for the future of NASA and our space program. There is too much going on with our country right now to put billions of dollars towards NASA and our space program. We have to deal with such things as our failing economy and the war in the Middle East before we think of sending more people to the moon or any other part of space. I do think NASA and what they are doing is great and I do want them to send more people to the moon or any where in space, but before we do that we should spend our money and resources dealing with more important issues first. Then we will be better able to do more ambitious space programs like sending people to mars or traveling beyond our solar system.

Ryan Brode
3rd hour

Sarah Stempien said...

Sarah Stempien
2nd Hour U.S. History

1. The future of the American space program should still continue. Many jobs would be created in this industry which would mean that a lot of people who studied in the aerospace industry wouldn’t have a hard time finding jobs. NASA should have more funding to continue the ambitious projects. It would help with research and better explorations in the industry. Also since Obama is spending a lot of money on helping people who have lost jobs in the industry, the funding would help take care of that and create more jobs for people.

Anonymous said...

Michele Snyder
3rd hour
I think the future of the American space program should have some funding, because I believe it’s important for the human race to explore, discover, and stretch beyond our recent capabilities. The purpose of the American space program is to explore outer space In Obama’s speech he mentions so many of the wonderful accomplishments NASA has achieved, yet he still doesn’t think we should fund NASA. It can be very interesting to many people, the things we have accomplished and discovered through NASA. We may not be in a space race at the moment but Russia wasn’t in one when they launched their first Sputnik. And to just think how much we have learned and how me there still is to about our planet and how it is similar and different from other planets. If we keep exploring space we could find the answers to these questions. Like could humans or other living creatures survive on other planets like we do on Earth today? It can also help us understand climate, and how planets form. We can’t do these things in less the American space program is funded. This way we can have the technology we need to find the answers to our questions.

Anonymous said...

Elizabeth Bondarenko
2nd hour
The future of American space program. I think that for such powerful and succeeding in a science country like America it is not right to stop studying the space. Because there are so many things that people still don’t know about space and, who knows, how new discoveries in this area would influent on people. And as I know nowadays one of the biggest questions in space is about Mars.
It’s difficult to say what way is better: continue with a limited budget or have more funding to continue on a more ambitious program. Because on one hand, right now economic situation is not very good, and may be to slow down and become more careful is not such a bad idea. But also with new projects, new invents there would be more jobs, and this could help with unemployment. But on the other hand, America tries to be the first everywhere, and basically there is always a competition between most powerful countries. This means that if America would start to work more enthusiastic then other countries would do the same, and result would be much better.
Another option, which I think quite possible, is to cooperate with other countries. This will give America chance not to spend so much money, but still give people jobs, renew interests in the area about space, be part of the progressive researches and I believe that all together we can do more and better.

Anonymous said...

NASA Blog
Katlin Beal
3rd Hour
I believe that NASA’s future is in jeopardy with this new cancellation of the $100 billion constellation program. The job losses will also not help the economy. If NASA loses one of its main programs it will take a major hit. If Obama’s plan for NASA to “go where no man has gone before” NASA will have to continue in all of their programs and not halt any missions or plans. We cannot count on commercial companies to do part of our government’s job. Commercial companies will set us back in the space race because their plans will not be by the government. I think that the space program should be a main key point in our future because eventually we will run out of natural resources because of how fast we use them so going to other planets and getting back on the moon should be close to first on their minds. I think that if NASA starts losing some of their programs, then eventually NASA will end and we will officially be out of the space race. The space program the future of the space program should be that they work harder to keep NASA growing because they are the future. The alternative should be that we join the space program with all the other countries to collaborate. We have been in collaboration, but we could join completely instead of just on certain missions.

Anonymous said...

I think that the United States should continue the use of a national space program, which would be funded by our country and our citizens. In the past NASA has accomplished so many great things that have given credit to the US as a whole. People will always remember who went to the moon first, among our other great feats. If private companies take over and basically replace NASA I think that the US would lose credit for whatever forward progress is made in the future. Another benefit to keeping a national space program would be the way it brings people together. I think countries involved in space programs who work together have found new relationships and benefitted from those, too. Everyone is interested in the possibilities space holds, and uncovering those new discoveries could be up to us! New information we gain could be useful to the US, and the rest of our planet, about climate, life, history, and more. We have already discovered some possible areas for life outside of Earth, and who knows what would happen if we did find life out there? We could discover so many new things beyond our planet, with the help of a national space program.
Elyse Dumas - 3rd hour

Anonymous said...

Griffin Harms
3rd Hour
I personally believe that it was not right for Obama to cut funding on NASA. Because of recent modernization, it is becoming increasing more important that we continue to learn about space. First of all, investing in NASA will help us increase our understanding of Climate. With global warming and ozone depletion, it is very important that we understand how the climate works and develop a solution to climate change. It is also important that we develop an asteroid defense and discover how planets and solar systems are formed. With this, much more is possible, such as discovering extra-terestrial life and reaching beyond our own solar system.

Anonymous said...

I think that we should continue to try to go further into space than any man has ever gone before but we can’t keep spending so much money on NASA. We need to spend this money on our first priorities and the economy should be at the top of that list. We should continue with the limited budget that President Obama has outlined because we can’t use too much money on NASA. A goal that would be awesome to reach in the near future is improving our understanding of the climate. The NRC wanted to restore the $600 million fund devoted to sending 17 more satellites into space. Another goal is developing an asteroid defense system such as a “tugboat” spacecraft. Two more obvious goals are reaching beyond the solar system and seeking life beyond Earth. The last goal that would be very interesting knowledge to have is for us to find out how planets form. Another thing that is a goal for us is that we want to have shuttles so astronauts are able to travel back and forth to the International Space Station in the upcoming years. We need provide enough funds for NASA so that they can accomplish some of these goals but we need to balance the amount of money that we spend on the space program with the money that we spend on other important things.

Alex Valente
2nd Hour

Anonymous said...

Alex "1337 |V|4|\" Pisano
Obama shouldn’t decrease NASA funding; however, they shouldn’t get more funding either. They should allocate some of those funds to independent companies who wish to work on going into space. With our current space market without much competition, there isn’t as much drive to invent the next greatest thing. If any real progress is to be made in America, this market should be more open to the corporate sector, creating more competition. I believe that what can be found in space is too great to ignore, chances for research, additional resources, and signs of life out there. The president cutting down on NASA’s funding and then expecting them to make it beyond the moon by 2025 is just stupid, that’s like expecting a man to dig a 6 foot hole with his bare hands in half an hour, it’s just not going to happen. If you don’t cut down on funding, but encourage competition, technological advancement will occur at an increased rate, many people will be searching hard for ways to improve efficiency in design and technology. If the government offers incentives as well for companies that actually are able to make significant achievement, than the rate of advancement will increase. Cutting down on funding will choke the aerospace industry, almost as much as removal of competition did.

Anonymous said...

I believe that NASA should stay open. I believe that there are so many more things that we can explore in space. I don’t think that we should limit the budget of the NASA funds like President Obama is talking about. We should be supporting the space above us. The space can teach us things that we may have thought were not possible. I think with these cut backs will really take a toll on the workers that work at NASA. While President Obama is talking about helping those families with finding new jobs, I would have to wonder were the 2,500 new jobs are coming from and if he had known what these jobs would be why has he not helped the other families that do not have jobs right now. I think that the NASA need to stay open it leaves opportunities from the space above it leaves people with jobs and exploration of places that people only dream. It gives hope to the ones that have to believe in something out of this world for the kids that want to learn more about space when they grow up and become adults and so many other generations to come. That is way I believe that NASA funds should stay open and keep exploring space with more ships and satellites.
Stefanie Kueck
3rd

Anonymous said...

I certainly agree with Obama when he says that we should be sharing the cost of space exploration programs with other countries. Because we are no longer engaged in war and a “space race,” I do not think we need to be so focused on space exploration- at a time like this in particular. The United States is currently not in good condition as far as the economy goes. For this reason, I don’t think that so much money should be used on space exploration because making new discoveries in space will not make our country stable again. If our economy was in better condition, then I would be more supportive of giving more funding to the space program. I think that once we have used our money in a smart way to get the economy back to how it should be, then we should absolutely provide sufficient funds in order to further our space programs and make new discoveries. However that is not the case right now. We need to communicate with other countries and work out some way for more countries to contribute to the space exploration programs. There is no need to be in first place and be the best when it comes to this, so why not team up with other countries in order to collectively get the money to have a great space program?
Brad Benghiat 2nd Hour

Anonymous said...

Willie Beattie
2nd Hour

I think that the future of the American space program should be directed to things that have not yet been accomplished rather than doing things again that have already been done. These types of things should be, building a base station on the moon and taking man to mars. There is so much to explore beyond Earth that in order to really explore even a small portion of it we need a lot of funding so we should not be under a limited budget. With a limited budget, it really holds us back from the things we can see with the technology we have. NASA should have the funding to be able to complete ambitious projects like those I said earlier about a base station on the moon for research that can be used internationally and taking a man to mars which would prove more can be done in space travel with the very first planet to planet trip. With a limited budget, it doesn’t even allow these things into consideration because they would be so expensive. Although it would be expensive it would pay off very much it we were able to receive the necessary funds to accomplish either of them.

Anonymous said...

Willie Beattie
2nd Hour

I think that the future of the American space program should be directed to things that have not yet been accomplished rather than doing things again that have already been done. These types of things should be, building a base station on the moon and taking man to mars. There is so much to explore beyond Earth that in order to really explore even a small portion of it we need a lot of funding so we should not be under a limited budget. With a limited budget, it really holds us back from the things we can see with the technology we have. NASA should have the funding to be able to complete ambitious projects like those I said earlier about a base station on the moon for research that can be used internationally and taking a man to mars which would prove more can be done in space travel with the very first planet to planet trip. With a limited budget, it doesn’t even allow these things into consideration because they would be so expensive. Although it would be expensive it would pay off very much it we were able to receive the necessary funds to accomplish either of them.

Anonymous said...

Brandon Verona
3rd Hour

I think that we should continue to research space in the future instead of a limited budget. The reason why we should is because there could be so much out there in the universe that president obama doesnt want to fund. if he conutined to fund it we could possibly find out about how the earth formed, about how the other planets formed and history about the planets, and to see if there is more life forms on other planets. If we fund it we could explore to other planets and we also could research and see even further into the universe and see other universes. In my opinion i think that not funding the space program is like not caring about the rest of the universe. its just odd that president obama would not want to fund the space program. I feel like it should be one of those things that america should still be paying for. i think obama should find another thing that the tax payers fund to stop paying for because i just feel that NASA is that important to research. there must be something less important for the united states citizens to pay for. Another alterenative is for NASA to find other ways of funding. they could have people invest in NASA so possibly the taxes would be less expensive for the people of america.

Anonymous said...

Austin Rovinski
2nd hour
4/26/10

I think that President Obama is right in that we don’t need to be spending money on items that aren’t essential right now; there is no competition for space anymore, and the government should cut back spending when the funds are needed for more immediate uses, especially stimulating the economy. Then again, while Obama is cutting back certain programs like NASA, he is also making programs that cost a thousand times the cost of NASA, like the healthcare reform that taxpayers will start paying for now in order to start the program in 2012, or like cash for clunkers, etc. So while Obama is cutting back spending for programs that are important for the future, he could easily have the option to maintain or even increase spending for NASA if other programs that have arguably less importance were cut back in spending or eliminated. This option is better because it doesn’t cut funding for NASA and it also frees up other funds for other purposes. Although, many people think this is not a viable option because they view the massive spending programs as too important. I believe that in this economy, the best solution is to cut back the most unnecessary and least efficient programs in order either to lower taxes and encourage more business activities, or to use the money saved and put it into programs that need the funding.

Anonymous said...

Jared Monchnik
2nd hr
Blog #30

I believe with all of this economic turmoil Obama should continue with a limited budget and worry more about more “down to earth” affairs. With all of the money spent on the space program right now, we as Americans are funding billions of dollars into a program that might fail. Therefore the failure would result in many job losses. Although Obama is promising jobs for the new projects, these projects won’t start until 2025, and with the way things are at this moment that might just be too late for the USA. Also according to Obama he wants other companies to start spending billions of dollars on what might again be another failure, which could then again end up in job loss, bad economy, and so forth. But where would these companies get this 6 billion dollars required? The most logical answer would be taxes and increased prices on products viable to everyday life. So all in all, I believe Obama should continue with a limited budget and worry more about more “down to earth” affairs, and worry about what’s really going down in the economy.

Anonymous said...

Jan Thon
3rd hour

The future of the NASA

I think the future of the NASA should be an important issue for the politicians. I think it is important to keep funding space projects, although we are in a recession. Obama’s plan might be reasonable, since he needs to cut back government funding as a result of the new health care bill, but the space projects are as important as earthly issues. Who knows what we can learn from all the undiscovered knowledge of the universe. There might be resources we can use for future technologies or for medical reasons. Another reason why we should fund the NASA is that there might be living forms beyond the earth. If we can find or proof that there are similar living organisms as we can find on the earth it would be a huge success and it would provide really many new jobs in since and engineering. The funding also helps to understand changes on the earth, the most recent issue, global warming. With the technology developed by the NASA we learned a lot about the earth and how we affect the earth with our daily life. If Obama cuts the funding there won’t be enough data to proof the effects of our new life, and therefore he can’t argue with Republicans about oil policy or new ways of generating energy.

Anonymous said...

I don’t think the space program is going to make it, due to the bad economy. In the past NASA has been very successful, but at this point they will have to deal with cutbacks throughout. Giving them more money will lead to greater benefits, but will it adds to the budget. I think, in the tough time right now people are more worried about fixing other programs, not NASA. Though NASA can lead to finding greater things like other life, we need to spend our money and resources on other issues all of America has right now. I think Obama should just maintain the money that NASA gets right now, no decreasing or increasing. That way he can fund in other programs too. I believe the best thing to do is to cut back on the non-essential programs and ones that aren’t making a big difference in our economy (in a good way). This way our taxes will decrease or we can save the money up for other programs. There is no guarantee that the space program will make it. Us as Americans don’t want to take the chance by funding in a program that may fail. Obama wants companies to also spend billions of dollars to create something that will succeed. If they fail it will end up in loss on jobs, business shutdowns, and bad economies. Obama should stick to what he is funding right now and not raise it.

Sandra

Anonymous said...

Lea Martin
3rd Hour
I think the future of the American space program should be discovering more planets and explore the universe even more. Bringing light into the dark and show the people what is really out there. We don’t have to do something really fancy like building houses on the moon or anything like that but discovering more is a good start. I also think we should not have a limited budget for the NASA because they need money to have the right equipment to explore the universe and to have good safety equipment so there won’t be any crashes and explosions in the near future. But now that we are in such a bad economic crisis they cud get a cut for just a few months or years. We don’t have to give NASA the full amount of money but at least a little. We cannot expect them though to have the greatest discoveries in this time period. Also they don’t have to use the money they get to go up into space NASA could experiment more with their inventions and test them before they actually use them. It would save money and can prevent accidents. In the future we will have more money to give to NASA and they will have chances to discover the universe even more.

Anonymous said...

I think the U.S. should continue with a limited budget like President Obama has outlined. For example, space has been opened to myriad nations by vast technological advances and increased international cooperation. NASA has shifted $600 million from Earth science to the shuttle and space station that would cover 17 new missions over the coming decade, which would help predict the climate changes and effects. Also, half of this money would go to science. The release specifically notes telescopes and missions to the Moon and planets. Obama would restructure the Constellation program and allow NASA to develop the Orion crew capsule to provide stand-by emergency escape capabilities for the International Space Station. His policy would also direct NASA to launch into space a steady stream of robotic exploration missions to scout locations and demonstrate technologies to increase the safety and capability of future human missions. Obama is proposing to dedicate $40 million of the funds requested for the Constellation transition to transform the regional economy around NASA's Florida facilities and prepare its workforce for the new opportunities. These new opportunities would include new jobs in Florida with the goal of going to Mars! According to Charlie Bolden, a NASA administrator, “We will blaze a new trail of discovery and development. We will facilitate the growth of new commercial industries. And we will expand our understanding of the Earth,

our solar system, and the universe beyond”.

Norell

Anonymous said...

Lauren Sikorski

The future for the American space program should still be there doing research on going back to the moon and beyond, but I do believe president Obama is right about cutting back on the budget. The space program is not our top priority right now. Like Obama said we should not completely eliminate the program, but we do need to cut back and save money for our top priorities at the moment. Space exploration is important, and little funds for it can be given for small research. I think we can survive for a couple years without going all out with the program. Even though a lot of jobs would be cut, there are still other jobs that can be created from the many space program jobs that would be cut, and it is not necessarily saying that the jobs will not be recreated in the future, but right now we have other concerns than the space program. I don’t believe any alternatives can come from it. You can’t sugar coat the situation and say that we can cut back but still keep jobs, that space exploration is our number one priority, and that it’s essential to fixing America’s economy because it would be a lie.

Anonymous said...

I agree with president Obama for the future of NASA. I think we should take a break from funding the American space program, until our economy is in order. Right now, we need to spend our money on other things. When we have fixed our wounded economy, we can look at continuing on a more ambitious program. This should not be our first priority. Our first priority should be securing our economy and the war in the Middle East. Although I do think it is important to explore beyond our world, but we are not in the clear to do so. It takes millions of dollars to advance our American space program, and making these new discoveries will not soothe our struggling financial system. We could correspond with other countries, and work on continuing some form of space exploration programs. We do not need to compete with other countries to progress the space programs; we can work together with other countries. We don’t have to put the space programs on pause completely but we should settle down a little bit, until we are recovered. If we continue to fond the NASA program with the same budget, we will never get out of this depression, and our country will not be able to go forward.

Randi G.

Anonymous said...

“We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.” Americans, like Senator McCarthy, constantly assume people of crime and dishonesty right away, if they appear to be victims. This is not right, in that conviction depends on evidence. We must have a legitimate reason and proof that someone did something unlawful or is something that does not follow what the U.S. wants us to be, like communism vs. capitalism.

“Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.” Abraham Lincoln said, “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves”. People must be able to say, write, think or feel however we want. We have to have free-will, and the power of self-determination to take responsibility for ourselves, and not have the government or others tell us what we should say, write, think or feel. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for black people to be free, and they deserve that today. America is an independent country. When our freedom gets taken away, our confidence goes down.

“We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this.” There is rarely ever a time where we turn on the TV to hear good information. The news only portrays negative information going on in the world and only puts us in fear of the real world. The world does not consist only of robberies and murders.

Norell K.

Anonymous said...

In order to create a New world us as a nation are going to have to make sacrifices in order to
achieve success but not cutting Nasa's funding could put are nation on an even more major
setback, than it is now.I strongly support President Obama's decision,giving Nasa 100 billion
dollars would be ludicrous, during the depression we are recently trying to leave. Nasa has
several goals to accomplish like launching to the moon, creating more spacewalks, improving
understanding of climate, developing asteroid defense, life beyond earth, understanding planet
formation, and reaching beyond the solar system. A budget will inspire and motivate us to
complete these task one at a time, while appreciating each one of them as well. It will
benefit the nation by letting us multi-task in fixing our economical problems while involved
in new space discoveries.The space program were given too much money and should have used it
more afficiently maybe we would even haVe better discoveries. Over the last 50 years other
countries like China and Russia have developed better satellites, space walks, launches,orbits
and more. Part of it could be that they are more financially stable and better at science and
math,this shows us that America needs TO improve in knowledge, finance,etc, to shape our
future. Achieving life in on some of the planets could be a great asset also.As long as we
become patient and try baby steps it can be possiable for Nasa to get beyond the moon, by 2025.

Kierra W.

Anonymous said...

President Obama made a strategic decision by limiting the budget for NASA in these economically difficult times; however, I believe that we should be funding the space program more than before. We should start focusing more on the sciences of our universe and the only way to do that is through our NASA program. “Beyond the moon” will never be accomplished if we continue this low budget. Our country is slowly coming out of the recession, for the most part, so we should be focusing on ideas that won’t get us back into that depression. We should begin with baby steps, first start with researching ‘beyond the moon” and from there gain more funding and media interest. If the media can do its job correctly for once NASA can gain a lot from the people, like money. We can also use our space program to connect with other countries and make international ties. By bringing geniuses from around the world together for a common goal we can accomplish many goals. Another question we should ask ourselves is “Why not fund NASA?” Only good things can come out of this program, which is why I personally believe that president Obama should not reduce the funding for the space program.

Dustin O.