Congress Approves NASA's $19.5 Billion Budget

[Johnny Joe]

[QUOTE]The bill details important policy provisions, directing NASA’s upcoming activities.
These include developing human exploration program plans, such as the Mars plan, and establishing NASA’s ability to monitor the health of former astronauts over the long-term.
[B]The bill also authorizes fiscal year 2017 spending for NASA of $19.5 billion.[/B][/QUOTE]

[QUOTE][...]ranking member of the House Science Committee Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) pointed out that the bill, “does not directly address all of NASA’s science programs, mainly Earth science and heliophysics.”[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]
This NASA authorization is the first to pass both houses of Congress since 2010. [/QUOTE]

[url]https://futurism.com/congress-just-passed-nasas-19-5-billion-budget/[/url]

It's also important to mention that Congress, in approving this new budget, has also set a mandate for NASA that they need to "Get Humans to Mars by 2033."

[QUOTE]
In order to get to Mars by the 2030s, Congress is asking NASA to develop “an initial human exploration roadmap” that must be submitted before December 1, 2017.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]The bill outlines the necessity of this roadmap, stating: “It is the sense of Congress that expanding human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and advancing toward human missions to Mars in the 2030s requires early strategic planning and timely decisions to be made in the near-term on the necessary courses of action for commitments to achieve short-term and long-term goals and objectives.”[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]Through this new NASA Authorization Act, Congress affirms that “Mars is the appropriate long-term goal for the human space flight program,” and it is likely that the Moon will be a stop over in 2020, if the current administration’s plans push forward.[/QUOTE]

[url]https://futurism.com/us-government-issues-nasa-demand-get-humans-to-mars-by-2033/[/url]

[Robert Baron]

Misspent in my opinion. There are millions of people in the US starving and suffering. All of the people of color and the other oppressed groups that could benefit from federal spending will be missing out because a mostly white and priveliged demographic thinks space exploration is more important than the wellbeing of underprivileged people.

[highlight](User was permabanned for this post ("Gimmick" - Novangel))[/highlight]

[jamzzster]

Is this much more than usual?

[niiiiiiiiok]

Wow, two posts and from March 2017. I smell an alt. On topic, this is pretty good tbh.

[Missing User]

[QUOTE=jamzzster;51941594]Is this much more than usual?[/QUOTE]

0.2 Bn

[Derek_SM]

[QUOTE=Robert Baron;51941584]Misspent in my opinion. There are millions of people in the US starving and suffering. All of the people of color and the other oppressed groups that could benefit from federal spending will be missing out because a mostly white and priveliged demographic thinks space exploration is more important than the wellbeing of underprivileged people.[/QUOTE]

Nah

[QUOTE=jamzzster;51941594]Is this much more than usual?[/QUOTE]

It's more than the past couple years, but not all that much in the grand scheme of things.

They should be getting $25 billion imo.

[surplus]

Here's a history of NASA's budget. Glad to see a continuing constant increase.

[t]http://i.imgur.com/lPHVsqL.png[/t]

[Kingof🅱east]

[QUOTE=jamzzster;51941594]Is this much more than usual?[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://spacenews.com/senate-bill-gives-nasa-19-3-billion-for-2017/"]I only skimmed this article[/URL] but it looks like $21m more than last year

[B]Edit: [/B]​Ninjad a couple times :v:

[ieptav]

[QUOTE=Robert Baron;51941584]Misspent in my opinion. There are millions of people in the US starving and suffering. All of the people of color and the other oppressed groups that could benefit from federal spending will be missing out because a mostly white and priveliged demographic thinks space exploration is more important than the wellbeing of underprivileged people.[/QUOTE]

Space is (hopefully) humanity's endgame, also there is more than enough in the overall budget that putting some money towards the future of our species shouldn't get in the way of helping improving the livelihood of people today.

[Lightbulb]

Baron's just a troll. Glad to see it going up. Especially now that the economy is doing decently we should be investing in as much science and tech development as we can.

[Robert Baron]

[QUOTE=GammaFive;51941633]Space is (hopefully) humanity's endgame, also there is more than enough in the overall budget that putting some money towards the future of our species shouldn't get in the way of helping improving the livelihood of people today.[/QUOTE]

Where does it end though? Why not end all welfare and spend it on exploration if it's our "endgame"? All money spent on these extraneous "future" programs is money not spent helping the underpriveged.

[editline]10th March 2017[/editline]

[QUOTE=shadow_oap;51941652]Baron's just a troll. Glad to see it going up. Especially now that the economy is doing decently we should be investing in as much science and tech development as we can.[/QUOTE]

Caring about real issues that affect people like education, disability, food access, and affirmative action is trolling?

[Nahash]

[QUOTE=Robert Baron;51941658]Where does it end though? Why not end all welfare and spend it on exploration if it's our "endgame"? All money spent on these extraneous "future" programs is money not spent helping the underpriveged.

[editline]10th March 2017[/editline]

Caring about real issues that affect people like education, disability, food access, and affirmative action is trolling?[/QUOTE]

[video=youtube;PtBy_ppG4hY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtBy_ppG4hY[/video]

Technology that we develop through these exploration efforts end up helping everyone. For example, cell phones have been a huge help to many underprivileged people and NASA played a part in developing cell phones.

[Sitkero]

[QUOTE=Robert Baron;51941584]Misspent in my opinion. There are millions of people in the US starving and suffering. All of the people of color and the other oppressed groups that could benefit from federal spending will be missing out because a mostly white and priveliged demographic thinks space exploration is more important than the wellbeing of underprivileged people.[/QUOTE]

There is basically nothing in your day-to-day life that isn't using a technology that came about as a direct result of NASA's research and development

That phone you posted this from is a pretty good example, things like the GPS, the weather app, the LED in the camera, are all all direct descendants of NASA technologies

The car you rode in to go buy it also benefits from the wealth of advanced research that comes out of NASA. Just about every system mechanical and electrical has benefited in some way from NASA's research, from the tires to the frame

NASA is also one of the biggest contributors to advances in the field of medical science, particularly in the area of prosthesis as a side benefit of their research into robotics and materials

I think NASA is definitely a worthwhile investment

[Big D Duchovny]

It's great that NASA is getting more money, but really a big issue is that congress can't seem to get their hands off the space pork - stuff like this is going on all the time: [url]https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/blue-origins-new-engine-isnt-good-enough-for-some-congressmen/[/url]
And the SLS in its entirety is a big fat waste of money. With that said, it's still way more than we're spending on ESA, so I guess I can't really complain too much.

[Merv]

[QUOTE=Robert Baron;51941584]Misspent in my opinion. There are millions of people in the US starving and suffering. All of the people of color and the other oppressed groups that could benefit from federal spending will be missing out because a mostly white and priveliged demographic thinks space exploration is more important than the wellbeing of underprivileged people.[/QUOTE]

It would be far more prudent to take that money from our overinflated military budget than to remove it from valuable and extremely important scientific research.

[JohnnyMo]

[QUOTE=Robert Baron;51941584]Misspent in my opinion. There are millions of people in the US starving and suffering. All of the people of color and the other oppressed groups that could benefit from federal spending will be missing out because a mostly white and priveliged demographic thinks space exploration is more important than the wellbeing of underprivileged people.[/QUOTE]

This is a misplaced complaint considering NASA spending is an absolute pittance compared to the US yearly military budget.

[Nahash]

[QUOTE=ZombieWaffle;51941691]It would be far more prudent to take that money from our overinflated military budget than to remove it from valuable and extremely important scientific research.[/QUOTE]

the US army is one of the biggest employers of minorities though and a lot of minorities see it as a stepping stone to getting out of bad neighborhoods, why reduce the budget of the military if it helps the underprivileged?

[Johnny Joe]

-snip, added to op-

[Sientanse]

[QUOTE=Robert Baron;51941658]Where does it end though? Why not end all welfare and spend it on exploration if it's our "endgame"? All money spent on these extraneous "future" programs is money not spent helping the underpriveged.

[editline]10th March 2017[/editline]

Caring about real issues that affect people like education, disability, food access, and affirmative action is trolling?[/QUOTE]

This is something that's sort of a misconception. I might be wrong in how I am interpreting your post, but it seems to imply that we must focus on the less fortunate, rather than on space. My rebuttal is simply why not both? Not only has NASA's various programs accelerated technological developments in just about every field since the space program began (think materials science, satellite imagery, rocketry, earth science, fluid dynamics etc...) but for all 300 million+ people living in the united states, we can't all just do one thing, or contribute money to one thing. Trimming the fat sure, allocating resources where they could be best used sure, but there are better avenues than cutting NASA's budget, especially when they have more than earned every dollar they have ever received. I can think of a number of other government agencies that can be cut down or simply dissolved to save money, but certainly not NASA.

[PiddlezMcFuzz]

If the bulk of the budget went into R&D and production of Earth monitoring satellites then it would be very well spent. Unfortunately that domain has switched to NOAA but without a budget to support it, since the current administration is actively trying to fight and kill the Earth as a whole.

Instead we are going to get a couple new probes for Jovian moons and maybe extra research into Mars habitation which, while still really exciting, is not what we actually need at the moment. What we need is the ability to predict weather patterns and changes in our biosphere so that we can avoid starving to death from crop failures.

But again, the current administration doesn't care about that because they won't be affected personally by it and would rather have bragging rights when they are responsible for funding the expedition that found life on Europa.

[Llamaguy]

[QUOTE=Robert Baron;51941584]Misspent in my opinion. There are millions of people in the US starving and suffering. All of the people of color and the other oppressed groups that could benefit from federal spending will be missing out because a mostly white and priveliged demographic thinks space exploration is more important than the wellbeing of underprivileged people.[/QUOTE]

Advances in space research and organizations like NASA directly stimulate and innovate our lives daily. Try to look at things deeper than the surface next time.

[WoodenSpoon]

[QUOTE=Robert Baron;51941658]Where does it end though? Why not end all welfare and spend it on exploration if it's our "endgame"? All money spent on these extraneous "future" programs is money not spent helping the underpriveged.

[editline]10th March 2017[/editline]

Caring about real issues that affect people like education, disability, food access, and affirmative action is trolling?[/QUOTE]

I don't see why we can't have a budget balanced in a way that gives sufficient attention to both improving our current state of social affairs and exploring humanity's long term investment in getting off of this planet. The question is where the interests of our representatives in office lie. It seems like they rather keep things shitty in the name of short term $$$ gains.

[Merv]

[QUOTE=Svinnik;51941702]the US army is one of the biggest employers of minorities though and a lot of minorities see it as a stepping stone to getting out of bad neighborhoods, why reduce the budget of the military if it helps the underprivileged?[/QUOTE]

There are more effective ways to help the underprivileged than to effectively offer conscription. Our current support system for those less fortunate than us is subpar at best. Social support systems would benefit significantly from even a tiny chunk of the military's budget. The amount we're throwing into it is frivolous and wasteful and could be better repurposed.

[Hey I'm Grump!]

When we get people to Mars will the game end and we get shown the victory screen?

[JohnnyMo]

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;51941699]This is a misplaced complaint considering NASA spending is an absolute pittance compared to the US yearly military budget.[/QUOTE]

To put this into perspective, the defense budget (not the total military budget) routinely changes between years by more than this entire NASA budget.

[Saxon]

[QUOTE=Hey I'm Grump;51941736]When we get people to Mars will the game end and we get shown the victory screen?[/QUOTE]

Nah its just a new era, the game dosen't end until an extinction level event or heat death of the universe (maximum turns)

[Sableye]

[QUOTE=Hey I'm Grump;51941736]When we get people to Mars will the game end and we get shown the victory screen?[/QUOTE]

according to elon musk we'll start to have horrible fps drops cas the matrix can only render one planet at a time and having a lot of people on two breaks the game

[UncaringNonchala]

[QUOTE=Robert Baron;51941658]Caring about real issues that affect people like education, disability, food access, and affirmative action [b]is trolling?[/b][/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Robert Baron;51941584]Misspent in my opinion. There are millions of people in the US starving and suffering. All of the people of color and the other oppressed groups that could benefit from federal spending will be missing out because a mostly white and priveliged demographic thinks space exploration is more important than the wellbeing of underprivileged people.[/QUOTE]

Looks like a bait/troll post to me, tbh.

[Nahash]

[QUOTE=ZombieWaffle;51941724]There are more effective ways to help the underprivileged than to effectively offer conscription. Our current support system for those less fortunate than us is subpar at best. Social support systems would benefit significantly from even a tiny chunk of the military's budget. The amount we're throwing into it is frivolous and wasteful and could be better repurposed.[/QUOTE]

The reason why the US spends so much on its military is because the US military is essentially the army of the Western world. We prop up NATO and cover the costs of the nations that fail to pay their debt to NATO plus we protect countries like Japan from Chinese expansionism. It's not as simple as reduce the money given to the military because then it forces almost everyone else in the West to start spending money on their own militaries.

[Loli Lover]

[QUOTE=Hey I'm Grump;51941736]When we get people to Mars will the game end and we get shown the victory screen?[/QUOTE]

It happens like all the movies, books, and games. Where Mars decides to seccede from the tyrannical earth gov, so we space war, then mars seccedes and we lose our space colony :(