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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ColonelHardisson" data-source="post: 172266" data-attributes="member: 363">What's sad is that NASA's budget is around one-half of one percent of the federal budget. In recent years NASA has been cut to the bone, and has to keep doing the high-profile shuttle missions in order to keep its funding. Everytime I hear someone complain about how going into space is a waste of time, and that the money would be better spent on more earthly concerns, it makes me wonder if the human race really deserves to have a higher destiny. There will never be a time that some won't think the money would be better spent elsewhere. Besides, that less-than-one-percent of the budget is what's keeping us from solving all the world's ills? We wouldn't have homeless people or disease if we spent the space budget on fixing those problems? That small amount of money is what's going to put us over the top in bringing about solutions to all our problems?As for Europa vs. Pluto, the thing is, if NASA were properly funded, both missions could be done. People point out all the failed missions that have plagued NASA in recent years, using them as proof that NASA doesn't need to be funded, yet somehow don't make the connection between slashing NASA's budget and those disasters. Personally, I would rather the guys at NASA/JPL/and all the rest could make the decisions as to what missions to undertake - scientific advancement can't be legislated. It happens as a result of dedicated experts spending their lives trying to make them happen. Besides, Pluto is still virtually a mystery; I'd rather at least one mission make it there in my lifetime. Y'know, when I was 13, in 1979, I really thought that by 2000 we'd have sent manned missions to Mars, that we'd have permanant Moon bases, that orbiatl space stations would be common enough for people to go to them on a regular basis. At the rate we advanced in space exploration in the 60s and 70s, it seemed like there was nowhere to go but up to the stars. It seemed mankind's destiny lay beyond the Earth, and we were rushing to find it. Somewhere along the way we became small-minded and myopic. It's a very saddening thing for me personally.</blockquote>

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