"Scott's Brain"

Congratulations to NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for successfully landing our nation’s most advanced Red Planet rover, Curiosity, in Mars’ Gale Crater!

I’d like to address some grumbling I’ve heard this morning ever since news broke of Curiosity’s flawless landing. The complaints generally go something like this: “We spent $5 billion on this mission. Why can’t we feed starving children / build our nation’s infrastructure / (insert your own pet project here)?”

My answer is that it’s not an either/or proposition when it comes to NASA, or science research in general. Criticizing our space program because there are underfed children in the United States is like criticizing your heart surgeon after a successful valve replacement because he didn’t fix your hernia, too.

Now don’t get me wrong; feeding poor, hungry children is important, and I do think our government has a key role to play in that worthy endeavor. But it’s not NASA’s job to feed poor, hungry children. Moreover, a robust sciences program is vitally important for our country’s future economic prospects—it’s hard to feed starving children if the country is broke, and if we cede our leadership position in space and other advanced sciences, we doom the United States to a long, inevitable slide into mediocrity.

NASA’s yearly expenditures are a rounding error in the federal government’s annual budget, yet we get so much back from it. If you want a target that is ripe for slashing, look at the Air Force procurement budget for the F-22 and F-35 programs. Look at the Navy’s budget for new ships. Hell, look at the entire U.S. defense budget.

The United States spends forty-one percent—41%!—of the entire planet’s military spending. We outspend second-place China 5-to-1. In fact, we outspend China, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and the next ten countries combined. (Source: www.globalissues.org) The cost of a new aircraft carrier alone would pay for the child hunger programs some of my friends are agitating for. But no, we need to float another city-sized tub for the Navy. If you want to point fingers at ridiculous spending, our nation’s defense budget is the place to start, not the sciences which are already shamefully underfunded.

So I say, congratulations NASA/JPL! Keep up the incredible work you’re managing to accomplish on the shoestring budget you’ve been allotted, and pay no attention to the naysayers who argue we shouldn’t spend money on science research. If the United States intends to remain a leader in the 21st century, we cannot ignore the sciences. We cannot ignore space research. We cannot ignore our future.

Tags: budget, defense, JPL, military, NASA, science, United States