
Do we really need another Apollo mission? - sweetdreams
http://trueslant.com/gregfish/2009/07/31/do-we-really-need-another-apollo/
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azgolfer
NASA is underfunded ? The whole Space Shuttle program is a huge waste of
money. Robots are far better in space than humans.

~~~
oomkiller
I would say NASA is woefully underfunded, especially compared to the seemingly
infinite budget for national defense. The defense budget for the US for FY2009
was $515.4 BILLION (from Wikipedia) compared to NASA's FY2010 REQUEST for
$18.686 BILLION (Official Press Release). To add a little more perspective,
you can take just a couple of projects that the DoD works on and make it ==
NASA's ENTIRE budget!

 _Missile Defense - $8.8 Bil._

 _F-22 Raptor - $4.6 Bil._

 _V-22 Osprey - $2.6 Bil._

 _DDG 1000 Destroyer - $3.5 Bil._

This comes out to $19.5 BILLION! All of the projects listed above are in my
opinion relics from the cold war arms race, combined with the military
complex's deep hooks in government. Also, these are just the projects that we
KNOW OF, how much money do you think all of the black projects take up?

If we took away these projects and gave most of the money to NASA (effectively
doubling their budget), I think that we would see lots of great work and
scientific achievements, along with a increase in patriotism.

On the topic of whether we should go back to the Moon, I believe that we
should. I feel this way not because I think it would be cool, or even that me
might learn some new things (we would), but mainly because it would be a
stepping stone to Mars. We could use the Moon to build and launch our manned
ships to Mars and other planets and their moons. We could also more safely
store nuclear reactors and materials on the moon, allowing us to build
advanced nuclear engines just like the 'mad scientists' dreamed up back in the
olden days. If anything, the ISS has been a waste of time, I think we should
have built an extensive base on the moon, instead of putting some tinker-toys
together in orbit.

