Humans have always wondered why the universe is the way that it is and have wanted to explore in order to answer those questions. The questions of why this or why that are what have been driving science and exploration in mankind’s past. Those questions cause humans to use their previous knowledge to learn something new, then use that new knowledge to learn yet another thing, and so on. The big questions humans ask that are related to space exploration are what is the human race’s place in the universe, how do humans and the universe affect each other, and is there life, specifically intelligent life, elsewhere in the universe. If all of those questions were answered, humans may not necessarily benefit directly from them, but it is using …show more content…
Yes, the amount of money the US federal government spent in 2011 on NASA was $18 billion, but there are a few other factors that go against the (uninformed) belief that it hurts hurts the economy. First of all, the entire US federal government’s budget in 2011 was $3.6 trillion, which means that the money spent on NASA is only 0.5 percent of the federal budget. Even if $18 still seems to be too much, in 2011, NASA produced a profit of over $14 billion in direct return to the United States from their spinoffs, and that is not bringing in the profits from spinoffs from earlier years or spinoffs or even products that NASA helped create or improve. NASA also creates jobs. NASA has over 40,000 fully employed workers and much of the NASA’s budget actually goes to their employees. If each employee was paid only $80,000 annually, $3.2 billion of NASA’s budget would be going straight into the paychecks of their employees, which would also benefit the economy. Finally, Midwest Research Institute (MRI), concluded that for every single dollar that is spent on research and development returns an average of over seven dollars to the economy after 18 years have passed since the initial input of money. From the 1950s to the 1980s, NASA’s economic input compared to output followed that rule, so if it still follows for the year of 2011, NASA will bring back over $126