Sure they have, but at what cost? And please don't tell me that NASA is profitable.
Sure, our nation
has benefited from space research and space technology, but it doesn't take a government program to achieve that, not at all.
NASA has actually retarded growth in space exploration by a defacto all the eggs in one basket approach.
Seriously. Out of every government program there is this is by far and away the last one people should be singling out. I don't see space exploration in a microcasim. Its full of resources, it's totally there for the taking. Had NASA done a manned mission to Mars we would have renewable energy right now. They would have had to develop it. Becuase it's way to far to ship supplies.
We could be mining Helium 3 off of the moon right now, and as a result we would be developing new technologies and open new feilds of science in the process. People Underestimate the importance of NASA because they only see rover's smashing into the surface of a random planet and exploding into peices. But they completly ignore the fact that it's debacles like that that open new feilds of science and allow technologies to be devoloped. I don't mean stupid shit like the I-Pod either. NASA doesn't give a shit about a glorified cell phone. Even though they are the reason cell phones exist at all, to them, it's ancient history. You ask at what cost? I'd say it's the price of advancment, it's the cost of saving human lives. Here, heres a small list of the things we have today becuase of NASA....
Storm warning services, Doppler radar, firefighters' radios, lead poison detection, fire detector, flame detector, corrosion protection coating, protective clothing, robotic hands, Arteriosclerosis detection, ultrasound scanners, automatic insulin pump, portable x-ray device, invisible braces, dental arch wire, palate surgery technology, clean room apparel, implantable heart aid, MRI, bone analyzer, cataract surgery tools, Gasoline vapor recovery, self-locking fasteners, machine tool software, laser wire stripper, lubricant coating process, wireless communications, engine coatings, engine design, Advanced keyboards, Customer Service Software, Database Management System, Laser Surveying, Aircraft controls, Lightweight Compact Disc, Expert System Software, Microcomputers, Design Graphics, Dustbuster, shock-absorbing helmets, home security systems, smoke detectors, flat panel televisions, high-density batteries, trash compactors, food packaging and freeze-dried technology, cool sportswear, sports bras, hair styling appliances, fogless ski goggles, self-adjusting sunglasses, composite golf clubs, hang gliders, art preservation, quartz crystal timing equipment, Whale identification method, environmental analysis, noise abatement, pollution measuring devices, pollution control devices, smokestack monitor, radioactive leak detector, earthquake prediction system, sewage treatment, energy saving air conditioning, and air purification, emission testing, airline wheelchairs, electric car, auto design, methane-powered vehicles, windshear prediction, and aircraft design analysis.
Thats a very small list, and I think I missed some of the big ones in there. Some of these where developed directly by NASA or JPL, some of them are spin-offs of technology developed by them. Like I said, people have tendancy to not see the bigger picture, in fact the majority of the time they never do. Take the Hubble for instance. People bitched and moaned about how blurry everything was when the lens was mis aligned, so the people got understandably pissed when we had to launch a shuttle to fix it. But when it was fixed people said "great we just blew millions of dollars so national geographic can have a nice spread". But what they didn't know was the the CCD chips developed specifically for hubble wound up in medical imaging devices and is now used for digital breast biopsies. In fact the CCD's are so badass that they can detect even the slightest change in any tumor and tell almost imeadiatly if it's malignant or benign. There's like 400,000 women that get breast biopsies a year dude. And normally they'd have to go into surgery to get it done. Not anymore, and that saves all of us money. And it most likely saves thier lives.
I'm not saying that it does a perfect job, no one could, not even the free market. There is only one governent agency I belive in, and thats NASA. I'd fund the whole thing myself if I could afford to. And the only reason I vehemtly support them is because they are scientists. They gain by attaining knowledge and passing that knowledge along. When people say we should privatize Space, I just wonder what would have happened if we "privatized" the louisiana purchase. Its no different really, just much larger, and more difficult to attain.
The other thing you need to consider is how slashed the NASA budget is. and how it gets robbed every year. Like when GWB promised like, 6 billion or something, then it wound up being less than a billion. It's retarded.
