We can dare to dream of the stars again, if only we can achieve this small thing.

[Anomalocaris]

It's not entirely clear to me marginal return of additional dollars spent on NASA is really more than the marginal return of the same dollar spent on national science foundation or national institute of health.

I tend to think NSF and NIH are better investments at this point in time. I think with the privatization of satellite and launch industries, it makes sense for the exploration functions of NASA to eventually be passed onto NSF.

NASA was conceived as an organizing agency to beat the soviets in the vital fields of high performance military aerospace technology and ballistic missile technology, and secondarily as vanity tool to try and trump the soviets bragging rights excessively emphasized in an more naively idealistic age. It probably was never a sustainably efficient organization for advancement of generally applied and basic science.

[Minimalist]

It increase in taxes is about 1 penny a tax dollar.

The republicunts would shit a brick.

[libalchris]

Of course nobody minds raising 3 pennies per tax dollar so we can bomb another country.

[Adjusted Sanity]

Signed. Hope this passes.

[KichigaiNeko]

Signed.... (fingers crossed)

[Chuff]

Half a percent, that's higher than I thought it would be - I imagine that the UK's is of an order of magnitude smaller, pretty pathetic.

Any news on when NASA's replacement to the space shuttle will be making an appearance?

[Angrboda]

In the interest of clarity, while it's not clear how that 0.53% should be measured (there are legitimately different methods), 0.53% of the federal budget for 2012 was $20 billion dollars. (Providing my math is correct and there's a favorable wind from the East. har har) Are we saying that this $20 billion dollars is better spent on NASA than any other potential use? Curing cancer? Adequate police forces? Sheltering the homeless? Educating our children about the science we already know? I find such a balancing equation far from trivial.

Just to put it in perspective, that 0.5% over ten years could reduce the national debt by 0.5%. Are space dreams that will end up being paid for by mortgaging our children's future more important than that future. Again, I find the arguments not simply uncompelling, I see no arguments at all. It's a "Don't Worry, Be Happy," approach that I find less than laudable.

[Anomalocaris]

Any news on when NASA's replacement to the space shuttle will be making an appearance?

I think it is reasonable to suppose the shuttle will never be replaced. Anything intended to deliver astronaut into space in the foreseeable future will be just a capsule.

The shuttle's design and configuration was dictated by an unusual flight profile designed to facilitate an unique military photo reconnosaince mission. That mission is obsolete due to technology and geopolitical changes. Shuttle's successor will no longer need to cloak design features dictated by these military requirements in disingenuous civilian specifications, so will return to the much more economical and risk free capsule design.

[fuckass365]

Honestly, space exploration is the only that truly "matters". Everything else is worth dick if we just die out on this little rock. Signed.

[libalchris]

As of now, there are no plans to replace the shuttle. NASA spent a long time and a lot of money working on the Constellation program (which was the Orion capsule.) It was designed to take man to asteroids and eventually to Mars, but congress slashed the funding for it.