Kennedy vs. Obama on Space
July 30th, 2008 By _randall Filed Under Political Space
While Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has been compared to John F. Kennedy, Obama has been far less supportive of human spaceflight today than Kennedy was nearly 50 years ago. Michael Huang makes the case for Obama to change course. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1171/1 to view the article.
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7 Responses to “Kennedy vs. Obama on Space”
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While Space Exploration is important and serves its purpose, some of the money that is spent on it should be used to take care of the humans already living on this planet. If I had a choice of what issues I’d like to see the next President address or make a priority, space would be some where down on the list, but certainly not at the top of the list. John F. Kennedy made some wonderful changes in the 1960’s, and since then the world has changed a lot and in too many ways, not for the better. If there is someone who can help solve the pressing problems we have in our world before we venture out into other worlds, then, he’s got my vote.
Interestingly enough, Obama recently made a statement changing his stance on space.
Also, I would argue that the funding spent on space exploration does take care of people here on the earth. Take the remote sensing data used to support post-Katrina humanitarian aide, for instance. The assistance provided by NASA to fight fires in California recently (and recognized by the Governor for doing so) is technology we would not have without past investments in a strong space program.
If we do not invest in space exploration now, we will lose many benefits to people here on the Earth in the future. Do we really want to trade in our future to support short term goals?
True there are many advanced technologies that have been developed out of space exploration. But I can’t say that they were all developed out of necessity.
It seems that our ancestors lived longer life spans and a life of more quality with a sense of purpose. Sure there were wars, evils, wickedness, natural disasters, etc… but somehow life went on and now we are at this point where we are seeking answers beyond the sky. The issues we are facing as an economy now are way more pressing and will in fact effect us in the long term. What difference does it make if I can see fires from space if our children (the future) are being raped daily, do not have books in school, and are being abused, orphaned, jailed, or murdered. How is space going to help me keep my home, or afford to take myself and my child to the hospital when we are sick? My only question to those advocating to put space exploration in the FOREFRONT of the government’s problems is how exactly how will Space save us? I do not have an issue with space exploration. But I don’t see it as a priority in my life at the moment as I struggle to survive.
I guess I’m still trying to figure out why the government spends sooo much money on defense and space exploration and I’m constantly responded to with the list in the link below.
http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html
Don’t get me wrong, this list is significant. I think more people would be more apt to support Space Exploration if it was publicized more and made to seem more relevant to the life that the average person lives. I just find it hard to believe that there is so little money in the government spending budget to take care of other things. I know that Obama will be changing his political stance soon on Space exploration. But I don’t feel space exploration is the area where our country is suffering. I mean can space exploration really not afford to take a temporary cut and backseat so other issues can be addressed? We are hurting in the areas of science and math based learning. This is a grave concern. Sure, the kids know how to program DVD players, play video games, and use all kinds of cell phones…But they have no clue on how those things came to be because our school systems are suffering and households are suffering even more.
I feel it would be a better wise investment to spend more money on rebuilding the home structure, fixing our classrooms and education systems, and the environments our children are being raised in. Then, perhaps the spending on space exploration and defense will have added value.
Rees:
Thank you for taking the time to respond to our blog. I think you would find it interesting to see how space applications have enhanced your life, including some of the medical equipment/procedures that will benefit you and your children in the future, as well as many other ways public safety, fire, criminal investigation (CSI) type of activities have benefited from the space program.
You can visit the interactive site here: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/nasacity/index.htm
For a book detailing spinoff technologies from NASA, click http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html
I thought I would post back with my thoughts on this discussion, which I find to be very interesting.
There was one assumption that I want to address; I don’t think anybody in the space community is pushing the idea that NASA be made the top funding priority for the United States. The space community is just saying we don’t want to see it slip off of the table for all the wrong reasons.
Funding for NASA is currently less than 0.58% (just barely above one half of one percent) of the overall federal budget which is a small investment for what we get back economically. Every dollar in the NASA budget supports people on the earth many times over. For instance, not only does NASA funding support good jobs (lots of trained technicians, i.e. “space mechanics”, not just engineers with degrees), but the people doing these jobs also spend their dollars supporting their homes and their communities. NASA funding creates a large economic multiplier (each dollar does more good than 1$ worth).
One other side note; NASA funds a huge number of education projects. If we really want to kick start science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning, we really need NASA doing exciting stuff to inspire and educate young students.
If Obama wants to find more funding for education, that’s great, but my opinion is that ransacking NASA’s budget to do it would be an epic strategic failure. Why would he take away an inexpense, yet, major source of inspiration that supports his final goal?
I have to agree with Matt that NASA has a key role to play in education - not only in funding education projects, but also in providing more roles (teachers, scientists, astronauts, doctors, etc) in the earth and space science communities as we continue to learn more about our planet as well as the Universe beyond.