NASA's Share of Federal Spending Graph 1957-2019

EdwardHeisler · 2018-07-13 10:42:04

louis · 2018-07-13 13:44:46

NASA have no credible proposal to put a human on Mars. Hence the lack of enthusiasm.

EdwardHeisler wrote:

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Terraformer · 2018-07-13 15:09:57

Shouldn't there be a major decline in 2007/2008, since federal spending spiked due to the bailouts and stimulus packages?

JoshNH4H · 2018-07-13 19:08:12

If you were to start the graph in 2000 or so it looks like there are two substantial dropoffs, one between 2004-05 (Iraq War/Medicare Part D?) And another one in 2007-08 (Bailouts, automatic recession spending increases, unemployment extensions, etc.), then a long slow decline from then as the sequestration caps limit the growth of most kinds of discretionary spending (including NASA) without touching mandatory spending (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, basically).

SpaceNut · 2018-07-13 20:20:40

Either Nasa learns how to do more with less or there is going to be no Nasa or manned missions.

kbd512 · 2018-07-13 21:08:01

NASA has more than enough money to send people to Mars, but they have to decide whether or not they want to let industry do its part or if playing with big rockets and big space capsules is more important. Someone at the agency needs to act like they have a pair and simply decide that they're going to do something useful and then devote all available resources to that task. If you want to chop down a tree, then you don't swing the axe at random parts of the tree. In the short term, I think we should return to the moon. In the mid term, we should have a Mars mission.

SpaceX and ULA have proven that they can get the job done if we're willing to use reality-based hardware solutions to do lunar missions. We don't need a reprise of the Apollo Program. Unfortunately, the Baby Boomers who now inhabit the leadership positions within Congress and NASA are fixated on re-creating that program because that's what they saw on TV as kids that they thought was cool. Real progress is only one decision away. We can decide we want to do it or not. If we're just interesting in doing it, we can. Whether it looks like Apollo or not is irrelevant.

SpaceNut · 2018-07-14 20:23:19

Before the great crash we would talk about the budget dollars that Nasa was going to recieve for each year and what they were going to accomplish with the money.

Nasa Budget 2017

Nasa 2007 Budget

Nasa 2006 Budget

2005 budget year effects - How it will effect Nasa's Future