I think there's a lot to be said for inspiring kids to take a serious interest in the sciences (a real issue, even though it's been STEM-lorded to death online). Space travel is super fucking cool.
More concretely, there are all sorts of broadly useful technologies that were pioneered in the space program. There are studies on the ROI of NASA and we get like 8-9 dollars in GDP from every dollar we spend on it (not the best measurement, but it illustrates the point).
Back in the Apollo days, yeah, it was about $7 per dollar, and a large bit of that was weapons. Today, it may be as high as $40 per dollar and largely pays off in things that we use daily. None of the sensors we take for granted in a smartphone would exist without space development.
NASA has brought you everything from velcro, to strain detectors, to the sensor that tells your headphones they're on your head.
I think there's a lot to be said for inspiring kids to take a serious interest in the sciences (a real issue, even though it's been STEM-lorded to death online). Space travel is super fucking cool.
More concretely, there are all sorts of broadly useful technologies that were pioneered in the space program. There are studies on the ROI of NASA and we get like 8-9 dollars in GDP from every dollar we spend on it (not the best measurement, but it illustrates the point).
I'd bet a lot of that ROI in GDP is just weapons though
Back in the Apollo days, yeah, it was about $7 per dollar, and a large bit of that was weapons. Today, it may be as high as $40 per dollar and largely pays off in things that we use daily. None of the sensors we take for granted in a smartphone would exist without space development.
NASA has brought you everything from velcro, to strain detectors, to the sensor that tells your headphones they're on your head.