Bills
| 3.23.22

Should NASA Get $18 Billion In Funding This Year? (H.R. 810)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 810?

(Updated January 16, 2018)

This bill gives the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) permission to use its $18 billion-dollar budget. The programs this legislation approves include:

 -Development for a program to send humans to Mars, and a program to launch a probe to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

 - Continued development of the James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in 2018, which would search for new planets and objects that could collide with Earth.

 - The creation of a commercial system for transporting astronauts to the International Space Station.

 - Authorizes a new aeronautics testing program that would include new regulations for air traffic safety and unmanned aircrafts (drones). 

 - Increased institutional oversight and transparency.

Argument in favor

NASA is a critical mechanism for generating scientific knowledge, stimulating the human imagination, and even protecting the planet from asteroids. Fund it.

Argument opposed

The oceans are an acidic stew of plastic bags, children are starving on the streets of every city in the U.S., and you want to spend $18 billion to send some jerks to Mars?

Impact

NASA, taxpayers, the world’s scientific knowledge, the hopes and dreams of the American people.

Cost of H.R. 810

A CBO estimate is unavailable. However, the bill text authorizes $18 billion dollars for FY 2015.

Additional Info

In Depth: 

NASA’s funding won’t come without cuts to existing programs. On the chopping block this year is SOFIA, a telescope-equipped 747, whose ability to get above most of Earth’s atmosphere gives it a better view of the cosmos.


Of Note:

NASA says that it could put a human on Mars by 2033. It would require building a really big rocket, and pushing an asteroid into the moon’s orbit to function as a sort of mid-point. Work on the really big rocket has begun, but political infighting might hamper its progress. That, and the fact that it would probably cost $100 billion over several decades.


NASA’s commercial crew program would partner the agency with private companies Boeing and SpaceX. Though the program has been in place for a number of years, it has consistently failed to get its requested funding.


As for the critics of NASA's budget — take it away, Gil.


Media:

SpaceRef

Houston Chronicle

CNN

Vox


(Photo Credit: Flickr user NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center)