Most Americans (56%) in a 1970 survey, thought, “the first moon landing was not worth the money spent,” (Wormald). With such a disheartened viewpoint on the first moon landing somehow, NASA continued to grow. Throughout the history of NASA, “At no point in time has more than 22% of the public said that the U.S. spends too little on space exploration,” (Wormald). With an opinion clearly negative towards the outlandish spending of NASA, it is surprising that the American people did not actively protest the intense spending throughout the 20th century. Overall, the American public views NASA as taxpayers’ nightmare, wasting money on space exploration instead of putting the money, “toward[s] curing cancer, feeding the homeless, or solving other
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Without tight regulations on the budget, the private sector experiences a great advantage over NASA and the federal government. The private sector, funded by entrepreneurs, exceeds the public sector in space travel because instead of focusing on just space exploration, the private sector focuses on the future, such as commercial space travel. Instead of simply bringing astronauts into space, the private sector focuses on safety and has the ability to bring a wide range of items into space. To begin, some of the private sector companies focus their efforts on immediate monetary return: commercial space travel. With more than half of the U.S. population believing that ordinary humans will be able to participate in space travel (Wormald), the private sector knows the ability for a monetary return lies within the desire for people to travel through space. Commercial space travel spikes interest in …show more content…
Interestingly, “for the majority of its history, space exploration in America has been funded privately,” (MacDonald). Dating back to 1831 with the creation of the University of North Carolina Observatory, private investors and schools paid for expensive observatories and telescopes to explore space. The University of North Carolina Observatory cost $6,430 to create in 1831. Today, that price is equivalent to $89,000,000 an enormous amount of money. Throughout the years, private individuals funded space travel and astronomical observatories, (MacDonald), demonstrating the need for private funding, as NASA and other space programs would not be as developed as they are today without the help of private industries. Even though technologies in the space industries have existed for a long time, safety still plays an important role in space travel; yet it remains underdeveloped: “Space travel, after all, has no guaranteed returns and uncertain results, and many space missions have ended tragically…” (Farrar). The importance of safety in the space industry cannot be stressed enough; however, accidents will occur and “the industry should do its best to prevent accidents,” (Wall). Dangers occur in space travel, but it should not deter private companies from exploring space. Simply look
Without tight regulations on the budget, the private sector experiences a great advantage over NASA and the federal government. The private sector, funded by entrepreneurs, exceeds the public sector in space travel because instead of focusing on just space exploration, the private sector focuses on the future, such as commercial space travel. Instead of simply bringing astronauts into space, the private sector focuses on safety and has the ability to bring a wide range of items into space. To begin, some of the private sector companies focus their efforts on immediate monetary return: commercial space travel. With more than half of the U.S. population believing that ordinary humans will be able to participate in space travel (Wormald), the private sector knows the ability for a monetary return lies within the desire for people to travel through space. Commercial space travel spikes interest in …show more content…
Interestingly, “for the majority of its history, space exploration in America has been funded privately,” (MacDonald). Dating back to 1831 with the creation of the University of North Carolina Observatory, private investors and schools paid for expensive observatories and telescopes to explore space. The University of North Carolina Observatory cost $6,430 to create in 1831. Today, that price is equivalent to $89,000,000 an enormous amount of money. Throughout the years, private individuals funded space travel and astronomical observatories, (MacDonald), demonstrating the need for private funding, as NASA and other space programs would not be as developed as they are today without the help of private industries. Even though technologies in the space industries have existed for a long time, safety still plays an important role in space travel; yet it remains underdeveloped: “Space travel, after all, has no guaranteed returns and uncertain results, and many space missions have ended tragically…” (Farrar). The importance of safety in the space industry cannot be stressed enough; however, accidents will occur and “the industry should do its best to prevent accidents,” (Wall). Dangers occur in space travel, but it should not deter private companies from exploring space. Simply look