The Space Of Space Exploration Essay

What is known about our universe is limited. Humans are constantly seeking to push past these limitations without realizing that it is also us, humans, who put them there. In order to learn to overcome these obstacles and figure out how to dip our toes into the pool of knowledge full of answers we desperately seek, space agencies were created. The most well known and credible space agency, till this date, is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA). It is a government-owned agency, meaning that its funding comes from taxpayer money. This also means that the amount of things that can be accomplished to further our comprehension about space exploration is limited by the cost to pursue these actions. NASA’s budget for the current year of 2016 is 19.3 billion dollars. It may seem like a large amount in terms of normal spending, but it is very small when you think about how much it costs to create some of the technologies that we send out into space. The International Space Station(ISS) cost over 100 billion dollars on its own, with the United States(U.S.) having invested $50 billion since 1994 (Minkel 1). Multiple programs and projects have been cut both early and late into the creation and planning period, and every time it has been due to the lack of funding. This is a problem with all space agencies, but since NASA is a public agency, its resources are only limited because the government controls how much they can spend, unlike private agencies who use their…