A Powerful 1%: Increasing NASA’s Budget
By Emma Warner
T
Economic
Development
he National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) does so much more
than just spaceflight and exploration,
though those are both important aspects
of the organization. According to NASA’s
fiscal year 2016 budget request, their current purview includes science, aeronautics, space technology, exploration, space
operations, education, safety, security,
mission services, and construction, and
environmental compliance and restoration.1
The entirety of NASA currently receives
only about 0.5% of the United States’s federal budget. The only other time its funding was this low as a percentage of the
federal budget was in 1960, two years after
its inception.2 Increased funding would
allow NASA’s various projects to progress
at a faster rate, improve safety measures,
and facilitate huge leaps in the progress
of human spaceflight. As it stands, a large
number of NASA’s programs and projects
have been cancelled, postponed, or underfunded due to budgetary restrictions.
NASA research and technology have led
to many significant innovations in science, medicine, and communications, including the development of heat-reflective
emergency blankets and an improved air
traffic control system.3
Each year, reporters write scores of articles about the inevitable proposed budget cuts to various NASA programs and
departments by both the House and Senate. This is a hotly debated issue as many
do not see NASA’s operations as essential.
However, NASA is a vitally important organization both domestically and abroad,
due to the technologies it develops, the
research it conducts, and the advances in
space exploration that it makes every year.
Background
In 2016, NASA received $1.3 billion
more than it did in 2015 for a total of approximately $19.3 billion in funding. This
is about $0.8 billion more than the NASA
request for 2016. However, this was not
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enough to fully fund all of its programs,
including their Exploration budget, for
which they requested $4.5 billion and received $4.0, and their Safety, Security, and
Mission Services budget – $2.84 billion
and $2.76 billion.4
The Planetary Society has proposed
funding for NASA’s Planetary Science Division at $1.5 billion a year for the next
five years in order to keep both large and
small programs afloat.5
Because NASA falls under the non-defense discretionary budget category, it has
to compete for funding every year, with
its funding as a percentage of the federal
budget declining fairly steadily since the
1990s.6 It is important to note that while
NASA’s budget is higher than expected in
2016, NASA projects the need for a higher
budget each year for the next few years.7
A larger budget would mean more jobs
and a boost to the economy, as well as a
better standing in the eyes of the scientific community abroad.8 NASA is currently
working on several long-term projects including a 2018 launch of the James Webb
Space Telescope and several Mars-related
missions.9 These endeavors would help
bring the United States back to the forefront in terms of space exploration while
continuing to lessen our reliance on
the space agencies of other countries to
launch missions. These projects are also
very costly and require full and steady
funding in order to stay on schedule.
A higher budget would allow NASA
to become self-reliant and to continue to
contract with domestic companies such
as SpaceX and Boeing on Commercial
Crew launches. Such partnerships reduce
the cost per seat of transporting NASA-trained astronauts to the International
Space Station when compared to the cost
of NASA’s current contract with Russian
Federal Space Agency for the same service. Without the entirety of the funding
requested for these contracts for fiscal
year 2016 and on, NASA will continue to
rely on Russia to transport its astronauts
to the space station and stifle the growth
Roosevelt Review
Recommended Action
I propose increasing NASA’s budget
to 1% of the federal budget of the United
States.
Though there are no major organizations that are dedicated to this figure,
many prominent scientists and individuals have spoken out about how important NASA funding is to a large variety of
fields. In 2013, popular science educator
and mechanical engineer Bill Nye wrote
an open letter to President Barack Obama
urging him to fund NASA’s planetary science division $1.5 billion dollars, less than
10% of NASA’s total budget, which is in
turn less than 0.5% of the total federal
budget. He cited their work in searching
for life on other planets and asserted that
space exploration is “part of our national
character.”12
The best way to reach the 1% figure
is through public awareness campaigns.
People do not realize how much of the
technology that they interact with every
day has been made possible by NASA
technologies. According to a 2010 CNN/
ORC poll, 50% of Americans believed that
the money spent on the (now defunct)
space shuttle program would have been
better spent elsewhere.13
The people of the United States need to
contact their representatives. It is also important to consider the positions of Presidents and Presidential Candidates when
voting. Essentially, the opinion that both
the public and Congress hold of NASA
has a significant impact on how it is prioritized when the federal budget is written.
Lobbying efforts are also incredibly
important. There are already many existing groups that actively support increased
NASA funding, such as the Planetary Society and the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, though only
the nonprofit Penny4NASA officially supports the 1% figure.14
Endnotes
1. “FY 2016 PRESIDENT’S BUDGET
REQUEST SUMMARY.” (2015): n. pag.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Web.
2. Rogers, Simon. “Nasa Budgets: US
Spending on Space Travel since 1958.”The
Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 01
Feb. 2010. Web.
3. “Frequently Asked Questions.” NASA
Spinoff. National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, n.d. Web.
4. Dreier, Casey. “An Extraordinary Budget for NASA in 2016.” The Planetary Society Blog. N.p., 18 Dec. 2015. Web.
5. “Save Our Science: FAQ.” The Planetary
Society Blog. N.p., n.d. Web.
6. Callahan, Jason. “The Competition for
Dollars.” The Planetary Society Blog. N.p.,
27 Aug. 2014. Web.
7. “FY 2016 PRESIDENT’S BUDGET
REQUEST SUMMARY.” (2015): n. pag.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Web.
8. “NASA Orders SpaceX Crew Mission
to International Space Station.” NASA.
NASA, 20 Nov. 2015. Web.
9. Granath, Bob. “’Reach for New Heights’
-- NASA Budget Unveiled for Fiscal Year
2016.” NASA. NASA, 2 Feb. 2015. Web.
10. “NASA Orders SpaceX Crew Mission
to International Space Station.” NASA.
NASA, 20 Nov. 2015. Web.
11. “NASA Spinoff.” NASA Spinoff. N.p.,
n.d. Web.
12. Nye, Bill. “An Open Letter to President Barack Obama.” The Planetary Society Blog. N.p., 06 Dec. 2013. Web.
13. “Space Exploration.” PollingReport.
Polling Report, Inc., n.d. Web.
14. “Planetary Society Joins Forces with
Space and Science Organizations to Support NASA 2011 Budget Proposal.” The
Planetary Society. The Planetary Society,
20 May 2010. Web.
Economic
Development
of these private companies.10 The funding
for this endeavor falls under the category
“Commercial Spaceflight” in the budget
request.
NASA’s projects also regularly lead to
many of the technologies that we use today
– outlined in their annual Spinoff publication – including GPS systems and body
imaging technologies such as CAT scans
and MRIs. An increase in budget means
more time and energy spent developing
these incredibly important technologies.11
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