Defending NASA

Dear Editor:Re: "NASA's Bloated Budget," Letters to the Editor, 8/30/12: "job security" it is not. A step toward "mankind security" it is. Educated brains have debated for some time that the Milky Way we live in and the Earth we live on may not exist for eternity. Barring a catastrophic nuke event or a collision with an outer space object we could conceivably populate ourselves to the end. God worked, He made us this Earth. It is not a stretch (for me) that he could have made another beautiful and livable planet. Jesus Christ worked also, he was a carpenter. Scientists will continue this search. NASA does not "live under a money tree." It competes for every dollar it receives from government funds collected from taxpayers. Not all citizens pay income taxes but all citizens pay some kind of taxes if they purchase anything in this country. The space program has returned more benefits for dollar spent than any other government-funded project in this nation's history, except for the Revolutionary War and WWII. (That's why most of us don't sip 2 o'clock tea, drive VW bugs or eat with chop sticks.) These events won and preserved our freedom. No price tag can be put on it. The space program has returned benefits in the hundreds of billions: technology in medicines, electronics, materials (structural and fabric), just to mention three of the thousands of new developments and life-extending knowledge. The cost of space explorations are not shot off into space. Their wages and salaries go right back into our economy, producing jobs and security for hundred of other businesses and workers. Private enterprises are now getting into the space act. A spacecraft has already gone to the space station with a load of goodies and it didn't cost us taxpayers but a round trip ticket. Marsh Gullett Norwalk

********** Published: September 6, 2012 - Volume 11 - Issue 21