Well, not mine. I'm not American. But the ESA is wasting mine instead. Well, not 'mine' since I don't pay tax. But the ISRO, the CNSA, the Российское авиационно-космическое агентство... ok it's just called Roscosmos now... these are all wasting our money!

Why do we let them?

...Because it's not a waste

So this is not going to be a full-fledged post on this subject cuz I think somebody like @fredrikaa has already written about it here, but it's more of a directory to other sources and a lead-in to a later, substantial post. Anyway.

Unbeknownst to many, NASA doesn't simply spend 50% of the National GDP on giant rockets to Mars for fun, and another 25% on faking the shape of the earth. Rather, 0.5% of the GDP is given to NASA which actually includes (dollar amount variable):

• General Science ($5 billion)
• Exploration ($4 billion)
• Space Operations ($4 billion)
• Cross-agency support ($3 biillion)
• Education ($100 million)
• A whole bunch more

In fact, all this, including earth science, environmental science, alternative energy science and more... all of this generally fits invisibly into the absurdly tiny 'science' portion of the US budget pie chart.

Thankfully Wiki provides us with a full-detailed budget pie chart from 2007, which isn't that much different from now. See if you can actually spot NASA:

How long did that take you?

If you're not the kind of person who likes reading words, NASA just published - EDIT

Since writing this they took the videos down for some reason, but from memory, they included Wind farms, bone loss medication for osteoporosis and more, roller coasters and some other pretty huge things

Much of these technologies are called NASA Spinoffs, and although some of them are convenient results of unrelated research, such as digital image sensors, this gives kind of a bad name to the research that deliberately sets out to accomplish things non-rocketey, such as the micro-chip.

So here's some more accomlpishments you likely take for granted:

• Artificial limbs
• CAT scan machines
• MRI machines
• LEDs
• Ear Thermometers
• Airplane air conditioning
• Safety grooves in concrete
• Improved tires
• Chemical detectors
• Land Mine removal technology
• Fire-resistant reinforcement in buiildings
• Firefighter equipment
• Enriched baby food
• Cordless vacuums
• Enriched baby food
• Freeze drying technology
• Efficient Solar Energy
• Water purification
• Food safety systems
• Industrial powdered lubricants
• Structural analysis software

There's actually half a dozen more and all the details for each of them you can read about here, with some individual points saving industries millions of dollars each!

They further celebrate this with 40 years of spin-offs.

These are barely tipping the iceberg, but this was meant to be a short post. Oh, hell, here's some more:

• Memory foam
• Computer mouse
• Air purifiers
• Long distance communication
• scratch resistant lenses
• Phone cameras
• Smoke detectors
• Shoe insoles
• Breast cancer detection
• Implantable Cardiac Defibrillation
• Tracking systems
• Invisible braces
• Smart ovens

Still the tip of the iceberg. You can see these in more details in this infographic.

The ESA have a markedly different yet similar agenda, and similar variety in their spending habits:

And they have their own fair share of spin-offs too, including organic membranes to clean water, software to detect wind turbine flaws, emergency & rescue robots, but also the creation of over 400 new companies expert in areas from climate to medicine, software and so on.

So is it a waste of money?

You tell me. Nasa has demonstrated that for every $1 spent on them, they bring a ROI of about $7-14 per year. So for a budget of about $17.6 billion, the US economy can enjoy a return of $246.4 - every year.

Sigh. If only they had the military's budget.

All images CC Licensed