An Essay Concerning the Objectives of the National Aeronautical and Space Administration

An Essay Concerning the Objectives of the National Aeronautical and Space Administration




Introduction
The United States federal government is ultimately responsible for the annual budget allotted to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for space exploration and research. Conflicts arise when a decision must be made between economics and research development. Engineers do not want to see their important research ideas and projects fall victim to cutbacks, but it is also an engineer’s responsibility to consider cost effectiveness and economics in the decisions that they make every day.
Over the past fifty years, the space program has been a topic of controversy. Society cannot decide what our position in space should be. Is outer space the “Next Frontier”? Some people believe that exploration is simply a waste of time and money. They argue that NASA has not progressed with the same fury of the 1960’s when man landed on the Moon during the...