NASA: The Final Frontier

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the open blue and found the New World, a whole new frontier. Columbus’s expedition proved the world was round, not flat, which was what many people believed in. The next frontier was West of the Appalachian Mountains in the United States, which became known as the Last Frontier. Then, the U.S. purchased Alaska, the Alaskan Frontier, which turned out to be a gold mine. However, the true last frontier is Space. President Ronald Reagan started National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 to explore the vast area that surrounds the Earth, Space. NASA has accomplished so many things such as putting a man on the Moon, building the Hubble Telescope, or putting a rover on Mars. The Federal government

A budget has been passed in the Congress; however, that budget has not touched the floor of the Senate (Foran). As of 2004, President George Bush had an ambitious plan for NASA. The shuttle was supposed to phase out and then five years later, phase into a new space called Ares system which would be fully functional and operational. Back in 2010, NASA planned on establishing a permanent human presence on the moon and possibly Mars later on (McBrien). All of those plans NASA put down because of their financial situation. Also, the United States government needs to recognize NASA for helping the economy. As NASA first started off, it created plenty of new inventions that the scientists saw something that could help the economy from the inventions such as Tempur-Pedic mattress company. Tempur-Pedic mattress was invented for astronauts to have comfortable cushioning in their seats. The company went on to become a private and successful business (McBrien). Since NASA’s budget lessened, it has not been able to create as many inventions that could be private successful companies like Tempur-Pedic. Also, NASA purchased their materials from other businesses (McBrien). It does not just build everything the scientists need. NASA has so much potential for the United States’ economy by investing in other businesses and creating new jobs for the people that the government needs to invest more money in

The United States first began a space race against Russia. However, Russia slowly fell behind and China started to become a country well versed in technology. A decade ago, China just launched their first astronaut into space and went from conducting space walks to launching a small laboratory into space. By 2020, China plans on completing their space station and launching that same year (Berger). Even though China seems so modest compared to NASA, China has had a steady pace and a set budget. The Chinese government has been able to agree upon a budget and plenty of other funding for their space program and goals while NASA has great expectations from the government in human explorations without sufficient resources (Berger). Also, Professor John Hickman from Berry College has disputed that today’s modest achievements are setting the future for China’s space program to become the dominant player in the human space exploration (Berger). The United States has almost always been the dominant country in the world, whether it was from war to space. After all of NASA hard work such as putting a man on the moon and a rover on Mars, the government is going to let China pull ahead in the human space exploration. The U.S. does not follow behind others, they lead others. And NASA should be leading China into