NASA's in Trouble

[@AndDiracisHisProphet]

as a non-american I want to thank the american people for funding NASA, that gave us, humanity, so much knowledge and beauty.

[@BanterRanterr]

Same 🙋

[@_barncat]

now we're too busy paying for sex changes and free hotel rooms for illegals

[@princememphis7726]

You're welcome

[@goldnutter412]

I would push back and say.. What this guy said. People actually have no idea.. Webb was all they needed. The process began long ago, now things reorganize as they always do after fundamental experiments. Cold Atom Lab and Webb together revealed the truth about reality, undeniable but everyone is indoctrinated in old "knowledge". NASA *know* that going anywhere even past Mars is so far from feasible and people are thinking we're about to do that ? it's gonna be easy I mean how far could it be ? NASA will always be the best. Outsourcing to SpaceX.. and anyone who can keep up, for the capitalism effect. Then we get a permanent moon base, and can casually stroll to Mars. Nothing to fear but fear.

[@theoneway22]

As an American, i feel that i am over qualified to say that, your thanks is cute and all but not welcome. Please fill out the linked forms and stand by to receive a bill. Failure to pay or to set up a payment arrangement will result in your maximum data speed for all devices connected to your extended family of 3G. Also you will meet the fine collection of human beings known as the A.T F..

[@telotawa]

JWST still cost less than digging a hole under Boston.

[@HanSolo__]

Cites of the US have multiple problems. You can't just fix those. No money can. It would be cheaper to start over again in another place. Build cities the European way with fewer highways more public transport, more bike commuting and more places you can walk. Meet people. The far-away suburbs' costs are too high. That's why the infrastructure fails. You can't make a tarmac-paved road to connect a single-family house. Placed kilometres away from the main road.

[@techteampxla2950]

At least we see the hole and there is no room for mis-information on “ultimate reality” topics We don’t know what they are telling us is tru or reality

[@FightGPT]

Also a crappy 20 mile rail in Honolulu.

[@dylanhecker6686]

​@@HanSolo__the infamous construction project called "the big dig" in Boston. He's talking about corruption more so than infrastructure costs.

[@HanSolo__]

@@dylanhecker6686 I am aware of it. The thing is big corporate money used to drive the US cities to more roads, them more and then even more. All of it just to buy cars and burn gasoline while stuck in a traffic jam. Thats high-end corruption because its legal.

[@STR82DVD]

It always amazes me how little is spent on our collective future.

[@sadderwhiskeymann]

agree! but it amazes me even more how much all countries spend on weapons to kill each other 10 times over :(

[@owenelmburg6362]

Our country saddens me now

[@STR82DVD]

@@owenelmburg6362 Your country saddens me now.

[@scottmichael1493]

They were to busy stealing from our collective future

[@0xmoo]

incoming comments of "Focus on your own planet first"

[@inf3243]

I remember reading a while ago that NASA's yearly budget is less than the US Army paid for air conditioning for one year in Afghanistan.

[@CoolWorldsLab]

Ugh

[@donaldcarpenter5328]

or something just as absurd.

[@chistopherr7536]

Or how about the fact the US annual defence budget is more than NASAs entire lifetime budget.

[@MrZenmancer]

Yes, also only half as much as all the money they gave to Ukraine. The salaries of those 500 NASA employees were only half the cost of the money Joe biden gave to Hamas last year.

[@podunkest]

My replies keep disappearing everywhere I go... but I doubt they spent 25 billion dollars on air conditioning in one year, but your point is still valid. The military probably wastes more in a year than NASA spends. The US military budget is approx 800 billion, NASA's has been hovering around the 23-25 range. It's absurd for someone like me. My country used to pride itself on being an exemplary nation, or at least trying to, especially in science, technology and global achievements. Now all we care about are profits, people's personal lives and preferences and consumption, comfort and entertainment. I feel like the film Idiocracy is becoming a reality every day.

[@vikrantpulipati1451]

I dont mean to get political, but maybe we should stop voting for politicians who support gutting science?

[@shutup-gc2yk]

Joey G3noc1de is too busy funding murd3r, apparently.

[@foshyurgason]

This is 100% political. Countries need to stop invading others so we can focus on putting funding into things like astronautics and not into defending our civilians from lunatic power hungry dictators like Putin. We need to work together as countries rather than playing take back-sees to land you think is your own all the sudden

[@Isaac306mx]

100% correct, it’s the feature to keep us in the lead and force evolution! I wonder if they are so greedy that they don’t care or so ignorant they can’t see it.

[@legibby]

Like the science behind Covid

[@legibby]

Science is but a passing fable - Herman Melville said that. Meaning the story is a constantly changing one.

[@Riftwalker84]

We've forgotten who we are. We used to look up in the sky and wonder at our place in the stars... Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt -Interstellar

[@hawkdsl]

That was a great line from that movie.

[@keirfarnum6811]

“FORgotten?”

[@jonb7700]

I would amend that to say "now all we do is look down at our phones"

[@MrGoombasticveryFantastic]

​@@jonb7700lmao I was just gonna say that our species has turned into.phone zombies

[@Rando_Shyte]

Uhhhhh might want to edit that first sentence so that it makes any sense at all.

[@_D3adB0y_]

Your first mistake was thinking the people in Congress wanted anything other than money in their own pockets.

[@codys447]

No, they want power and influence too, which means they need to be reelected and conform to lobbying. Putting lobbying pressure (lobbying by definition does not necessarily involve money - a petition is lobbying) is a part of getting change, so don't give up.

[@livingart2576]

How can you say “no” followed by “they want power and influence too”?😂 By using the word “too” you are acknowledging his statement therefore agreeing with it. You should have said “yes but they also want power and influence”.👍

[@paularanya8726]

​@@livingart2576 ok

[@codys447]

@@livingart2576 He said "anything other than money"

[@TheHonestPeanut]

​@@codys447 Money is power, pedant.

[@birbeyboop]

Keep in mind that US government spending is not limited by the amount of money brought in through taxation every year, the only thing stopping Congress from spending more on NASA is a complete negligent lack of priorities. This lack of priorities is, obviously, most likely inspired by personal financial gain.

[@abody499]

you know the score

[@stateazure]

'Christians make up 88% of the voting members of the new 118th Congress being sworn in on Jan. 3' - You don't think that percentage of religious in congress has something to do with it?

[@CharliMorganMusic]

I was just thinking this. We have as much money as the collective world thinks we have.

[@NeostormXLMAX]

They need to fund more wars

[@abody499]

@@CharliMorganMusic as much as we want to print. when it's for war, no problem. when it's for making the line go up, no problem. when it's for investment in knowledge, understanding, and the future, no way

[@Spaceopticsguy2010]

A lot of people who worked on these types of projects have either retired or passed away. Very few people are aware of the degree of experience and skill required to make precision optics. CNC work and AI is filling in some of the gaps, but the field still requires capable human workers in most cases. It is literally an art form and can take decades to master. The craftsmen and master opticians who did this work rarely were given time to train their replacements because of schedule constraints, and over time, because of changes in the industry and offshoring, fewer people saw the field as attractive, so the pool of trainees steadily grew smaller. I was a master optician who worked on projects for most of the large earth based astronomical telescopes operating globally, as well as some NASA components. I retired a year and a half ago after a long career. On my retirement, sadly, it appeared that I had a career during a golden age that has since passed. Administrators and the scientific community had better realize that the technical workforce capable of completing these projects is an endangered species at this point and should take action to preserve their fields and the skillsets needed to complete this kind of work. It is absolutely disappearing as you read this.

[@SteveSteeleSoundSymphony]

Yes! That is exactly what I’ve been telling people for years. You nailed it. Unfortunately most people can’t imagine what you’re talking about. But you are exactly correct.

[@blueleader7693]

thank you for your commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and I wish you a happy retirement

[@drhxa]

I reached out to my local reps (House and Senate) via email to save Chandra and a couple did respond after a week or so. This was ~1 mo ago and took me 2 min to send via email. It's worth it guys and it really matters.

[@canister6344]

Increasing NASA's budget never hurt the people on earth, but the opposite.

[@itsmichaelnotmike]

It hurt the people off of earth?

[@nsblur]

@@itsmichaelnotmike Lmao no silly, it hurt the people on venus.

[@canister6344]

@@itsmichaelnotmike yeah it hurts the people on mars what I meant is that many every day items we use were invented by NASA

[@MmTriplem]

lol😂

[@compromisedssh]

RIP Challenger. They didn't make it to space, but they got to leave the surface.

[@DominatorHDX]

Wish we lived in a world without war, hunger, poverty etc. and the comon long term goal of all the people and countries in the world would be exploring the universe.

[@NIL0S]

I wish that too.

[@joshf9074]

Don’t worry our machines will when we are long gone less than 100 years from now.

[@birbeyboop]

It can never be done so long as the massive private entities that own the government and profit off of war spending continue to exist.

[@Thewarden2070]

We could… We just probably wont

[@dayegilharno4988]

@@joshf9074 :) "Our" machines will likely be as stupid as we and will find the most effective way to turn the whole galaxy into "numbers go up"... I just hope the Buddhists are correct in the assumption that consciousness will arise wherever the conditions exist to digest all those karmic burdens we're sowing right now.

[@Sinsaysgo]

I don't remember who did the analysis, but i recall a figure of ROI to be 1$ invested in nasa during the Apollo era returned something like $6-$7 in gdp growth. Why dont our politicians see it in that light?

[@CoolWorldsLab]

Great point

[@keirfarnum6811]

Excellent point.

[@steelerfaninperu]

That was back when acknowledging science made political sense. We had to beat the rooskies. Now you've got half the congress flat out denying science because it's more politically convenient since they can keep getting oil & gas checks as long as climate change is a hoax. You can't denounce science while also funding it.

[@Bildgesmythe]

Plus our fun toys came from the tech

[@staebs]

It doesn’t make money for the rich. It shouldn’t be that simple but it is unfortunately.

[@SteveSteeleSoundSymphony]

imo, a huge problem is that the US has pushed almost all manufacturing to Asia. The engineers and manufacturers that existed in abundance after WWII. It’s happened in the auto industry, the tech industry, and nearly everything else and US companies are all to glad to continue to let this happen. Some companies have said that they have tried manufacturing in the US, but the skill set just wasn’t good enough. Maybe we need another Sputnik effect. But I think it’s too late for that. Nobody wants to do that kind of work in this country anymore. And the cultural climate in the US has degraded so much, more kids would rather be social media influencers than engineers or plant workers. Influencers create nothing of value. So, to me that’s the biggest problem this country faces. Until our leaders and county expect great things out of younger generations, we won’t achieve anything great.

[@myleswillis]

Microsoft should step up with the cash to save Chandra. They could rename it Chandra Bing.

[@sookendestroy1]

Theyre too buzy buying farmland and making ai spying tools for their own operating systems

[@zntei2374]

Microsoft does indeed have the leading Edge.

[@seasong7655]

Insane how they cut 2 billion from the budget while paying 60 billion to military every month

[@alessioatta762]

Unfortunely we without Money there Is no Freedom

[@DemolitionManDemolishes]

Without military NASA wouldnt be able to function. This video is a bit disingenuous in the way it presents info. Comparing NASA annual budget with Musk net worth is plain wrong.

[@alessioatta762]

@James-qh7cm yes i agree, we should do more to push ahead our interest and be proactive like Russian and chinese propaganda machina does, instead we are on a waiter stance

[@paulkita]

​@James-qh7cmUkraine is not the problem

[@nousername8162]

@James-qh7cm i mean thats different, ukraine literrally dfoesnt even cost anything rn since most of the stuff sent is old thatn would have been thrown out anyways, thats just howe bloated the us military is

[@TheOneStoneAngell]

Sir, I worked on the refurbishment of the O&C building back in 08/09. I don’t think people realize how much NASA spends on infrastructure, building that were constructed 50 or 60 years ago. Also I think NASA has lost its way, they have top engineers, but very poor managers making day to day decisions.

[@autumnleaves7907]

Managers ruin everything. Something that is sadly not unique to NASA

[@hawkdsl]

NASA management is politically appointed. I would strongly disagree that NASA has "lost it's way". They have an exploration agenda, however too many hands pull NASA's strings. NASA goals shift with the political winds. Without a National mandate, like the Apollo program, they do what they can. The regular public doesn't see NASA as a necessary agency, and probably never will.

[@rabidwallaby84]

When you're criminally underfunded, and subject to the whims of Congress, that's going to happen.

[@mejuliie]

@@rabidwallaby84 Funding isn't going to change that money is wasted in a poorly designed agency structure. NASA has a lengthy history of going way over budget and being lax at best when it comes to hitting targeted launch dates. This is not okay, and should not be tolerated. One can agree that NASA should receive more funding, while at the same time acknowledging that agency structure and culture have to change. Something which should happen before deciding to throw more money at the agency. At the end of the day, wasting taxes should never be tolerated. NASA needs an overhaul, and needs to start providing realistic expectations and numbers to re-establish trust (within Congress).

[@pct2025]

Yeah the engineers probably make hardly anything in comparison to the “managers” = overpaid bureaucrats.

[@Maphisto86]

In our socioeconomic reality, only the ultrawealthy are meant to dream and play. The rest of us do the day to day work and are told to be grateful we have just that.

[@ASDeckard]

I mean you could have been born literally at any other point in human history if you would have preferred. Being levied into an Egyptian army must have been a real improvement from being a serf.

[@Maphisto86]

@@ASDeckard OK . . . So are you giving me the “love it or leave it” line? Only instead of what country I live in, it is what time in history? I guess I should tune up my time machine. 🙄 Don’t get me wrong. I love to live in a world where the germ theory of disease is mainstream, I really do. Yet just because we are living in a unprecedented time of relative plenty doesn’t mean we aren’t in trouble. Nor that we can do a whole lot better as a species.

[@ChopperChad]

Bullshit

[@joshuagharis9017]

​@@Maphisto86amen. They drank the kool-aid big time. Capitalism sucks period. Is it better than feudalism? Course, but it doesn't justify its shittiness

[@joshuagharis9017]

Why is Elon doing NASA? One man, WAY TOO much power

[@4077Disc]

I used to work manufacturing new types of heat shields for NASA (specifically the Earth Entry Vehicle for the Mars Sample Return) at work. Now I am working on a new manufacturing technique to allow for the "mass production" of hypersonic glide body missiles. Kinda sums up the vibe of this video nicely... big sad...

[@garythecyclingnerd6219]

With inflation, hard to blame anyone passing up on low NASA wages

[@annascott3542]

Sounds kinky 😁

[@nedflanders3769]

Talking to a politician about the importance of space exploration is about as fruitful as talking to a wall.

[@sadderwhiskeymann]

I live in Greece and although my country has many bad things to say about America, I've always respected and admired your country BECAUSE of NASA. I really hope NASA will keep thriving and lead my dreams ❤

[@VioletGiraffe]

I don't live either in the U. S. nor in Greece, genuinely curious: what did the U. S. ever do to Greece for you to say bad things?

[@sadderwhiskeymann]

@@VioletGiraffe it's about politics. i was never into politics so i cannot give you a clear answer. maybe we view them as nosey-war lovers. and someting about their culture makes some greeks to use "american" as derogatory. don't ask me what! (I even had a teacher in school who said that the only good thing they came up with was denim jeans!)

[@scottcohen1776]

​@sadderwhiskeymann Greece is in the clear, you don't have oil under your country 😅

[@mountainhobo]

"although my country has many bad things to say about America" -- We have something to say to Greece as well: "Get a job!"

[@hawkdsl]

You can say bad things about the US. Europe in general has said bad things about the US sense it's independence. No biggie. Despite that, we'll be here if you ever need us... because there is allot of American blood in ground over there already.

[@catchphase]

Cordless power tools are a prime example of why we should be investing in space travel and astronomy. Astronauts needed to be able to use power tools, but, obviously, power outlets aren't very common in the vacuum of space. Someone (Black and Decker) came up with the idea for a battery operated tool, so that workers could use tools without needing a 20m long power cord reaching from the kitchen up to the roof. NASA invested in the tech, and they were able to use cordless power tools There are so many other examples, like memory foam, vacuum cleaners, portable cameras, wireless headphones... even the Jaws of Life that will sav your life if you get stuck in a vehicle accident, were all invented (or workshopped/developed/invested in) because of the need for those tools in space and/or astronomy. It's crazy to think that the US government puts more stock in redundant fighter jets than doubling the budget of an organisation that is responsible for so many quality of life improvements, AND will some day play a major role in getting us off this space rock, or saving this space rock from a cosmic disaster. I am just an outsider (Australian), but with the US being such a big part of global politics and economics, I hate seeing some of the things that the government is doing to the country. Invest in science, not war (when you already have the strongest military in the world). P.S. Please stop shilling your nuclear submarines to Australia, we don't have enough money, but our government just wants more toys and is willing to throw us into billions of dollars of debt and/or start hyperinflation just so we can get them. Thank you.

[@garythecyclingnerd6219]

Australia was going to buy French subs in absence of the US ones. Don’t blame Americans for your government buying submarines. Frankly, you probably need them because you’re going to watch China light up Taiwan by 2030

[@blueleader7693]

@@garythecyclingnerd6219damn lmao

[@Alexanders-Type-I-Civilization]

It always saddens me to hear that collective taxes are being held from scientific research for the future of mankind, our future, and shifted to sectors that has nothing to do with improving evolution and the well being of our lives, like military industrial complex, media corporations, publicity promoting and marketing sector. Finally the stupidity of our leaders has a real impact on our most brightest people in science. Such same. Is this really the best we can do? Being slaves to an economic system that slowly strangle us to the point of no return?

[@ChaptermasterPedroKantor-kv5yw]

If it is any consolation, the USSR had the same problem. Once you create a powerful industry at the expense of the state then keeping that industry in existence becomes a reason of its own. The resistance of the Soviet military industrial complex through its representatives in the Party and Politburo were what made it hard for Gorbatschov to enact reforms to the Soviet state in the 80's.

[@cyberfunk3793]

You think defense has nothing to do with the wellbeing of our lives? What would your life be, if everytime your country was in conflict, you had surrendered before? Defense spending is actually needed and every person living in the country benefits from it. You can debate what is the right amount of course. Things like space exploration, culture etc. are interesting to many, but many tax payers also could not care less and would rather have that money used on things like social services and affordable housing. Space exploration is a nice thing to have, but it doesn't put food on the table of poor people so it's obviously a low budget priority and should be such. The people that wish to do this, should lobby more private funding and companies like Space-x. The public budget of a country in debt should have only items that benefit all of it's people or at least very large groups.

[@junodeer]

@@cyberfunk3793 "You think defense has nothing to do with the wellbeing of our lives?" Nobody is saying that, but lets be honest, 916 billion for defence and elon musk type people is why there is so little money elsewhere for other things... like social security.

[@cyberfunk3793]

@@junodeer Yes, the exact size of the defense budget is debatable. If other countries on the planet were like EU, Canada and Australia, obviously you could have a very tiny defense budget. But because we have countries like North-Korea, China, Russia and Iran the budget is actually needed. There is a certain deterrence effect with the budget size, when your enemies think they have no chance, they don't even try and that saves lives. So if you for example cut the budget in half and that would embolden China to invade Taiwan and American soldiers would die in the resulting war, what would be the cost benefit for those saved budget dollars vs. the lives lost? It's an extremely difficult question to answer.

[@staebs]

@@cyberfunk3793stop drinking the US propaganda koolaid. China is not out to get you. The US is the aggressor in all of these cases. Spent billions on toppling a socialist revolution in Iran and installed a fascist. Aggresses China by putting Us military bases in Taiwan right on their doorstep. They do this to protect capital for the rich oligarchs of the US while the average citizens suffer.

[@Erikaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

Honestly, ESA and CNSA really need to step up. Humanity cannot be this reliant on NASA to represent all of us.

[@radekcuhel670]

CNSA did step up. They are just focusing on other aspects of exploration. Just look at their Chang'e program. Since 2013 they landed four times on various places and conducted experiments.

[@Erikaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

@@radekcuhel670 A historically underfunded NASA still has a bigger budget than ESA and CNSA combined. That needs to change.

[@KeelanJon]

When we strip away all the earthly bs, exploring our cosmos and discoving our place in it is the only thing that really matters. It's such as shame not every human on this earth can come to the same conclusion.

[@tygical]

this is exactly how i've always thought

[@mattpike7268]

Lots of humans on earth can't even decide what gender they feel like on a day to day basis.

[@ozne_2358]

I would also like to point out the massive Mars overspending, at the expense of all other planetary exploration : no Neptune/Uranus orbiter, Europa and Titan pushed far into the future, no Enceladus, etc. etc. My low point was the choice of Mars Insight, yet another Mars mission, over Titan Mare a mission to Titan's oceans : I lost a lot of faith in the whole process.

[@Zeron108]

I agree and also the mars sample return mission is ludicrously expensive and should be scrapped and that money put into other planetary exploration the worlds you mentioned particularly Cassini style missions to Uranus or Neptune.

[@donaldcarpenter5328]

Yes, I agree.

[@SteveSteeleSoundSymphony]

I somewhat agree. A Uranus/Neptune mission, which would have to happen at an exact point in time if it was a single mission, would be my first choice. Those planets are far away, and the entire mission might take 20 years or so, (I’m just guessing), but it would be interesting. Not sure Congress would approve funding for a mission that takes that long with no immediate payoff. The Jupiter and Saturn moon missions would probably be a lot more popular and definitely worth funding. They would be the clear follow up to Juno and Cassini. But, I think Mars missions are important if we are actually planning on going there within the next 20 years. There’s still a lot to learn about Mars. I’m glad NASA has sent one mission after another to Mars. It was a fantastic plan back in the ‘90s when NASA’s budget was cut so deep that they had to make those kinds of decisions. Compared to 1990, we know a LOT more about Mars now. Only the twin Viking missions gave us much data. Actually I’d like to see NASA attempt to land on Venus. It would be a PR stunt, but maybe new technologies would be developed for that mission.

[@christopherleubner6633]

I rememer getting a bunch of KN 22 krytrons at the liquidation of a laser maker and selling one on ebay. The buyer wanted a pair if possible and the addres was for NASA, particularly the JPL. I asked what they used them for and it was for a double pulse holography laser vibrometer for examining the vibrations of rocket engines and such under test. The last laser was out of commission for 16 months with out funding to buy a new laser, and the KN22's were not even being made anymore. The new cost of one of these lasers was over 20 million dollars. Lets just say they were very happy that i had 16 more of these little tubes and got them at a good price. Thus fixed the other two double pulse lasers as well with lots of spare tubes left over. ❤

[@benjaminmllerjensen8705]

If 60% of Americans think being ahead in space exploration is of high importance, it seems the budget cuts do not reflect the population at all and are simply a mistake. Especially if it's true that those 60 are somewhat evenly distributed between the two parties they have. I am not American, but I really hope reaching out to politicians works. I am a huge fan of NASA's projects. Cheers from Denmark.

[@sookendestroy1]

60% means nothing because the 40% are much much louder and active in politics, lobbying, propaganda and campaigning.

[@pjpopp7024]

Our elected officials stopped representing their constituents s long time ago.

[@Pop-zb3wr]

Democracy isn't real.

[@ullrich]

It's one thing to say that you think something is important on a pole, but something else entirely when you have to take some sort of action to make that happen. In other words, people may say that it's important in a particular context, but when it comes to demanding it from our representatives, that tells a different story.

[@garythecyclingnerd6219]

@@ullrichWe can cut a ton of corporate welfare subsidies and DoD contracts which would 10x NASA’s budget and likely lead to a net ROI in 15 years. It’s really not hard.

[@davidtatro7457]

It's almost astonishing to think what our space programs could be accomplishing if they had even half the budget of a typical military program. For example, the totally unnecessary 1.7 TRILLION dollar F35 program.

[@sookendestroy1]

Ahem the f35 is based

[@72APTU72E]

F-22 was a waste, the F-35 is an investment.

[@mattpike7268]

The F35 program was undeniably worth every single penny.

[@LackofFaithify]

@@mattpike7268 It's penny count is still going way up, and all you have to do is take a look at the Block III upgrades to see how well that program is doing. Most of the time the more items of a thing you buy, you get a cheaper per unit price. With F-35, the more you buy, the more the per unit price increases. It's kinda nuts.

[@donaldcarpenter5328]

Those OTHER nations wanted a JSF why didn't THEY help PAY to DEVELOP that boondoggle? Should have stuck with the F-22 Raptor which runs rings around the F-35!

[@brjohow]

when does cancer get cured when does aging get slowed/stopped when does housing get cheaper when does food quality go way up when does food get less expensive when does fusion get figured out, when will fission get used to fill the gap in the meantime. when does the standard of living finally start going up again after cratering since the mid 1990s when does this planet start to become post-scarcity when does general relativity and quantum mechanics get resolved when does AI prove we are / are not in a simulation lots of big giant problems start solving problems and people will invest.

[@georgespalding7640]

I as an American I appreciate the fact that we as a country have remained safe for all these years and mostly because of our strong military. But I don't believe we need to continue to spend almost a trillion dollars a year to support it. I would rather see more spent on infrastructure improvement, healthcare, cleaning up our country, solving the homeless problem and also spend much more for space exploration to continue our search for the truth about our world and our place in the Universe. Cut the military budget in half and spend the rest on improvinjg the Human Condition in this country and also satisfy our curiosity with the Universe.

[@niksmoret2744]

Aha so you think Mexico or Canada will attack you perhaps.Yea yea next year vote 2trill's🤣

[@steelerfaninperu]

Preach. A big part of why the economy is stagnating is because your average dude just can't innovate anymore. They're too broke to break out. If we spent more on internal needs we'd put people in a better position to create the next new big thing and add more value to the country as a whole. You'd have more people able to work with healthcare too. Student debt is crippling a generation. Some of this stuff doesn't even require major spending, just sensible legislation. That's what's so frustrating to me. We more than have the resources, we just don't use them properly.

[@sookendestroy1]

Funny enough about half of the US black budget goes to space operations, spy satellites, space infrastructure for the military and joint ventures with NASA. Its so critical that they wont even give out the costs involved to prevent guesses on what they do with it.

[@Rando_Shyte]

@@steelerfaninperu The US economy is stronger than it has ever been ever. Not sure what news channels you are watching but maybe switch up and get your facts straight.

[@steelerfaninperu]

​@@Rando_Shyte How do you measure the economy? Total numbers don't translate to better situations for everyone, so I don't just look at GDP or GDP/Capita PPP. US HDI has declined the last couple of years. Consumer debt defaults are rising. Inflation hasn't declined as fast as we'd like and it's choking off economic growth due to federal debt payments.

[@StrayCatInTheStreets]

Im beginning to get the dreaded realisation that space exploration will have to become a private industry, which causes me concern that a lot of charlatans will flood the industry if it becomes somehow potentially profitable

[@sookendestroy1]

They already have with it being unprofitable, when elon and bezos started doing it a couple hundred smaller companies did too, most of which never went anywhere or launched and blew up one rocket before going bankrupt

[@donaldcarpenter5328]

The Federal government's ROLE was ALWAYS to "prime the pump" and set the conditions for PRIVATE SPACE exploration would step forward and Fed. spending be REPLACED by private equity. Didn't watch Alien and its sequels? How about the PLETHORA of other SCI-FI movies and shows???

[@willgilmore7689]

Meanwhile the US military budget is $900B!!

[@joshvanguard852]

I love everything about science and space. Convince the rest of the world to stop killing each other so we can spend less on defense . If poop hits the fan I'd rather a superior jet to a sweet space observatory. I honestly wish war wasn't such a big deal in this modern society.

[@willmartin1549]

I APPRECIATE YOUR EFFORTS LOVE THE VIDEOS

[@mattwuk]

David, I know you are busy but what are the chances of starting a completely different channel just reading old books? I saved this video for bedtime because you your voice is perfect for falling asleep to. Anyone else feel this?

[@mattwuk]

Even when you are animated and excited, your voice is velvet.

[@neelroy2918]

Yep. I concur.

[@pjhaines6620]

Lol. I usually save cool worlds videos for just before bed as well. It's not boring by any means, quite the contrary, but I also find his voice and the background noise he always seems to play very soothing.

[@justsayjay]

I remember first subscribing to this channel. I thought the content was awesome but the name was corny "cool worlds" sounds so juvenile. But then i saw him explain that the "cool" part meant cold, i.e temperature. So it meant worlds cold enough to support life as most exo planets we have found are huge hot gas giants. Now i think both content and name is awesome.

[@bearcubdaycare]

I can't help suspect that he meant cool both ways...

[@tygical]

​@@bearcubdaycarewell yeah, it would be very cool to find a cool world

[@jacobnowatzke4371]

Professor, am I missing the Save Chandra info somewhere? I don't see it

[@CoolWorldsLab]

Link in the description, www.savechandra.org

[@dephenistratordephenistrat8510]

This is surface level thinking, everytime someone says to put science in front of military budget is sounds great but would work only in a better world. The US has serious enemies and this is a time where many if them may go to war. We can pause space exploration for a few years to make sure things like nasa are not annihilated. This sucks to have to say because of how much I love astronomy but every fool out there thinks if we aren't currently shooting then self defense of a nation is irrelevant or draining the military somehow leads to peace, they just don't understand the consequences. I'd even bet they don't think there are nations that would invade us if we disarmed, which of course there are! Politicians waste trillions of dollars on useless omnibus, stimulus and other such waste bills with various names. Make them stop that and use it for science instead!

[@tcarr349]

Funding for NASA and scientific research can stir up some debate, but let's not forget the massive payoffs we've seen from these investments. So, suck it up and let's get the work done!

[@hegemonersmith1048]

There’s some bad things about America (constant baseless wars, global domination, etc) but as an Australian, I truly admire NASA’s huge scientific achievements. As well as those of other space agencies such as the ESA and the China National Space Administration. It is a great pity that NASA is forbidden by law from undertaking research with the CNSA.

[@guidedexplosiveprojectileg9943]

International efforts for space would actually be good. Also those are not bad, those are horrible.

[@derekwood8184]

All major projects always cost vastly more than originally bid. The reasons are twofold: 1: you make mistakes the first time you do anything challenging, including the specification, (it's not what you don't know that gets you, its what you know for sure that just ain't so). 2: if you bid a realistic price for a project like this then no one would ever sign off on it, so there's active pressure to avoid costs, yet there's also pressure the sell a far reaching vision for something radically new (see item 1). Regarding launch costs.. Starship could save you a lot of money because you don't have to design for lightness. Every single element of any future mission will get much much easier if you can use heavy off the shelf parts. It isn't just about launch costs, it's also about the maximum launch mass.. which will increase radically.

[@totalermist]

The focus on launch costs is misguided. Just for some perspective: JWST program cost was just under $10B, with the launch accounting for about $200M or about 2% of the cost. Since the size of the sun shield is too big even for Starship and Starship wouldn't be able to put it in its target orbit anyway, there's little cost savings there. Nancy Grace Roman formally known as WFIRST was provided to NASA *for free* (i.e. mirror, spacecraft bus and systems) from NRO, yet its budget ballooned to $3.2 billion...

[@derekwood8184]

@@totalermist but the point is to get JWST into the L2 position it could not be above a certain mass.. thus the entire thing had to be build down to a mass.. that makes it insanely expensive.. if it could have been 3 or 4 times the mass, with huge shock absorbers for launch the R&D required for the extremely challenging sunshield would have been cut by an order of magnitude as it would have been reduced to some aluminium pannels on hinges. 10x the mass, but trivial to deploy. mass is what makes everything so expensive.

[@totalermist]

@@derekwood8184 Is that just guesswork on your part, or do you have actual sources to support your claim? For reference, even if NASA gets a Hubble-class space telescope (complete with satellite bus, mirror, thermal and power systems) *for free* (i.e. WFIRST aka Nancy Grace Roman Telescope), they still manage to burn $3.2Bn on it. So I'm really curious where you get your estimates from. Also, just FYI, Starship is incapable of getting anything beyond LEO without 12 to 15 tanker flights.

[@derekwood8184]

​@@totalermist For your information, I've worked in Engineering research and development for 30 years (at a senior level, can't say more). The cost of any program is proportional to how hard the specification is, if you relax just one part of the requirement.. be that weight, size, performance or some degree of functionality then the cost of the entire program falls because each element becomes a lot more possible. Starship allows two major contraints (size and weight) to be substantially relaxed. This will allow performance from currently available parts for multiple areas of satellite and probe development. Thus dropping the cost to the off the shelf purchase price which will always be an order of magnitude less than developing it yourself, probably much more. Re starship refuelling.. I note you claim 12-15 flights to refuel with no corroborating evidence. Lets break down your claim. Starship takes 1200tons of propellant. Payload is described as 100~150 tons to LEO. A completely dry ship thus takes a maximum of 12 flights to refuel (so we can completely discount your 15 claim). Further the payload is described at 100~150tons once operational, thus if 150tons becomes possible that would make 8 flights needed to fully fuel a dry ship in orbit. Finally, no ship would ever be in orbit completely dry, Starship needs fuel for the landing burn, and enough to ensure consistant supply to the engines during the burn, thus no ship would ever be in orbit completely dry, it is forseeable that only 7x150ton payloads would be enough to refuel. 7 would thus be a long term goal, with 12 being a worst case, early development figure.

[@totalermist]

​@@derekwood8184 Thank you for your detailed response. I'm a bit disappointed you didn't address the WFIRST/NGR situation where none of your arguments apply... As for JWST, while mass and volume constraints did drive the bus and sunshield costs (see NASA nrt doc 20180003980), it still only accounts for *at most* 25% of the programme cost; so nowhere near the order of magnitude of potential savings you claimed, even if we set that cost at zero. These are NASA figures, btw. so take them up with them, not me ;) The main issues were instruments, cryo systems, material choices (not related to mass constraints), too many first-of-kind components and communication/management issues. My Starship launch number figures are based on two facts: 1) I use numbers available today (i.e. 100t payload, yet to be demonstrated, though), not aspirational goals for as of yet imaginary future version and 2) boil off. You cannot claim to be an aerospace engineer and then use figures that assume basically zero time in orbit and/or zero boil off of cryogenic propellant. I tried to account for that as refuelling (even just 10 flights) in under a week is simply not realistic, if only because of external factors like weather or NOTAM violations. Cheers,

[@prototropo]

As an American, I support great public research--both projects and the agencies necessary to tackle those projects. A much better cut in funding would address the preposterous budget we devote to military hardware. Environmental, medical and astronomic research is so much more rewarding, noble and logical. Thanks to Professor Kipping for beautifully articulating this issue.

[@blakespower]

the reason why NASA was good in the 1960's was because of the COLD WAR we had to beat the Soviets at going to the moon. but USSR was like whatever we will build a space station

[@minorityofthought1306]

Funding isn't the only problem. Being highly risk averse combined with that is holding NASA back.

[@sookendestroy1]

NASA has to be risk adverse, elon can blow up a hundred rockets and people laugh about it, NASA has one problem and its talked about for the next decade about how NASA is conspiring to steal your tax dollars for useless junk.

[@capnbeenieweenie5603]

God I hate the amount of money that goes to the military it’s sad.

[@Gary-Seven-and-Isis-in-1968]

It is in our nature until we evolve into something better.

[@HidroPig]

The problem is Never the money, as much as media, politicians and mainstream economists tell us. Money can be created at will, the US budget does not depend on taxpayer money! The budget comes first, the taxes come.later to remove money from the economy. What is really in question is something mentioned in the video: the real physical resources required to build these instruments and if they're being used instead of something else. This is the important question!

[@RaimoKangasniemi]

NASA should start using the Apartheid State's flag as their logo. The Congress would add an extra zero in NASA's funding immediately.

[@abhijeetbrahmbhatt8135]

It's really sad to see what's going on. The U.S. seems to be slipping, cutting back on science funding while countries in the East are boosting their research budgets. A big part of the problem is the younger generation here; they seem more focused on OnlyFans, TikTok, and Instagram than on science and innovation. This shift in priorities is making the government cut science funding to chase social media attention and votes. It's a shame to see more money going into social media campaigns than into crucial research. Thanks to NASA for all the amazing work despite these challenges.

[@scottjuhnke6825]

Here's the problem: NASA doesn't have anyone paying bribes to Representatives, and Senators.

[@LackofFaithify]

The most depressing part is how small most of the bribes are. MoC are really cheap...umm....dates....

[@ODSD_EXCITEMENT]

You present a troubling and bleak outlook here; there's something very out of balance. The powers at be don't seem to address this problem so, again it's up to the combined voices of citizens.

[@feroxcious]

you are way too optimistic about spacex, their quality and their timelines

[@CoolWorldsLab]

I didn’t really express an opinion either way, if they deliver, cost savings should follow, but I by no means would bet on that

[@gasdive]

I'm not sure how you can be "too optimistic" about the company that each year launches 4 times more mass to orbit than the rest of the world combined. It's not a tiny startup that's over promising and under delivering.

[@LGHTSPD675]

Give me a break. SpaceX is an absolute disruptor in the launch business. They have significantly lowered the cost and established an incredibly high reliability. It wasn't even his main point. Whoosh!

[@feroxcious]

​@@gasdive How is the artemis timeline going?

[@feroxcious]

@@LGHTSPD675 overpromising and underdelivering is musks and spaceX's MO. Not saying they didn't do anything for LEO launches. But it's definitely not going well with the larger rockets for artemis and other more serious missions. Musk is trying to put a welded grain silo into orbit and it's not working.. well it is working in the sense that they grabbed NASA's cash and blew it on expensive displays of pyrotechnics.

[@slipknot-codmyt5237]

Maybe if they hadn't lied to Congress about our little UAP problem there budget wouldn't have been cut.

[@Mr_ADK]

Some day in the distant future, people living on exoplanets will be watching a video titled "We could've never been here"

[@Bearkat87]

We already put this much into sample return, let’s freaking get it done. I hate where our country is at, it’s so frustrating.

[@codys447]

Honestly, I don't care about the Mars sample return. It would lead up to a manned Mars mission, but this seems too 20th-century sci-fi and irrelevant to the important science. We need to give up on the idea that humans are going to colonize distant toxic and radioactive wastelands, and instead focus on science that improves our understanding of Earth's place in the universe or supports the environment here. The set of Venus missions coming up (Venus Life Finder, DAVINCI, VERITAS, EnVision) are good examples of probes more fitting of 21st-century realism.

[@TheHonestPeanut]

Undrinkable water, rolling blackouts, 100 year old energy tech, laws built on human rights violations. Yeah it's a failure.

[@leoncorns1450]

So then, I'll now be looking to the Chinese to represent humanity in space and on the Moon and Mars.

[@explosivemodesonicmauricet1597]

Until you took note the ordinary CH folk support xenophobia in a literal xenos sense thanks to TBP.

[@Andre_XX]

How much do tax exemptions for religious organisations cost each year?

[@Amberdogproductions]

And to think. Had we not gotten involved in 2 wars and opened our borders, we could pay for this many times over.

[@jasond130]

When you are 35 trillion in debt, something has got to give.

[@colinsmith1495]

Look at NASA's history. From its founding, it has driven technological changes that have revolutionized the way the entire modern world works. Multiple times. On a shoestring budget. Realize that NASA was THE driver for miniaturization of electronics technologies for the first several decades of the efforts. NASA has been a big driver for more energy efficient computation at the same time. NASA has driven more nutritious pre-prepared food, cheaper and more reliable access to space, advances in camera technology and information processing. NASA has enabled us to see not just the stars, but our own world in ways we had never dreamed of before. The hardest part of funding NASA is that you can't predict WHAT the next advancement will be. We didn't go to the Moon to get PCs. But that's what we got from the drive to go to the Moon. We didn't build the Space Station to get infra-red thermometers, but that's what we got. We got better prostheses, CAT scans and radiography, memory foam, scratch resistant glass, and of course GPS, all from the Space Race. Now imagine what NASA could do with 10X the budget.

[@gravityalchemist6599]

I really enjoy Cool Worlds... Thank you.

[@blankspace0000]

The willingness to spend money on excess fighter jets and the reluctance to spend comparative pennies on NASA seems like a bad omen for the coming years.

[@BruceCullen]

Appreciate your thoughts on this all, I am sharing with good people the very very best I can.

[@timothyclute6706]

NASA's work has also been instrumental in planetary sciences. Without NASA, our understanding of the effects of climate change would be years behind what it is now. Their observations and data have been paramount in understanding greenhouse gas emission effects on bio-geophysical processes. But let's also be frank. If a certain candidate wins come November, I think NASA's budget will be the least of thee science community's concerns.

[@CoolWorldsLab]

Agreed except NASA’s budget is fairly indifferent to whose in the White House, it’s more driven by congress/senate to my eyes

[@MillennialInMedicine]

69% of Americans you say? 😎

[@Nulley0]

69.420%

[@ToomasVane]

Nice.

[@Iona_Roe_Deer]

It is very nice indeed. 😏

[@brendancurran8949]

😂😂

[@kkupsky6321]

@@Nulley0 I’m late u thought the same thing

[@aceundead4750]

Whenever NASA's budget is brought up i think i wish i could choose where my tax money went when i filed my taxes. Fully confident with that type of system the U.S. govt could still fund everything it does, just with different things getting more funding than others currently are.

[@NoPulseForRussians]

We need a powerful military but having said that, we need to divert about 20% ~ 25% of the entire yearly Defense Budget and reallocate those funds to NASA and other sectors. Our military would still be by far the most powerful on Earth and still be able to conduct amazing research at NASA. Some of these old men in the Federal Govt need to go. Once my generation takes control there will be monumental changes to how the GDP gets spent down.

[@grundged]

Sorry, but Biden needs to give Zelensky another billion dollars.

[@tonytaskforce3465]

I think JWST and Euclid will have to do for a while. Plenty of work for all.

[@wobber17]

Maybe you guys shouldn't have voted Biden in? A chance to undo that mistake in just a few months.

[@tygical]

well, the alternative was trump...

[@tonytaskforce3465]

Vote Blue and all will be well.

[@ITisWHATitIS4507]

It's blue now and nothing is okay

[@tonytaskforce3465]

@@ITisWHATitIS4507 Congress is under the control of fascist/religious fanatics. Get rid of them.

[@tonytaskforce3465]

@@ITisWHATitIS4507 The Rightists in Congress are blocking funding for all sorts of things. Especially science, which they despise.

[@tonytaskforce3465]

@@ITisWHATitIS4507 Get the fascists out of Congress so it can function as intended.

[@podunkest]

Meanwhile, we've given Ukraine about 8-10 years of NASA's budget in materiel and money. Giving NASA 1% of the US military budget would be about a 30% increase in NASA's budget.

[@Bildgesmythe]

Education! Like share and subscribe. If I hear one more person say millions into space, I'll scream. We don't box money and launch it. We make jobs ranging from janitors to scientists. We make technology that gives us our modern toys.

[@DeggaTheDev]

Lovely video. I wouldn't count on spacex for much, but that's why we need to get our own launch vehicles up and running. I'm sick of paying for super expensive fireworks. NASA is responsible for so many things we take for granted, we owe them at least a nickel for their talent and our future.

[@ashtondavis3235]

I'm an aspiring physicist, but also a united states marine. the military does not need more funding, we just need smarter people to allocate the funds we already have. so much is wasted that could be spent in better ways.

[@Mabel90666]

Huge fan of NASA. It’s all about positioning yourself in a positive light with the American people and Congress. You would think the current NASA leadership (yes, that’s you Bill Nelson) would understand this simple fact.

[@danielmarshall5458]

Where the hell is the save Chandra link?

[@CoolWorldsLab]

In the description! www.savechandra.org

[@TheAubreyLynch]

I agree with you. The lack of curiosity in our world, space and the ocean is absolutely shocking. 😢

[@joemug4079]

Agreed! For all countries at that. The world…together…needs to be science driven.

[@johnguzman8637]

Didn't see anything in the description on Chandra

[@Rodina11]

Thank you for your passionate plea. You are doing great.

[@thedarkknight1971]

Biggerer 'Bang Bangs', Bestest 'pew Pews' & Mightierest 'Floaty and Flyingy things' to harm, maim, kill and slaughter each other morer easilyer (Due to - since the 1960's the U.S. Annual Military budget has blown up to EXCEED $790 BILLION, whereas the likes of NASA have seen their budget COLLAPSE to a PALTRY $25 Billion (and dropping)) proving that, in the minds of our leaders :-... 'War Stuffs' is 'Bestest importantlier' Than... Bettering the Human understanding of who we are, where we are in this vast inky blackness of the Universe, to further our progress of education and to improve our ability to reach out and possibly live and survive as a whole, on other bodies in 'Our neighbourhood' as... Our current and ONLY 'Abode' - 'The Blue Marble', will one day NOT be sustainable as a home to us Humans and all other species, due to either an extreme Solar flareup, Meteor crashing down, or, just by our own selfish, atrocious, greedy, vile actions ie waste, pollution and viral infestation behaviour like ways... Way to go Humans in power, way to go... 👏😒👏😒👏 😎🇬🇧

[@RobbieKhan]

It's one thing that we at our age have this in mind, I am assuming that going by comments in videos like this that the vast majority of us are at least in the age range 30-50. It is up to us to instil the need to explore and stay curious to the younger generation, who then do the same for their time in years to come. If that doesn't happen, then there's no public interest in doing such things and we become slaves to the state of the system. Looking at the state of social media platforms and comment sections these days on them, this does seem to be the direction things are heading, but it's still not too late to turn things around. For the USA it is paramount that voters (who ultimately hold the power to make change happen) vote in officials who actually understand the implications of reducing budgets to agencies like NASA, people who understand science as a fundamental right for the entire planet. Because at the moment large portions of USG seems to be filled with officials who don't understand any of that.

[@juan_salvador_gaviota]

We got money for wars but can’t chip in a few extra bucks for NASA -Tupac

[@duran9664]

❌If u truly believe that light can’t escape a black hole gravity, u must believe that speed of light is not the max speed of the universe. 🤷‍♀️

[@ruperterskin2117]

Appreciate ya. Thanks for sharing.

[@YadraVoat]

3:00 - We don't want to reduce the deficit, we want to eliminate the deficit, in order to begin reducing the debt (at least as a percentage of GDP).

[@carmattvidz4426]

We should all petition NASA and have habitable worlds observatory called the "Cool Worlds Telescope". On a serious note, the Carl Sagan Observatory should be the name. I can not think of anyone more deserving of the honor.

[@xBINARYGODx]

but OF COURSE the def budget is permitted to go as high as it pleases

[@sophiewanlin8612]

As a nonamerican, I was surprised that in your 21-minute video; you didn't mention the HUGE amount of money taken by the US Army and the US weapon industry to finance it at the expense of science. It won't change any fact but worth mentioning.

[@Lmjacks]

sorry, we clearly needed all $825 billion in the military budget, there just wasn’t really any to be spared on funding scientific research. please disregard that a 1% budget cut could result in a 30% increase to NASA’s budget, i’m sure that can’t be right

[@classydave75]

Of course it can't be right... You know, it's all about democracy, we need all that money to spread it...

[@DodgeThis]

Defund politicians!

[@joshuagharis9017]

A contractor seeking profit above all else caused errors? No way

[@iamsuzerain3987]

Great video Dr Kipping. Unfortunately far too many underestimate the value of new frontiers, when they are in fact crucial to our species

[@patrick17_6]

9:45 WOA!! 16 years delay is insane

[@emmarae4322]

Don't trust people who don't want what's best for humanity. Exploration and searching for answers should never be stopped.

[@ArticulateArena]

You're not naive to fall for rising climate damage, right? Theres more people and more buildings, not more climate problems

[@MonCappy]

Personally, I think NASA's budget is far too stingy as is. Ideally the annual budget for the agency would be a minimum of $100 billion annually.

[@G-Rex95]

Thank you for making this video. Nobody wants the DOD to spend as much money as they do. I hope somebody in Congress sees your video and maybe even my comment. Thank you for everything that you do

[@Uwwerasch]

19:44 This sums it up beautifully.