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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

The military budget buys you global dominance and never having to bend domestic policy to account for what anyone else thinks. What has NASA bought us?

I think space is cool. I have a degree in aerospace engineering because of that. But if you look at space exploration in terms of ROI it has sucked.

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Better question: what WILL it buy us?

Things like asteroid mining, colonization. Worth trillions. No, we don't have a convenient number for what asteroid mining is worth - a better unit would be 'civilizations'?

It even could bring space dominance if that's important.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/infographic.view.php?i...

> What has NASA bought us?

I'll leave this here:

https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2008/tech_benefits.html

Highlights -

- Water purification

- Land mine removal

- Freeze drying technology

- Fire resistant reinforcement

- Solar power

- Satellite phones

- GPS

All having significant military applications, as well as public benefit.

GPS is kind of a stretch

I'd also argue SMT technology; while things were moving in that direction before then, it seems like the Apollo program really kicked it in high gear with the need for the compact AGC:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer

I'd have to think that SMT was available prior to the AGC development, but I don't think it was as widely used commercially (maybe more for the military and avionics?).

DARPA was also apart of the development of GPS...

Prestige. Admiration. Beating the USSR even after their stronger start.

All the positive aspects of America's place in the world's consciousness rest on our achievements and leadership in technology, education, and exploration. In other words, NASA.

We have a lot of black marks on our reputation, too. If we keep neglecting our proudest achievement, that's all we'll have left.

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