To all those that are against NASA and the space program and the less than 1% of the federal budget that supports us. I am an employee of NASA in Houston, TX and am amazed everyday by the work that we do to further both our understanding of our own planet and the things that we invent to help all of mankind.

And for those that laugh at us trying to find water on the moon. These are the folks that complain that money is a waste. The main reason that we are looking for water on the moon is the extreme cost to transport water off of our planet to aid in our exploration of the "final frontier". If the NASA budget were much higher and cost was not an option then we could just build bigger more expensive rockets that would use even more expensive fuel to transport the water off the planet. Just the shuttle alone costs around $20,000 per pound to lift off the planet. On Earth the average human uses about 53 gallons per water per day for shower, toilet, cooking, drinking, etc. For space that can be cut down to about 20 gallons per day. So for a crew of 6 to spend 90 days on a trip to Mars this would be about $216 million dollars just to launch the water....so as you can see these are the reasons that NASA is hunting for water on the moon and other planets.

Not to mention the fact that places that have water it is plausible that life had started at one time or another in the history of the universe. Things like this may help to explain where we came from and how we started on Earth.

Now a lot of you had mentioned things that were developed by NASA that are used everyday in our lives. All I can say is where else in the federal government can the American people realize such a substantial return for their investment.

So how much does all of this cost each taxpayer. Well the NASA budget for 2010 is set to be about 0.52% of the federal budget. That means for every $100 that you will spend on federal taxes next year only 52 cents will go to fund NASA's mission.

Interesting chart here that shows how each state's economy is boosted by the money that NASA uses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_d...

On NASA probes slam into the moon

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Posted on September 16, 2009 at 10:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)