NASA 2015 Budget: Europa Mission, Orion Big Winners As Space Agency Receives An Extra $500M

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $1.1 trillion federal budget bill Thursday, with NASA receiving $500 million more than the White House requested for the 2015 fiscal year

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It's the combined bipartisan effort nobody saw coming; to support space exploration and scientific research which is mutually beneficial. The funding will go to some major projects including: Europa , Orion, SLS (Space launch system). Keep in mind that all these projects have very near dates within a few years. So that means we'll be exploring the oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa, privatizing manned space flight, and propelling large masses up out of Earths orbit before 2020. I also should add the categorization of exoplanets.

Finally, the most well deserved project given a boost yesterday was the James Webb Space Telescope or JWST. It was almost canned in 2012 due to underfunding. I'm particularly pleased considering I brought awareness to this travesty by publishing a mobile gallery app. It's primary mirrors are hexagonal and 21'5 ft in diameter. It will unlock the mysteries of expansion, dark matter, and dark energy. Additionally it'll gather information about how the first galaxies formed, and analyze planetary atmospheres using the most advanced near infrared spectrograph or 'NIRSpec' to date.

Space exploration is coming into a new age and it is imperative to keep it properly fueled with the resources it needs. These things improve our quality of life because the technology we use now was introduced initially through the space program!

Finally good news in an endless sea of horror.

a reply to: gorsestar

This is good news. I'm actually excited the U.S is taking these steps. I want to see more of these projects!

I think it's amazing they have a rover roaming around on mars lol. Now lets get some real space exploration going and learn about terraforming Hostile planets

And the materials that can be gathered can aid in science research and development 10 fold. Imagine being able to mine rare elements and compounds?

The things we will learn and see.

Your headline is completely wrong. The entire Federal Budget is $1.1 Trillion. NASA is getting $18 billion of it.

Well it may be good news, but for the most part, I'm almost certain any and all NASA missions will be once again guided by the secret society stumblebums, so we'll get more of the same.

mmm maybe i'm paranoid, but this doesn't sound like good news to me...
i mean, nobody has ever cared about nasa, they have been working with a 20 dollar budget for the past what, 20 years?
if they are getting that kind of money, i can only think something bad is gong to happen.
Hopefully i am wrong and this is all because finally people are understanding the importance of scientific research...but does anyone on ATS trust the Powers That Be to be so mart all of a sudden?

This is wonderful news. Finally the Government is spending money on something of which we can all be proud.

So 1.6% of the budget goes to space, and they got about 3.3% more than were expecting.

Is that a win?

Think of where we'd be right now if we didn't react foolishly after 9/11 and instead flipped all those monies into space tech/exploration.

Alright...

What the hell kind of nefarious secret agenda does the US government have up their sleeve with future space exploration ?!

Never trust when the feds dole out what looks like a generous 'offering'.

Pfft.

a reply to: gorsestar

This is going to sound harsh.....But. We should stop funding Nasa and many other things including much of the military industrial complex.



Look around the country is about to collapse from an economic failure. We are 17 trillion dollars in debt and climbing. The cost of living is rising much faster than inflation.



Bottom line..........WE CAN NOT AFFORD THIS. I am so sorry to say this but it is the truth.

a reply to: CranialSponge

Unless of course competing nations like India, China and Russia are "aggressively" expanding their own space prorgrams....

So there is that. I expect a greater portion went towards our "space defense" budget.

I also think Curiosity's continued success and a renewed interest in space has aided a bit as well

a reply to: SubTruth

Who cares about the economy when you can make a big shiny spectacle instead to take your mind off of the true state of humanity?

How much longer can we continue in a constant state of conflict? A more pressing question than the curiosity of what lies on Mars imo.

a reply to: finitedualities

The likelihood of humanities unification increases the further we step into space. Aside from the philosophical and moral questions that we can finally put to rest we can also rapidly expand our technological base and provide increased oppurtunities to everyone.

And we might get to have sex with alien babes....

a reply to: SubTruth

$18 billion is nothing. We spend more a year buying quack herbal and dietary suplaments.

a reply to: Thorneblood

With the leadership currently in place, unification would mean the end of our world. Color me unimpressed until someone worth respecting takes charge. Though, the discovery of some Asari types could change my train of thought completely

originally posted by: SubTruth
a reply to: gorsestar

This is going to sound harsh.....But. We should stop funding Nasa and many other things including much of the military industrial complex.



Look around the country is about to collapse from an economic failure. We are 17 trillion dollars in debt and climbing. The cost of living is rising much faster than inflation.



Bottom line..........WE CAN NOT AFFORD THIS. I am so sorry to say this but it is the truth.

I agree, in that the United States spends way more money than is necessary for military! I may be in Ireland right now, but I am actually a US citizen, studying abroad. The US spends more than the next top 13 countries in the world!!! In 2011 they have spent more than China, Russia, UK, France, Japan etc... see the link below

www.washingtonpost.com...

Isolated year? Think again... Go to number 5 on the link above... It talks about military spending from 1948-2012. Sure, they have downgraded some of the spending but they have gone back and forth. The main issue is that they have had close to a minimum of a $400 Billion investment in military since 1952. Even when the people of what is "supposed" to be the greatest country in the world (which we are not) go uneducated, starve, and freeze due to lack of housing/clothes/heating, they still find money to spend on military! This is unacceptable in my view. You could also say they have a cap coming up... the cap is over $500 Billion dollars per year! What really needs to be done is stop all major spending into research with minor layoffs! I mean come on! If they have been spending this much money per year since 1952, why don't we have spaceships, and laser guns already? They need to stop spending in military, send some to NASA (because that is important) and give the rest to education, infrastructure, etc... Of course this is all my own personal view haha and may not fit in with others ideals!

We do have laser guns.

a reply to: finitedualities

Luckily this endeavor has no end and leaders change.

How ever it breaks down I'm all for the increase.

Flame away

The more money into NASA the better. If I ran the world (or play running the world on TV) I'd put up a constant flow of dozens of rovers to Mars, the moons, and probably Venus (if they could invent a rover invincible to high heat), toss up many more major telescopes, and plan and finance manned missions to Mars and the "best" moons. When it comes to space exploration money shouldn't be, but is, a limit and a deal-breaker. In a perfect world, we'd be fully exploring other perfect worlds.