Neutering NASA

Conservatives generally believe that everyone should benefit from a continually expanding economic pie. If government policy encourages private sector growth, the economy will expand at an acceptable rate A rising tide raises all ships. Liberals, and especially the current administration, believes that everyone should receive a small piece of a stagnant economic pie. The end result: those pieces will continually get smaller because the pie won’t remain stagnant, it will start to shrink.

Nowhere is that more evident than in Obama's proposed NASA budget cuts; scrapping the renewed effort to put a man on the moon and beyond. The shuttle program is scheduled to end in 5 months, and America will be totally neutered when it comes to space exploration, reliant on the Russians and the Chinese for flights into space to honor our space station commitments. That is pitiful and shameful.

To someone like Obama, a liberal academic community organizer, this kind of cut makes perfect sense. Why worry about space when we should take care of the poverty stricken here on earth. That is a hard argument to refute.

HOWEVER, what this pious bleeding heart fails to understand is that the space program has been a major driver of our economy, providing not only for direct military benefits, but also a much larger benefit to our civilian economy and our standard of living. The gambit goes from basic science information to metals to food preparation to communications to clothing to airplane production to…just about everything. If ever there was a place to put stimulus money, this is it.

Here is a list of minor benefits from the space program that effect our every day lives:

1) Invisible braces: Don’t think they are important? Ask your teenage kids or you wife who needs mid life orthodontia. Made from material to protect the antennae of hit seeking missile trackers.

2) Scratch Resistant Lenses: Any glasses wearer knows the value of these. Developed from NASA technology to protect scratches on space suit visors.

3) Memory Foam: It’s more than the mattresses you see advertised on television. It’s used to prevent bed sores in bed ridden patients and seniors, as well as for prosthetic devices. Don’t forget motorcycle and NASCAR seats. Developed by NASA for space craft seats for extended periods of sitting and for comfort when landing.

4) Ear Thermometer: A real plus for adults, and a major advancement for babies and children. Developed from NASA technology to measure temperature of stars.

5) Insoles for Shoes: Not funny. If you wear athletic shoes, you are a NASA beneficiary. All athletic shoe companies use the NASA technology originally developed to allow for breathable insoles and elasticity for space suit shoes.

6) Long Distance Telecommunications: Use your cell phone today? Thank NASA for the development of communication satellites. Enough said!!!

7) Smoke Detectors: When you change the battery in your smoke detector when time changes, thank NASA. Home smoke detectors were developed from fire alarm systems used in spacecraft.

8) Safety Grooving: What’s that? It is used in roads and runways to move water off of the road and away from tires. Developed by NASA to improve the safety of its aircraft.

9) Cordless Tools: Anyone that has to undo a screw on the outside of the house or in an out of the way location knows the value of these modern marvels. Developed by NASA for work in space where electric tools would need a very long cord.

10) Water Filters: Used in just about every home filtration system, NASA developed the use of charcoal bits and other types of carbon to purify water when there is no fresh water available. This doesn’t even include mass disasters like Haiti.

I hope that President Obama gets a hold of the above list, and thinks twice about shrinking the pie instead of expanding it. This type of spending creates real jobs with real products made by working Americans in the private sector. Of course, in a neutered America, who needs it when you can work for the government?

(The above opinion piece was based on an article in How Stuff Works – Ten NASA Inventions You Might Use Every Day by Cristen Conger)