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The Apollo Mission

The Apollo mission to land astronauts on the Moon cost $136 billion over 13 years, equivalent to around $10 billion per year, which pales in comparison to the current annual US military budget of $600 billion. With a similar budget, NASA estimates it could accomplish its long-term goals, like fully utilizing the International Space Station and establishing a sustainable lunar program, within 10-20 years instead of the currently estimated 100-200 years. Privately funded companies could help NASA achieve more goals like reusable spacecraft and asteroid mining if given more funding support.

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Ishaan Verma
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59 views1 page

The Apollo Mission

The Apollo mission to land astronauts on the Moon cost $136 billion over 13 years, equivalent to around $10 billion per year, which pales in comparison to the current annual US military budget of $600 billion. With a similar budget, NASA estimates it could accomplish its long-term goals, like fully utilizing the International Space Station and establishing a sustainable lunar program, within 10-20 years instead of the currently estimated 100-200 years. Privately funded companies could help NASA achieve more goals like reusable spacecraft and asteroid mining if given more funding support.

Uploaded by

Ishaan Verma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Apollo mission, one of NASA’s greatest achievements cost $136 billion spread out

over 13 years or just over $10 billion per year. Compare that with the U.S. current military
budget a whopping $600 billion per year. In the past NASA was a household name being praised
for doing so much that people naturally assumed they had a much larger budget than it really
was. Obviously NASA and the Military are two very different organizations with two very
different goals, but that still won’t stop us from wondering… what if NASA had the militaries
budget? What can it accomplish?
During the Apollo era, spending was high mainly because Apollo was not only a journey to
the Moon, but a race and the Soviets were thought to be ahead of us. And America being
behind was a wakeup call because Americans believed we should remain the world’s leader in
technology. Since than the budget has plummeted from 4.5% of the Federal budget to less than
0.5%. But if we brought it back up there are many things NASA can do like, send more people to
the International Space Station because we have not even put half the amount of people that
can fit in the International Space Station.
NASA has a long list of things they need to get done and with a budget likes the Militaries
there long list which will approximately take 100 to 200 years can be quickly shortened to 10 to
20 years. One of the smartest things NASA can do with its money is invest in privately owned
companies like Space X. So they can work together and make things like commercial space
flights, and boost deep space human missions, and help us send a robotic mission to Europa.
Than we can also invest heavily in maintain old technology like the ISS which it’s fated to be
abandoned in 2024. Also with many other we just can’t wait to see like new space stations,
reusable space planes, asteroid mining operations, and lunar bases.
As celebration for the 40th anniversary of Apollo began, NASA still hasn’t been unable to
create a sustainable architecture for lunar return, thereby bleeding the life out of exploration in
America. There is still no plan for lunar surface activities. Because they are too urgent to exit
the Moon as rapidly as possible and get to Mars. And in doing so NASA is forgetting the
principal reason they were to go to the Moon in the first place – to learn the skills needed to
live and work productively on another world. No wonder that Congress and the public are
uneasy about their space agency and its plea for more money?

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