Nearly everyone on planet Earth has heard of the organization called NASA. They may not know that NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but they do know that it runs the world’s most successful space program. Though founded in 1958, NASA was immortalized in 1969, when it sent a man to the surface of the moon. The event was the landmark of the twentieth century, and cemented the United States as the world leader in space exploration.
The economic benefits that the United States reaped from its lunar landing cannot be overstated. Leaders in aerospace are leaders in technology, and leaders in technology are economic superpowers. If the American energy and auto industries matched the level of excellence of NASA, the United States would be technologically untouchable.
I would bet that the vast majority of Canadians haven’t a clue what CSA is. The Canadian Space Agency is the Canadian equivalent of NASA, but the two organizations are hardly equivalent. CSA is a fine organization. They participate in the expensive practice of space exploration on a meagre budget; it is however the level of funding of national space organizations that determines the extent to which they may participate.
Here is an order of magnitude scale for the kind of aerospace related activity you can afford for a given amount of American dollars in 2011:
$100,000,000,000 Manned interplanetary mission
$10,000,000,000 Manned lunar mission
$1,000,000,000 Unmanned rocket for satellite placement
$100,000,000 Complete communications satellite or a 747 airplane
$10,000,000 Space payload (eg, Satellite Antenna)
$1,000,000 Basic helicopter
$100,000 Half a tank of gas for a 747 airplane
$10,000 One foot wide meteorite (collector’s item)
$1,000 Typical coach plane ticket with return
$100 Nike sneakers to jump as high as you can
$10 Movie ticket for Apollo 13
$1 Paper airplane
