Space: The-Final-Frontier-in-a-Galaxy-Far-Far-Away-Danger-Will-Robinson!

With the launch of the last shuttle up to space the other day, there's something that came to me that Jason's been saying for months now. Given the current state of our economy, and the world economy for that matter, Jason keeps saying, (imagine semi-yelling and a few fist pounds) "If I were in charge, the first thing I'd do is scrap NASA!" My first instinct was, "No! NASA's in charge of space!" Since then, when it's brought up, I've tended to flip-flop around on my opinion, as I'm sure I'll do here.

Against NASA: It doesn't really do anything. When's the last time the discoveries about the nature of space have helped us here at home? Has that red dwarf millions of light-years away told us how to better harness our natural resources? Have sunspots spelled out a secret way to end child hunger? Did the pluto-ing of Pluto help midgets feel taller? What I'm getting at is that the funds alloted to NASA (which is A LOT!) could be put to much better use here on our home planet. Money spent on researching black holes and dying stars should be put towards the federal deficit, into (necessary) committees that have been nixed, help to lower taxes, or into education, for example.

For NASA: But space is cool...

Against NASA: It's not like were in an arms race with the Soviets anymore. Who are we competing with, and why are we competing in space? Americans have already proved that we're better and ballsier than everyone else--many times over.

For NASA: But space is cool.

Against NASA: Who wants rocket scientists to make money actually working on rockets?! Put them to work elsewhere; somewhere that will benefit other earth-bound organizations. With all my sarcasm, I honestly have no idea where a rocket scientist would work. In the automotive industry designing cool, futuristic cars? Teaching about rocket science as a lost art in community colleges? Government energy programs? Who knows... In all my infinite compassion, I don't give a hoot where they'd work. I'm sure someone else will figure that out.

For NASA: Space is coooooooooool!!! I took an Astronomy 101 class in college and, while I didn't enjoy all that math stuff, I learned a lot about the awesome things that happen in space. Dying stars, galaxies, gaseous nebulas... All things that give us a glimpse of God's awe-inspiring creations. We recently attended a photography presentation of collages taken by Hubble. It was ama-za-zing! Huge systems billions of miles away, millions of galaxies in one snapshot, the colors, the energy, all those molecular interactions caught by a human-made telescope. It's humbling to see how truly small we are.

Considering the great Classic-style debate we've just taken part in, I have some solutions. They shall be implemented straight away, saith the Great Liz.

1. Scrap most of NASA. Get rid of the shuttle programs (done!). Unfortuately the cool profession that about 47% of kids growing want to be some day, astronauts, will become almost obsolete.
2. Keep overseers/maintainers/regulators for the satellites in orbit.
3. Keep a committee of people in charge of making sure asteroids aren't going Armageddon all up in our bizness.
4. Keep Hubble to take cool pics, but decrease the number of astronomists to analyze all the deep space happenings. Things happening that far away aren't affecting the needs of Earth at this point in time.
5. Keep the "aeronautics" part to help us become even more efficient while buzzing around on our little blue marble.

My point! Focus on the needs of those who live here on Earth! Spending millions and billions of dollars out there that could be spent here would be nothing but beneficial. But remember--space is cool. And I'm totally okay if they decide to keep programs, albeit on a smaller scale, to further our knowledge of the universe. This is a topic easily debated... please, discuss.