Space may be the final frontier, but America seems to have lost interest. Buzz Aldrin is here to give all us a kick in the pants.
NASA was officially founded in 1958, emerging from the ashes of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in the wake of the SSR's success with Sputnik. By 1961, President John F. Kennedy boldly declared his belief that America could safely land a man on the moon and bring him home by the end of the decade. Challenge accepted, NASA did just that.
On July 20th, 1969, Neil A. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to ever set foot on the moon.
Now, almost 46 years later, Aldrin hopes to rekindle our ambition for space exploration. Starting with this inspiring image.
In 2015, NASA”s budget is a paltry $18.01 billion. That”s slightly over 1% of the entire discretionary spending available in the 2015 budget, which totals $1.06 trillion USD. Broken down, the American taxpayer ends up paying between half a penny to one penny per dollar to NASA. Despite the immense hurdle of such a shoestring budget, NASA scientists are still hopeful they can achieve manned missions to Mars within 15 years.
It”s time to get our asses to Mars, indeed. Light that fire of scientific wonder, Mr. Aldrin. After all, to paraphrase Stephen Hawking, we have to get off this rock…or we will die.