Have you ever felt the exciting instinct to explore as a child, but get disappointed as soon as your parent locked the doors to adventure? It is human nature to explore, to discover new ideas, to learn more than already known, and this urge improves our daily life in various ways — satellite television, invisible dental braces and ear thermometers are all examples. These inventions all have one thing in common: NASA research led to the creation of these assets, and NASA studies have aided us in many other ways, through expanding our knowledge of science and the world around us.

But what would happen if NASA were to stop being funded? Without NASA, the creation of new tools or the discovery of new research would heavily decline, and this means that the following generations would experience a decrease of new engineers and scientists. As of now, NASA is still funded by the minuscule amount of tax dollars being put towards it. It doesn’t take much to fund NASA, therefore, why are we stopping this beneficial space agency?

Supporting NASA boosts and furthers innovation, research and creation. Even the man that all children look up to, Bill Nye the Science Guy, once voiced his thoughts on this situation, believing, “NASA is an engine of innovation and inspiration as well as the world’s premier space exploration agency, and we are well served by politicians working to keep it that way, instead of turning it into a mere jobs program, or worse, cutting its budget.”

NASA developed many scientific fields through its space exploration, allowing humans to reach better posterity while encouraging many to keep progressing to creations of higher quality. For example, enjoy sleeping and happily sinking in that oh-so-comfortable memory foam bed after a long day of work? Guess what, NASA produced it when researching on how to improve crash protection. In addition, many people who wear glasses appreciate not having scratches on them, but how are they resistant to those scuffs? When NASA studied aerospace coatings, they figured out how to make glasses containing this anti-scratch coating. Without the continuation of these developments, daily life would progressively become harder as new problems arise.

Additionally, there is a need for more people focusing on engineering, energy, and manufacturing to solve modern problems such as finding renewable energy sources. While those against giving NASA funds believe that NASA distracts the world from these pressing issues, countless numbers of students continually are becoming interested in studying these topics due to NASA’s published works published about these very domains. Because of NASA’s efforts, instead of distracting students from those problems, NASA brings workers to the area.

Numerous people who are opposed to granting NASA funds may argue that there are so many issues on Earth, so why put funds towards space exploration and research? Alongside making upcoming workers interested in pressing issues, NASA also works to solve the world’s problems through its findings. This organization has made many discoveries concerning energy resources and other serious global problems. Despite the service NASA has done, those against giving NASA funds also have a common misconception concerning how much money NASA actually receives; for many years, NASA’s budget has only accounted for about 0.5 percent of the total U.S. federal spending, while other departments of the U.S. get much more funding, rendering the amount NASA obtains almost imperceptible. Many people have noticed this unfair spread, such as the ingenious astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson who has remarked, “In just one year, the expenditure of the U.S.’s military budget is equivalent to the entire 50-year running budget of NASA combined.”

NASA receives significantly less money than other U.S. departments. The amount of money in one’s personal taxes that goes towards funding NASA is a whopping $10 a year – little compared to other departments. That’s not much money to potentially add to other areas of the government, so there’s no point in taking away NASA’s funding. Even if no more funds were given to NASA, the amount earned wouldn’t be enough to fix some pressing issues on our planet, while continuing to give NASA funds results in research that helps solve these problems.

The world can only improve if NASA continues to be funded, as this important agency keeps releasing new discoveries and perspectives on daily and major situations. This will lead to the creation of new inventions and more solutions to proceed enhancing what we have now. Instead of locking the door, NASA is like the parent opening the door to discovery. With NASA, we achieve dreams that we once thought were impossible. As the kid within us would excitedly say, “To infinity and beyond!”