AH challenge : 1% of US GDP for NASA from 1972.

Archibald

Banned
How can NASA budget represent 1% of US GDP, starting under Nixon administration around 1971 ?
A kind of "iron rule" never broken on the next 35 years until our days.

Do not change the presidents since Nixon.

For info, NASA budget currently represent 0.6% of the GDP.

I don't know enough US institutions.

How much difference would this rule make to the shuttle, probes, space station, and Hubble funding ? big boost ?
 

Jasen777

Donor
For info, NASA budget currently represent 0.6% of the GDP.

That's higher then I would have thought. Keep in mind the whole government - federal, state, and local, only spends about 35% of the GDP. The military's budget is around 4%.
 
I think you're out

See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_budget#Annual_budget.2C_1958-2008

For 2007, the NASA budget is around $17 X 10^9 (17 billion)

Now compare

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

The US GDP is around 13.8 X 10^12 (13.8 trillion)

The US is spending around 1/1000th of its GDP on NASA - if you want to calculate as a fraction, it's

( 17 X 10^9) / ( 13.8 X 10^ 12 ) == 0.0012

Expressed as a percentage, that's 0.12%



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Anyway, you need some major event to get the US to spend more on space... maybe Pioneer 10 spots what appears to be an alien artifact in the asteroid belt in July 1972, and the artifact seems to being manoveuring...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_10
 
Big Success

NASA would need something absolutely spectacular to get anything like that sort of money. Here's a few possibilities.
1. Something that has a good chance of being an alien artifact, possibly active, in the outer system.
2. Full blown militarization of space, with NASA bacoming an independent branch of the armed forces.
3. Something wicked this way comes...a dinosaur killer asteroid is sighted, or there's real reason to expect the sun to warm up so a solar shade is needed.
4. Something that makes it really worthwhile to get a lot of people on Mars or the moon...rich unobtainium deposits or something.
 
(I typed this before your correction EDIT)

The first post says the current figure for NASA is 0.6% of the federal budget (not the US GDP). And they want to increase it to 1% of the federal budget (not US GDP)

Following those figures, and saying the federal budget is about 1/3 of the US GDP, that means the current figure is about 0.2% of the US GDP, and they want to increase it to about 0.3% of the US GDP, i.e. a 50% increase. I'd imagine that kind of increase could be plausible if the Russians do well in space, the president likes space, or there is votes in it.

On the other hand 1% of the GDP is a 5 fold increase. I'd imagine that's only plausible with stimulation by aliens, monoliths or Draka... and in that case it's as likely to be 5% or even 10% as opposed to 1%
 
i used SunilTanna date for 1% GDP for NASA in 2007
makes $1.38^11 = $138 billion !

info about the federal budget data (1934 to 2013) can found here
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/hist.pdf

NASA has no more problems

5 Space station in Orbit
Colony on the Moon
a Base on Mars
and the USS Discovery fly back home after fist manned Jupiter orbit mission

ok lets put "2001: A Space Odyssey" aside :D
and take a realistically look on NASA with 1% GDP

the Apollo program runs to Mission 20 until 1974
the Saturn V is still build and Backbone of NASA Launch rockets.
from 1975 a big AAP program with Skylab later 12 men space station
1980 then a Big space Base with 48 men also a base on the Moon
in same time manned flight to Mars and Venus

maybe NASA start to build O'Niel Space Colony and Solar Power Sats in 1990s....
 

Archibald

Banned
thank you michel. But i need calculations according to the Federal budget, not the GDP.

Mods, is there a way to change the bloody title of this thread ?
 
Maybe the Apollo 18, 19, 20 would not be canceled and I will presume also that NASA will make a Moon Base at Moon by 1980. More unmanned space explorations to the other planets.
 
The easiest way is giving NASA a lot more tasks. Give them all US space ops: spy and comunication sats, a missile shield and so on. Let them also have all airplane development and a lot of general research and so on.
 
Bottomline you need the public to want to go to Mars and beyond to get an uber NASA budget. I say someone makes an epic movie that enthralls the public to sending men to Mars. This in turn inspires Nixon to do the same.
 
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