Artist's depiction of Curiousity exploring Mars
Federal Funding for Mars Exploration

With only a very small chance of landing successfully and an estimated $2.5 billion price tag, the rover coined Curiosity touched down on Mars on August 6th, 2012.

Essentially, the rover’s mission is to prepare for future human exploration and even the probability of human habitation. During the “seven minutes in hell”, an overwhelming number of people were able to watch the event live either via NASA’s website, YouTube or even live in New York City’s Time Square. For now, the $2.5 billion project is a success.

But was Curiosity really worth $2.5 billion in funding from the federal government? Is NASA and the government-run space program an essential aspect of America’s economy, the next frontier or the future of humans? Or is NASA still even worth funding when other parts of the economy are struggling and even if some NASA programs have failed miserably in the past? 

Make sure to discuss both sides of the argument in your essay.


History of NASA/Space Race
http://www.history.com/topics/space-race
http://history.nasa.gov/factsheet.htm

Curiousity
http://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/to-boldly-go-curiosity-on-mars/
http://www.usnews.com/science/news/articles/2012/08/27/can-curiosity-mars-mission-inspire-like-apollo

NASA Cost and Budget
http://www.space.com/15595-nasa-budget-cuts-president-obama-veto.html
http://www.nasa.gov/news/budget/index.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0730/Curiosity-s-Mars-exploration-Is-it-worth-the-money-video

News about Curiosity and other programs
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/07/us/mars-unmanned-versus-manned-exploration/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/science/space/curiosity-rover-lands-safely-on-mars.html
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/failure-to-reach-mars/
http://www.economist.com/node/410285