Since man first made contact with the moon in 1969, there has been a continuing desire to gain more knowledge about the unknown realm of the universe. This has led to countless efforts in dynamics outside of Earth. According to a 2011 study, the space shuttles flew a total of “135 missions, starting with Colombia in April 1981 and ending with Atlantis on July 21” (sciencenews.org, 2011). It is also recorded that NASA has made space voyages totaling 542,398,878 miles traveled, or 21,156 orbits around the Earth, spent a total of 1,332 days, 20 hours, 1 minute and 34 seconds and She transported 355 people between this period. time (sciencenews.org, 2011). These efforts by NASA surely cost a lot of money. In order to accumulate a picture of the money spent by NASA, in fiscal year 2012, the United States federal government approved NASA with funding equivalent to 3.9 billion. dollars. NASA ended up investing about $20 million in its own (NASA) projects. In particular, during its existence, NASA has spent approximately $790 billion, since 1959 (Hamilton). At first glance, this amount of money may seem unreasonable, but compared to other federal departments, NASA is actually not that expensive. For example, here's what other departments ended up spending in 2013:• Department of Defense - $618 billion• Health and Human Services - $78.3 billion• Education - $71.2 billion• Housing and urban development - $33.1 billion • Energy - $28.4 billion • Agriculture - $21.5 billion billion (Amadeo, 2014). NASA actually accumulates more federal spending than the Justice Department, Transportation, and Treasury. Middle of paper ... social programs that NASA money could contribute to if the government focused solely on its own social programs. Space exploration plays a major role in advancing the knowledge of the human mind, but we cannot determine whether or not it harms the quality of some human lives. Taking money away from space exploration does not automatically mean that there will be an increase in the quality of life for some people. solving global economic and social problems. It depends on the government and the people spending the money. The question that needs to be answered is whether NASA is truly a productive and profitable financial investment when other people are constantly experiencing hardship in their lives in the form of hunger and homelessness. Additionally, we need to determine whether the United States is continuing its space exploration efforts through NASA, or whether it is doing so ethically...