NASA funding

In the middle of a national economic downturn, in a world where every other second a person dies from starvation, a world where 10.6 million children die annually from treatable disease and a world where global warming is threatening the existence of us all, is it right that every year $17 billion dollars are spent to fund NASA space exploration? NASA is an American organisation set up in 1958 that funds research and manned and unmanned space launches. In the past NASA has launched satelites, sent a man to the moon, launched space stations and highly technical telescopes. All of this has given us important information, but lately we have not gained any new critical research from NASA. In the past 20 or so years NASA space exploration has resulted in 17 deaths. And yet from this, little practical scientific research has resulted. The obsession of men and flight exploration shows NASA is using more and more money for media attention and less for useful scientific knowledge. Yet, with 17 billion dollars, more can be done. Did you know 95% of the worlds oceans are still unexplored? Did you know that every year thousands of new plant and animal species are being discovered? Spending money exploring our planet should be a top priority, before we explore other planets. For a few cents a day a child in Africa can be sent to school. For less than $500 dollars an animal such a a sheep, goat or cow can be sent to a family in a third world country. Sending just a few animals to a remote village can efficiently boost their economy and end starvation. People can not only eat their animals but can gain money from animal products such as milk or wool. For only $100 dollars a clean water well can be built and save hundreds of lives. Now...for those of you who aren't math geniuses, I'll help you out with that. For that much money 170,000,000 wells could be built. 425,000,000 children could be educated or thousands of animals could be sent to Ethiopia, India or Guatemala. Sometimes people don't realize what can be done for such a small amount of money. Instead of sending another robot to Mars to tell us interesting, but otherwise useless information, lets help save our planet. However, all NASA spending should not be cut. NASA does spend money researching on important environmental issues by taking satelite photographs and studying the ozone layer. More money needs to be spent on projects like these that will help stop global warming. So, my solution, the government greatly reduces the amount of taxpayer money being sent to fund NASA. Instead the money is used to help boost the economy, fund Earth and Ocean exploration and fund projects to help people in need. The rest of the money sent to NASA should be solely used to fund environmental projects UNTIL a set goal is reached. This goal could be getting the economy back to where it was or until the percentage of world wide starvation has significantly decreased. Maybe the goal would be to decrease the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Either way, goals to better the earth need to be set and reached before more taxpayer money is spent to send men to the moon,again.