NASA vs NOAA

by Tolu

NOAA's funding

NOAA (National Ocean Research Center) has a funding of 5.8 billion. All it's funding comes from Omnibus Appropriations law. It increased 3% from the previous years, so this bill is postive. However, both the the House of Representatives and the Senate are trying to pass bills that decrease NOAA's funding by 6% and even 11%.

All this infromation comes fromt the offical NOAA website that can be found

NASA

This year they recieved 23.3 billion, also a 3% bump from the last year. The president wanted it to be a 25% bump, but Congress refused.

All this infromation comes from the Planetary society, a non-profit, that can be found

Comparsion

Difficulty

It seems obvious that the disparity in funding is because going to space is much harder and is the "final frontier". However, according to Oceanca, the largest international ocean conservation organization, ocean exploration is harder. It is because the ocean, especially at the depth unexplored, has zero visibility, extremely frigid temperatures, and excessive pressure.Therefore, in many ways conquering space is easier.

All this infromation comes from the Oceana, a non-profit, that can be found here

Final frontier or Fruitful frontier

Space may be the final frontier, but none of the majors discovers have found something essential, merely bragging points. Space is likley going to find a viable planet, but they can't claim to feed Earth with whatever they grow. While the ocean has already proven to be a great food source with the fish: a superfood. Also the ocean is already being used to develope a way to minimize energy cost, with multiple research with promise.

All this infromation comes from the Issue, published from National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and Arizona State University, that can be found here. Also the author ,Amitai Etzioni, is University Professor and professor of International Affairs and director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies at George Washington University.

Next steps

If the conditions of the ocean are really too much to overcome for submersibles then as seen from space then satellites can be used.

All this infromation comes from the Planetary society, a non-profit, that can be found here

Image is Attributed to NASA with CC-BY-NC attribution it's called the Orion Nebula found here