For this assignment, I chose to focus on space exploration and the U.S.’s transition into the private sector for funding and operations.  Originally, I was pro-space exploration, pro-private-sector funding with government support.  However, one has to ask oneself if attributing such funds for space exploration is moral, when we have poverty and natural disasters affecting billions of people on our planet?  The facts I found were astonishing. Despite being “pro-space exploration” and having that undoubtedly shape my research, I wasn’t aware of NASA’s Spinoff program.  Spinoff bolsters scientific research and innovations (funded by space exploration money) generated by space exploration research, to help improve living conditions in societies around the world.  To see a more in-depth look into the research coming out of space exploration, visit: http://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2015/pdf/Spinoff2015.pdf

Its important to note that “people grossly overestimate the budget that NASA gets,” said Niebur. Obama’s fiscal year 2016 budget calls for $18.5 billion overall for NASA — 0.46 percent of the federal budget. “Most people think it’s 10 times that much.”  Furthermore, according to the Planetary Society, a nonprofit space research and advocacy organization, for the planetary science division to run well, the United States should spend at least $1.5 billion every year to explore other worlds which is less than what “Americans spent on dog toys in 2012.” (Vox.com, 2/23/15)

Congress is also set to review NASA’s 2016 budget request, which is set at $1.2 billion (USA Today, 03/10/15)

To convey my point, and the various facts I collected, I implemented Sketch 3 (http://bohemiancoding.com/sketch/).  In hopes that this visual representation would have a more compelling and less aggressive impact on my viewers.  I hoped this layout, combined with these images, would provide more compelling evidence for those opposed to any funds being attributed to space exploration (from private of public sources).

I’ve determined that despite the gross amount of funding that is required for space exploration, (especially when that money could be used directly to aid in developing nations and to end poverty and starvation) private sector funding of space exploration not only allows people to continue their grandiose dreams of space exploration, but it’s also responsible for scientific achievements and improvements that are implemented on a global scale (to improve the lives of billions). Despite global poverty and natural disasters, space exploration funding and action have helped save lives here on Earth.  Continuous private sector funding will expand our presence in space while contributing positive scientific advances in other sectors of society… 

Please see my composition below, rendered by Sketch 3