NASA Strides in Face of Budget Cuts

The International Space Station is the third brightest celestial object in the sky. A man-made control center shines brighter than billions of stars and all the planets in and out of our galaxy.
Despite its luminescence, funding has been a primary difficulty for NASA as the country is very skeptical on whether or not space exploration is a worthwhile investment. Every year, they go through a stream of budget cuts in each of their programs.
This year they faced millions of dollars in cuts for Earth Science, Astrophysics, Planetary Science and even Education.
However, despite these restrictions, NASA has still made strides in outer-world studies. In this past year, the Mar’s Rover drilled into mars rock and found water and the first discovery of actual organic compounds on another planet- though very small.
Adding to the theory that Mar’s may currently- or had in the past – harbored life.
Since this discovery, so much has been revealed by our own solar system. Two of Saturn’s moons, Europa and Enceladus, were discovered to have an exceptional amount of water. The latter of which has a warm ocean with hydrothermal vents, making it the strongest contender of celestial bodies for being habitable. And the prior has even more water than Earth though it’s only roughly 60% of Earth’s size.
Innovations in technology have also led to some more advancements in space travel in general. Recently, through the power of 3D-printing, NASA was able to email astronauts a wrench from the ground to space.
The Hubble space telescope was revolutionary in space discovery and photography. This year marks its 25th year in Earth’s orbit and it continues to thrive until this day.
Late in 2014, NASA’s Voyager 1 became the first man-made craft to reach interstellar space and it is still transmitting.
NASA has managed to continue making scientific revelations despite lower funding. But if we are to continue making strides in understanding the universe the budgets cannot take many more slashes.
This year has proven that though we know so little about what is happening in the infinite space surrounding us, we have the capacity to solve these riddles.