9/23/13-9/27/13

     This week I focused more on finding a mentor than research. I sent an email to both Dr. Steven J. Dick, a NASA Historian, and to Wendell Mendell, a longtime NASA employee. Dr. Dick replied and accepted which is great news. I also finished the research goals handout. Next week, I definitely need to get into hardcore research. Dr. Dick, as a NASA historian might be able to point me towards certain helpful sources.
     I found a paper that describes the economic value of NASA according to usefulness and economic return among other things. "USING THE VALUE MEASURING METHODOLOGY TO EVALUATE GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES" by Kevin Foley uses Value Measuring Methodology which  compares both qualitative and quantitative aspects such as usefulness to society, economic achievement, etc. to rate a government program.

9/16/13-9/20/13

     This week, I had a conference with Ms. Bullis concerning my topic. She approved my topic and I told her what I've done so far, for example, I read Neil DeGrasse Tyson's book Space Chronicles which talks all about my topic, which is reasons there should be an increase in NASA's funding. I also found a paper describing public support for NASA in general, and have decided to try to run a school-wide survey with similar questions as in the paper. Dr. Tyson still hasn't replied to my letter, which might be because he hasn't received it yet, so I will look for mentors hopefully directly from NASA, or people related to NASA.
   
     I also got a suggestion from my mom that I should talk to professional researchers to get an insight in the difficulty of getting funding. I want to talk about not only the most popular area of NASA, the space research and exploration, but also talk about how important its more minor programs are like weather mapping or satellite research.

     "Public opinion polls and perceptions of US human spaceflight" by Roger Launius is an analysis of various surveys taken over the years concerning the public opinion on various NASA programs. It also disproves the popular assumption that public support skyrocketed during the Apollo program in the 60s and 70s.

9/9/13-9/12/13

     This week, I finalized my topic into researching the benefits of NASA research. I also mailed a letter to Neil DeGrasse Tyson to ask him to be my mentor for this project. We also did extensive MLA citation practice in class with our 7th edition MLA handbooks. Next week, I want to start doing more serious research and look for more mentors.
     I also found two pictures that both depict the breakdown of the US Budget. One of them is for the 2010 fiscal year, and the other is for the 2013 fiscal year. I found that in both cases, NASA gets around 0.5% of the US Budget, while the National Science Foundation gets a fraction of that.

8/3/13-8/6/13

           This week, I sent my topic idea to Ms. Bullis. I want to research more government-funded science research and its benefits. She okayed it, and now I have to narrow my topic down. Next week, I want to create a question and submit a topic proposal. I also found various sources concerning the 2010 and 2013 US Budget, and spinoff technologies that stemmed from both NASA and general science research.

           "China sets course for lunar landing this year" describes China's plans to launch a rocket towards the moon with a soft landing on top of it. The article also touched upon the fact that the Obama Administration abandoned the plans for a moon launch allowed the Chinese to plan to put a man on the moon by 2020. This site is important because one of the only times NASA got a budget spike was during the Sputnik "crisis". China is about to put the US in a similar situation by becoming the second country to land on the moon.

            The website, spinoff.nasa.gov, is a site that lists and describes useful and innovative technologies that at one point were inspired by technologies used by NASA. The technologies range from medical innovations to advances in gaming landscapes. This site is important because just a little funding to NASA creates a multitude of innovative and useful products that replaces at least 10-fold the money spent.