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Well surprisingly, NASA has proven to be an excellent investment. I'm not sure the exact figure but when I was a counselor at Space Camp our camp directors routinely said that since the creation of NASA in 1958, for ever dollar put into the agency, about 8 dollars is created in the economy through the development of new products, procedures, and technology. These new things can either lower the costs of existing products or create entirely new industries in and of themselves.
Example, with out the need to miniaturize computers for space craft, we probably wouldn't have reached the small size of computers today. No Palms, no laptops, no cell phones, no game boys, no GPS among other things.
Again, I don't remember the exact figure nor do I have an actual source other than my experiences, but considering the accuracy of everything else I heard during the summer, I have to believe it.
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