So, the equivalent of over half a century of the DARPA budget ($3 billion&#x2F;yr) five times over, or two National Science Foundations ($7 billion&#x2F;year), or half of another National Institutes of Health ($30 billion&#x2F;year).<p>The NSF alone is responsible for over 20% of public nonmedical basic research in the United States so for the price of <i>one</i> boondoggle we can increase that total pool of funding by 50%. <i>For over half a century.</i><p>Or we could nearly double NASA&#x27;s budget and give it an economy of scale it hasn&#x27;t had since the Apollo program to carry out even more basic research into astrophysics, climate change and metrology, geophysics, flight, material science, and countless other technologies that <i>actually</i> trickle down into the public market