Have you ever given any thought to the 11 Most Expensive Science Experiments in The World? Well, we have, and we came up with a list of them. Thanks to some of these projects, amazing things have been discovered about our universe, although a lot is still left to be learned. Speaking of amazing and high priced things, you should definitely check out our other article about the 10 Most Expensive Paintings in The World.
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As there weren’t any concrete results about the most expensive experiments, we searched through different blog posts like the ones done by Forbes, NBC News, amongst others, looked for the ones that costed the most (some of the prices had to be adjusted to inflation as many of them happened several years ago), arranged them from lowest to highest and came up with our own unique list.
11. Cassini-Huygens Mission- 3.26 million
At the beginning of our list, we have the Cassini-Huygens Mission. The spacecraft was launched in 1997, and it arrived at Saturn in 2004 to study the planet and its moons. If you’d like to learn more about this amazing project, you can – here.
10. National Ignition Facility- 3.5 billion
This is the largest laser in the world and one of the main objectives of the experiment is to find a clean and abundant source of energy.
9. The Viking Program- 3.8 billion
This program consisted of two spacecrafts launched in 1975, that landed on Mars in December 1976 and returned images of the planet’s surface for the first time.
8. James Webb Space Telescope- 8.7 billion
This experiment is not actually finished yet. The telescope is currently under construction and the launch is expected to happen in 2018. One of the mission’s goals according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is to find the first galaxies that were formed after the Big Bang. You can find out more about that here.
7. Large Hadron Collider- 10 billion
The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s largest particle accelerator, a circular tunnel that has a longitude of 17 miles and it took about 30 years to construct. It will be used to study some of the greatest mysteries in the universe, like the Higgs boson, a particle that had been theorized about more than 50 years ago and thanks to this experiment its existence was proven.
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6. Skylab- 11 billion
Skylab was the first space station launched by the US, and it orbited through Earth from 1973 until 1979, when it returned, scattering parts in different places, including Australia. The country decided to act upon it and fined NASA a $400 for littering, which the agency refused to pay.
5. International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor- 14 billion
Halfway down our list of the most expensive science experiments, we have the Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. This is one of the projects in search of a clean and unlimited source of energy through fusion power. After many debates between the seven members that participated in the construction of ITER, European Union, Russia, South Korea, India, Japan, China and the United States, it was decided that it would be located in France.
4. The Manhattan Project- 23 billion
You’re probably familiar with the name Robert Oppenheimer, well, he was the physicist in charge of the research in this experiment. After it was discovered that the Nazi’s were well on their way of developing a nuclear weapon, the Manhattan Project was created in 1941 and it lasted until 1946. As a result of the research, the atomic bomb was invented, at a price of almost 2 billion dollars, which adjusted to inflation are equivalent to $23 billion.
3. Apollo Program- 110 billion
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for humanity”. This iconic phrase was voiced in 1969 by Neil Armstrong during the first landing on the moon done by humans. Project Apollo’s first mission was in 1966, the last one happened in December 1972, and there were 20 in total.
2. The International Space Station- 150 billion
The construction of this project began in 1998 and since 2000 it has been occupied by researchers, in expeditions that go between two and six months. Many types of investigations are being conducted up there, and thanks to some of their research they played a major role in the development of a vaccine against salmonella.
1. NASA Space Shuttle Program- 192 billion
Finally, to finish our list about the 11 Most Expensive Science Experiments in The World, we have NASA’s Space Shuttle Program. This project was active from 1981, when the Columbia became the first shuttle ever to orbit the Earth, until 2011. Thirty years is a long time, and the vehicle remained practically the same, with very few modifications. As consequence, some of the pieces became so difficult to get that NASA even ventured to look for those parts on eBay.
