BGR Ranks 9 Costliest Science Experiments, Led by $150 Billion ISS
Updated
Updated · Boy Genius Report · Aug 4
BGR Ranks 9 Costliest Science Experiments, Led by $150 Billion ISS
2 articles · Updated · Boy Genius Report · Aug 4
Summary
$150 billion put the International Space Station atop BGR’s list of the most expensive science experiments, far ahead of Apollo at $25.4 billion and CERN’s Large Hadron Collider at $4.75 billion.
BGR framed the ranking as a measure of how costly major scientific advances can be, spanning spaceflight, particle physics, genetics and ocean research, while arguing even failed or incomplete results still add useful knowledge.
The list mixed historic and still-active projects, noting the ISS could end in 2030 with another $1 billion deorbiting cost, while the LHC is being upgraded for operations into the 2030s and 2040s.
Other projects cited included the Human Genome Project at about $3 billion, Curiosity at $2.5 billion, Skylab at $2.3 billion and the Manhattan Project at $2.2 billion, with smaller entries such as NEPTUNE and the Very Large Array.