( CNN ) -- Moonshots are exciting , inspiring . But they are also expensive -- and not all of them work out like Apollo 11 . So are they worth it ? Should we focus time , money and energy on these kinds of ambitious scientific projects ? The answer is yes . Think of it this way . Imagine that the Apollo moon landing had not succeeded . Would it still have been worth it ? Almost certainly . After all , the challenge of getting to the moon and back meant coming up with all kinds of technological innovations and solutions that have then had almost miraculous commercial applications . For example , Apollo needed small computers for its trip . So NASA says it made a big purchase of a relatively new technology -- the integrated circuit , the technology behind what we now know as the microchip . The companies that pioneered this product -- firms such as Fairchild Semiconductor , whose alumni founded Intel -- partly had NASA to thank , the agency says , for the popularity of the technology that followed . The U.S. government , by buying the initial products , helped the computer revolution take off . And it 's not just the microchip . GPS technology , which is now powering the next phase of the information revolution , was originally developed by the U.S. military . But it was only after the 1983 Soviet shooting down of a Korean Air Lines flight that the Reagan administration said it would share the technology so that civilian airplanes would not wander into restricted and dangerous territories . And it was only after the Cold War ended that the Clinton administration opened up the technology fully to commercial applications , which of course unleashed a flood of innovation that continues to this day.Â . Or consider the mapping of the human genome . According to the Battelle Memorial Institute , the federal government spent $ 3.8 billion on the massive project from 1990 to 2003 , an amount few other entities could ever have afforded . But in leading the way , it encouraged others , and now a person 's DNA can be sequenced for as little as $ 1,000 . The impact on the economy of human genome sequencing from 1988 to 2010 was estimated by Battelle at almost $ 800 billion -- enough to support more than 310,000 jobs in 2010 alone . Reading all this , you might think the United States is on the right track . Alas , the problem is , it is not . Federal funding for research and development has barely been keeping up with inflation in recent years if you look at the numbers from the National Science Foundation . Since big entitlements such as Social Security are mandatory spending programs , it is discretionary spending , such as science , that often bears the brunt of the budget ax . Â And this cutting comes at a time when others around the world are moving fast . The United States has dominated the world of basic science for years , even decades . But recently , its share of global research and development has been falling -- from 37 % of the total in 2001 to 30 % in 2011 , according to the National Science Foundation . As scientist Neal Lane points out , China is on course to surpass the United States in the percentage of its gross domestic product it spends on research and development in just a few years . It used to be that funding basic science was not a partisan issue . As Lane notes , a certain rock-ribbed Republican was a big proponent of basic research . Reagan said in a 1988 radio address : . `` The remarkable thing is that although basic research does not begin with a particular practical goal , when you look at the results over the years , it ends up being one of the most practical things government does . This is why I 've urged Congress to devote more money to research . It is an indispensable investment in America 's future . '' Americans used to understand that moonshots inspire us , but that they also power America 's future . Let 's hope that today 's politicians follow Reagan 's advice and invest in science , research and development . Watch Fareed Zakaria GPS Sundays at 10am and 1pm ET . For the latest from Fareed Zakaria GPS click here .
Fareed Zakaria : Ambitious scientific projects are worth pursuing . Federal funding for research and development is barely keeping up with inflation , he says . Funding basic science research did n't use to be a partisan issue , Zakaria says . But now it's become an ideological one.