There seems to be much debate regarding space exploration and welfare at home. Some people believe that we shouldn’t hinder scientific progress, and that some projects (I.e. the James Webb Telescope) are good for our understanding of the Universe. Others believe that the money we use for space exploration would be better spent on helping life on our planet. Where should we draw the line? Do we necessarily have to choose?
“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before!”
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There’s always the pragmatic argument: the practical applications on the ground that have helped and continue to help life on this planet are so woven into society now we don’t recognize them.
I once saw an analysis of the economic impact if NASA had been allowed to patent all the discoveries made due to space efforts; it concluded that the royalties from such patents would be enough to increase NASA’s budget at least ten-fold.
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If we had a voting system where we could individually determine where our tax dollars went, I probably wouldn’t divert any funds away from more critical areas and existential crises on earth to space exploration. Even though not my primary concern, for some the environmental impact of space exploration can’t be ignored either. Rockets release soot into the stratosphere (far worse than troposphere) with a high residence time and the NOx is harmful to the ozone layer. Not to mention all the energy costs that go into building and testing. Of course, space exploration helped improve solar panel technology as well.
I love our knowledge of space and I think it has led to some technological advances and we may have to divert an asteroid one day in the future, but I’m certainly not buying any of the reasons put forth on us going back to the moon. In my mind it is political nonsense just like it was the first time (we gotta beat the Russians) even though then it was a monumental achievement for humanity.
Vinnie
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The combined budget for both is far less than is spent on military and political projects - so we could have both if not for other people.
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I think one reason to be a leader in space is for national security. Whoever controls space adjacent to earth controls earth.
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Yes. There are several reasons for space research: practical benefits, curiosity, increase of scientific knowledge, military interests and political ambitions. Although we can discuss how relevant it is that billions are spent to projects that seem to be based on political ambitions, space projects have improved the technology and knowledge that can be utilized in the other areas of life. If you ask an AI, it will list many technologies used in everyday life that have been developed for space flights.
The space research also gives better capabilities to warn and protect from hazards that will one day hit Earth, including large space rocks and massive solar flares that send a burst of strong electromagnetic radiation towards Earth. We know that such events will eventually happen so it is a question of having suitable technology to prevent or alleviate the catastrophes.
In the long-term, we probably need the resources in the space rocks. Getting the resources in cost-efficient ways demand a capability for space flight and landing equipment on the space rocks. It may be decades or a century before getting the resouces from space is economically profitable but when that day comes, we need to have the technology.
The funding could be used for more immediate problems but on the long run, space research is likely to give such benefits that humanity needs.
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Let’s just tax the top 10% double what they are being taxed now and eliminate their loopholes and vote for better candidates and then focus on spending money on space and earth even more so.
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No.
However, it would be good to distinguish space exploration from the indulgence in sci-fi fantasies of star empires and FTL travel. Space travel is not going to be very forgiving of any lack of contact with reality. The difficulties are enormous.
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Closer to the truth, a little bit of both.
Even with the very best effort in resource conservation and stewardship of the planet, if we don’t have an “exit strategy”, when we hit what I call “Resource Zero”, when what is in the ground is either too cumbersome or expensive to harvest. If we are stuck here, then all of Terran Human civilization will cease to exist.
It won’t matter how well we treat each other if we don’t have people to treat well.
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Heaven is The Final Frontier for Us, if We want and Believe in it. I think it’s somewhere over the Rainbow 
Out in Space.
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I think most people don’t realize how much better our lives are on the ground because of activity in space. We rely on space not just daily but more frequently than that, using weather forecasts and GPS and more. As an example, in a recent lab in a forestry class we looked at wildfires and learned that the situation would be far worse if it weren’t for satellites both for monitoring and detecting wildfires (something like two-fifths of new fires are found first by satellites).
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I think questions like this significantly over-estimate how much money is actually being invested in space exploration. The amount of money spent on space projects is negligible compared to the amount of going into development. Governments, like the U.S. government, can easily do both without one getting in the way of the other. I think the real reasons that human development is slower than it we would like it to be are for reasons completely unrelated to space.
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I personally find the focus and developments of the world’s richest to be abhorrent and evil. I believe they are seeking a way out for themselves. By building rockets and bunkers deep in the Earth. To spare themselves from the consequences of exactly what they are contributing to.
Not for a Second do I believe they have pure intentions of benefitting mankind with their endeavours.
There may be helpful things out there in the void, but the cost of possibly learning about them is astronomical itself. People can do whatever they want with their own money, of course. But that doesn’t make it not selfish and evil.
I have no interest in space. For me, there are too many problems to solve here. And the Earth is far more beautiful than anything even their Billion Dollar telescopes have ever glimpsed.
I hope their rockets continue to explode and the mountains fall in on their bunkers.
Not now, never did. If there is enough taxpayer money to grease all the palms that are out, there is enough pittance left over for space exploration, at least in terms of unmanned probes and observatories. The knowledge we have gained from the Hubble and now James Webb has been phenomenal.
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I’ve been trying to keep up with the news on the discoveries being made, and a lot of the images being released are truly awe-inspiring.
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Seems to be part of a good telecommunications argument!
I love my tankless hot water heater’s never ending hot showers but with modern technology and people currently glued to phones 13 hours a day and with the inevitable rise of AI sexbots and the end of humanity being fruitful and multiplying, I think there is an argument to be made about “how much better” technology makes us. Maybe we could also ask how much lazier and entitled it has made us as well. Or how much brain rot it has caused or how much humanity it has stripped from us. I think the verdict is still out.
Vinnie
This resonates with me. I personally don’t believe science has actually made life “better” for any of us. It has merely found ways over time to fix the damage it has done in the first place.
That strikes me as uncharitable to a pretty far extreme … There are so many reasons to be very thankful for a lot of very basic things… anesthetics, vaccinations, bicycles, HVAC tech, refrigeration…
And that, I think, is probably a very charitable take. I don’t think we’re anywhere close to actually addressing what all we’ve done and are still doing to our environment.
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Glasses, knee replacements.
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