
Ask HN: Why are we spending billions on Space Exploration? - artur_makly
...when we’re in a planetary crisis?<p>At this stage..what applicable value does it bring us?
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eliaspro
My go-to recommendation to read whenever this question comes up:

> In 1970, a Zambia-based nun named Sister Mary Jucunda wrote to Dr. Ernst
> Stuhlinger, then-associate director of science at NASA's Marshall Space
> Flight Center, in response to his ongoing research into a piloted mission to
> Mars. Specifically, she asked how he could suggest spending billions of
> dollars on such a project at a time when so many children were starving on
> Earth. [...]

[http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/08/why-explore-
space.html](http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/08/why-explore-space.html)

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veddox
Why are we spending billions to watch a handful of people kick/throw a ball
around a field?

I'm not saying we shouldn't think about cost/benefit ratio in big science, but
let's not be hypocrites and put all our society's big money projects on the
table.

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oldmancoyote
Because pushing forward and outward, both geographically and socially, are
what makes us human.

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grizzles
For exactly that reason. The only viable long term climate change solution is
to move energy intensive mining and manufacturing off planet. If your problem
is with human space exploration, I agree that's a waste of time, best left to
billionaires. However robotic is not.

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PacifyFish
Because that's what people with money want to invest in, because there is a
potential market for space travel/tourism/mining, and because money isn't
always allocated such that the benefit to humanity is maximized.

Note that I personally am fine with billions going into space exploration, and
I think it can be worked on in tandem with climate issues. Just trying to
address what seems to be the crux of the issue - you're saying "shouldn't
we..." whereas the world is saying "this is how things are."

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lexxed
humanity ultimate goal is to travel to other solar systems. if we don't do
space exploration to expand our knowledge and be content walking around on a
thin crust of rock. its like frogs in a well there's a bulldozer coming and
you can't see it or even aware of it.

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zunzun
Consider the recent Chinese far-side-of-the-moon probe: it _forced_ them
(cough, cough) to put a communications satellite around the moon, conveniently
out of range for any US space-based anti-satellite weaponry which could
disable a satellite in earth orbit.

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rajacombinator
What crisis do you think we’re in? The one people on tv convinced you to panic
over for their own benefit? We waste trillions on dumb planet side stuff, a
few billion on space exploration is nothing.

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11001100
In this context, I like to think of the Kardashev scale. Humans should be at
0.73, maybe less.

Our natural resources are limited, our consumption and development are
endless...

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dasmoth
Where does your “should” come from? To my understanding, that’s very close to
the current level[1]. So are you saying “here but no further” (and if so, why
here rather that, say, 1980 levels?). What would be your preconditions for
significantly higher energy usage?

[1] -
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale)

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tony-allan
Because we are human and curious.

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thedevindevops
Planetary crisis?

