
Why Explore Space (1970) - ff_
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/08/why-explore-space.html
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ckozlowski
A colleague of mine asked me why India was now spending billions as well on
space probes when they have so many starving.

There are many others as well, who are starving in other ways. Once the
immediate need of food and water are met, what do people strive for then?
Safety, a place to live? We watch thousands drown in boats trying to cross the
ocean to richer lands, even though there was food back home.

If food were the only thing a person wanted in life, we'd have focused on and
solved it centuries ago, if it had ever become a problem to begin with.

There must be goals, dreams, things to yearn for once those basic needs are
met. The thousands of children the nun cared for will not be content to simply
be fed for the rest of their lives. Their lives must mean something, there
must be things to strive for.

It's not a question of whether or not we should explore space, it will happen
regardless. Societies fed, nurtured, and taught their children, and those
children will put their gifts to reach every higher. The child eating porridge
out of a dusty bowl today may be building bridges tomorrow, or curing disease,
or viewing the distant stars.

Space exploration is towards the apex of our technological achievement, and so
it must seem far removed to those addressing more earthly concerns. But it's
built on the those foundations.

We'll explore space so long as there are mouths to feed and minds to grow.

~~~
n0us
Another way to think about it is that India is investing in an industry that
creates profitable inter-industry linkages. By creating a space program you
are creating high paying jobs for educated workers who educate their children
and eventually move to other high skilled positions taking their human capital
with them. The space program also creates a circus of supporting businesses
and industries, which are also "high value added" endeavors. So while being
able to produce a spacecraft might not have a _direct_ impact on the well
being of the millions of Indians, you now have workers with in demand skills
who can use those skills in other jobs, you have the ability to produce high
precision machinery that can be used in other high value added applications.
(See the 19th century cheese industry in Denmark if you are interested in a
historical example.) You are brining money into the economy, which in turn
goes back into things like schools and business investments.

Look up Rasumssen and Hirschman for academic literature on this subject.

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alooPotato
So the basic argument goes: "Doing space research/exploration will yield
scientific and technological breakthroughs to help our problems here on
Earth."

Ok I buy that. I agree we need to spend some % of our societal resources on
basic research.

The real question is - what is best bang for the buck when doing basic
research? Opponents would argue that space research (specifically exploring
other planets) is a very expensive way to do basic research.

I'm all for exploring space because I think humanity needs to, but does the
basic research argument really hold?

~~~
aggie
You're leaving out part of his argument which justifies space exploration as
inherently valuable beyond its technical and scientific contributions: a
paradigm shift of the human condition, brought on by our increased awareness
of our place in the universe.

"Although our space program seems to lead us away from our Earth and out
toward the moon, the sun, the planets, and the stars, I believe that none of
these celestial objects will find as much attention and study by space
scientists as our Earth. It will become a better Earth, not only because of
all the new technological and scientific knowledge which we will apply to the
betterment of life, but also because we are developing a far deeper
appreciation of our Earth, of life, and of man."

Imagine if we found evidence of past life on Mars or Europa. It would change
our understanding of life on Earth. You can't make that discovery in a lab.

~~~
Animats
_" Imagine if we found evidence of past life on Mars or Europa."_

In the past, one could imagine. But there are Mars orbiters returning Google
Earth quality images of the entire planet. Here's the Curiosity rover seen
from Mars orbit.[1] If there was anything living on Mars as big as a patch of
lichen, it would have been found by now.

[1]
[http://mars.nasa.gov/mro/multimedia/images/?ImageID=7131](http://mars.nasa.gov/mro/multimedia/images/?ImageID=7131)

~~~
exDM69
This statement is ridiculous. Evidence of life on Earth millions of years ago
is buried deep in the Earth soil. Mars exploration has literally only
scratched the surface of the planet, a few inches deep.

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kitsunesoba
I believe one of the biggest advantages of space exploration, if done
seriously, is that keeps us from stagnating on and inevitably overblowing the
various quibbles we have today. I think it's clear that either space
exploration or the technology borne of it will have enormous implications for
our society; it's simply a matter of time. With that being the case, what good
reason could we possibly have to strangle it and push off meaningful progress
for another 50, 100, or 200 years? The sooner the better.

As far as the cash needed goes, it's really nothing compared to military
expenditures. If NASA had even a fifth of what we spend on our military it
would do wonders.

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ytNumbers
This question remains relevant today. Perhaps the best answer to this question
is that having a space program is actually a cheap insurance policy against a
civilization ending asteroid killing more than 99% of the world's population.

~~~
unclebucknasty
Except that precious little funding is actually aimed at this problem.

~~~
maaku
And to anyone else who recognizes this as a problem, please consider donating
to the B612 foundation:

[http://sentinelmission.org/](http://sentinelmission.org/)

~~~
unclebucknasty
Thanks for providing the link.

But, don't you think it's a little odd that we have multiple national space
agencies plus international cooperation that spends billions on exploration
projects; while we rely largely on private organizations and donations to fund
this important research?

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Animats
We've explored the solar system. We now know what all the planets look like in
some detail. There's no life anywhere off Earth. Not even bacteria. Venus is
too hot, Mars is too airless, and everything else is worse. The most worthless
real estate on Earth is more habitable than the best real estate off-planet.

As the Economist points out, the final frontier, Pluto, was reached this week.

~~~
eCa
The solar system is to the universe what a grain of sand is to the solar
system.

"It would be inexcusably egocentric to suggest that we are alone in the
cosmos." [1]

[1] Neil DeGrasse Tyson:
[https://youtu.be/JQMuNImYzjc?t=4m21s](https://youtu.be/JQMuNImYzjc?t=4m21s)

~~~
maaku
Even if we are alone, so what? All the more reason to expand life outward.

