Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
Money is not spent in space. It's spent here on earth providing jobs, creating new industries, and enriching our understanding of ourselves and our origins. It's from the study of other worlds that we better understand the operations of our own world and threats to humanity's survival. From our study of Venus, we learn of the dangers of what a runaway greenhouse effect can mean to biological lifeforms. From observations of Jupiter we learn the dangers that can happen at any time if we don't plan and prepare ahead of time against being struck by large astronomical objects such as asteroids and comets. And time would fail me if I began to list all of the spin-offs from the space program that enrich our everyday lives. Think for a moment just how much more accurate are our maps and our weather predictions since the advent of satellite technology? Think how GPS systems provide us with the ability to never again be lost anywhere on planet earth. In defense also of "pure" as opposed to "applied" science, such technologies would be impossible without an understanding of General Relativity, which is necessary to coordinate these satellites with earth bases due to the space/time differential. And how much have observations and considerations of deep-space mysteries led to discoveries in physics that affect our every day lives? People criticize the need for large particle colliders that replicate the conditions of the early cosmos, but without an understanding of how quantum mechanics works, inventions such as cell phones would have been impossible.
Science in general, and space science in particular has enriched all our lives.
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I don't disagree at all. But the further gains of space exploration vs. the cost just seems disproportionate to me, Sure there is a loss of jobs, but the expenses tied to those jobs far outweigh the benefits of the results as I see it. I may be wrong, but observations of space will still be done, the use of satellites etc. will still be carried out.
What we are talking about is the benefit of physically exploring deeper space than we have before. I am not sure the benefits measure up to the cost.
I'm not saying it's not interesting or it shouldn't be done. I'm just saying that with a 1000 billion $ deficit or more you need to focus on what's right in front of you.