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Originally Posted by Laz116
Space travel dominance does not mean that USA is the best nation in the world. Loss of space travel dominance doesn't mean a fall from grace.
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It is not about dominance, or even a competition any longer. Ok, wait, it is but not nearly as much as it was in the 60's. Now it more about the exploration itself about finding out the things we don't know, and testing the things we do. If we all had the attitude that there were better things to do at home then nothing would ever get done that wasn't at home. I'm sure there were people in Spain that would have said the money for Columbus's voyage could better have been spent at home.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Laz116
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.
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The problem is that you can't discount the gains when you don't even know what they will be. I'm not saying that the gains will pay off immediately either, some of the discoveries from the early space program have taken years to reach their full potential, but over time there is every chance that the cost of them will be repaid tenfold.
Also, like Bill said so well, it is not solely about the exploration itself, it is about the research and the effort in getting there even more than being there. What if in planning and researching a potential base on mars some scientists discovers a safe, inexpensive power generator based on some process we never even considered prior to that? Tell me that that would not go a long way to solving things right in front of us? Or a way to produce easily grown, highly nutritious, perfectly safe food?
I'm not saying any of those things will happen but we'll never know if don't go looking.