Walden, 1854, by Henry David Thoreau : “Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to
Modern conversation overheard: “Why would we want to throw money away on space exploration, it is just a waste!” “Don’t we have problems enough here on earth? We should solve (fill in the blank) before we explore space.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I wonder if the
Some people believe, in spite of fifty years of evidence to the contrary, that the technicians down at the
For at least two generations a number of thoughtful writers, scholars, professionals have helped us understand that space exploration, rather than being a distraction from “serious things”, actually provides solutions to some of the most intractable problems here on earth. By and large most people recognize the value that NASA brings. But the nay-sayers are persistent, and the general public wakes up fresh every day, so we will try one more time to explain why space exploration is important for today and vital to our future.
Many reasons have been advanced to demonstrate why the
Here are my top four:
1. Space Exploration inspires our young people to achievements in education, especially in science, engineering, mathematics, and technical subjects.
2. Space Exploration requires innovation and technological advancement which improves the national economy directly and for the long term.
3. Space Exploration leads to better understanding of our world, its environment and climate, and allows for global monitoring of changes.
4. American leadership in Space Exploration provides for greater national security in multiple ways that are at once subtle, tangible, and highly effective.
These, it seems to me, comprise a powerful subset of arguments in favor of expending at least a small fraction of our national treasure on this enterprise.
And it is a small fraction; the entire NASA budget makes up 6 tenths of one percent of the Federal budget. Given the attention paid to NASA, it is easy to understand why some uninformed citizens believe that NASA’s budget approaches that of the Department of Defense, or that of spending for Social Security. In truth, if all of NASA’s budget were to disappear, there would be no appreciable savings to the national debt, no meaningful improvement in our national social safety net, and probably a net loss to the national defense. Those who defend the space exploration budget are constantly finding new categories of spending which exceeds the NASA allocation: Americans spend more on pet food than they do on space exploration; Americans spend more on cosmetics than on space; Gillette Razor company spent more to develop and market their new shaver than it costs to fly the space shuttle for a year, and on and on. Nobody is advocating giving up our pets, or our personal beauty, but when we talk of programs which will have lasting impacts into the future, it is well to put the cost in context. Don’t even get started on bailouts. AIG, to take one easy example, has received more tax dollars in the last few months than NASA has in its budget for a decade.
Over the next couple of weeks, I intend to explore each of these reasons in some detail. Please stay tuned.
“Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate” Still seems true today. There are lots of Maine & Texas license plates on the Calif* roads looking for jobs, but there’s no reason Calif* should be the center of job creation other than Calif* just existing & being seen as the place where work is done. The internet could put those jobs anywhere in the world, it’s a lot cheaper to do business elsewhere, yet jobs are still only created in Calif*.
So there’s no reason a job center couldn’t exist on the moon & travel to that destination couldn’t be in great demand, just because it exists & it’s seen as where people go to do certain things.
Mr. Hale,
People like you really understand the whole picture as opposed to those who only see one side or the other.
So much has been gained for so little that it is hard for me to understand why we as a nation won’t spend a little more to gain so much more.
NASA needs an Administrator who can “go into bat” for NASA. NASA needs more money and better long term budget planning. If NASA’s budget was doubled today it would still be less than 30% of the height of budget funding in the Apollo years – I just don’t understand why the American public is so apothetic on this, hence why a strong Adminstrator is required. He/She needs to go sell NASA to the Public and keep hammering away at Congress. No Bucks – No Buck Rogers.
The search for life outside the earth is enough of a reason to keep exploring. Finding even single celled life will once and for all, hammer the nail in the coffin of supernatural beliefs, which account for suicide bombers and the worst aspects of religious influence on the behaviors of those with brain disease. It will say that life is common in the universe but not special or invulnerable, and that we are lucky to have conscious life, finite, though it is. So we ought not to push our luck, rather we ought to keep a good thing going for generations to come.
Great I like you put it into perspective that we spend more on Cosmetics, Pet Food and other stuff than space exploration. I can't believe that Gillette spend more on shaver than it costs to run a shuttle. People should also stop complaining about the budget and take and concentrate on their own and what they have spent on before pointing the figure at other people just because they don't have money themselves
GREAT! Perspective is everything! Can you site a resource for the budget comparisons? I’d love to read more. Wonderful!
as jhammond wrote the search for etratererstrial life is enough reason. but this is a task for the whole mankind and not only nasa or europe. we need definitly more teamwork here.
greets from germany
We definatly should keep exploring space and ways to live in it and on distant bodies. Because one day the earth will get hit with an astroid big enough to destroy the world, or the sun will go super nova. If we haven’t figured out a way to live in space or found another planet to colonize then the human race will become extinct.
6 On Apr 28, 2009 06:10:05 AM gebrauchte b rom bel Team wrote:
as jhammond wrote the search for etratererstrial life is enough reason. but this is a task for the whole mankind and not only nasa or europe. we need definitly more teamwork here.
greets from germany
Teamwork is a fine idea, in principal. Unfortunately, humanity is much more inspired and more able to move forward from competition rather than corporation.
You see this easily enough through the space race between the USSR and the US. The result as we know, NASA landed humans on the moon.
Its also unfolding similarly in Asia, its no coincidence that China, India, and Japan have sent moon probes around the same time. Nor that India is also pushing for a manned program by 2015.
“1. Space Exploration inspires our young people to achievements in education, especially in science, engineering, mathematics, and technical subjects.
2. Space Exploration requires innovation and technological advancement which improves the national economy directly and for the long term.
3. Space Exploration leads to better understanding of our world, its environment and climate, and allows for global monitoring of changes.
4. American leadership in Space Exploration provides for greater national security in multiple ways that are at once subtle, tangible, and highly effective.”
I agree with that’s, exploration is important for future
You left out the important one: We need to get some of Humanity’s eggs out of this basket before something steps on it. To name one of several known perils, the big pinball machine in the outer solar system will, at some unpredictable time, drop another Dinosaur Killer on us, and there’s no guarantee that the next one won’t be bigger than the K-T impactor.
I feel like comparing the expenditures on the space program to things like bailouts short-changes the importance thereof, like comparing the cost of a college education to that of painting your house. Sure, they both need doing, but there is so much value in one that comparing it to the dollar amount of the other is ludicrous.
Going into space is important, if only because we need the practice. If we manage to avoid destroying ourselves for long enough, we will need to draw on every iota of progress we’ve made in space flight and exploration. Whether we’re using the iron on the surface of Mars or terraforming it for human habitation, whether we’re studying the sun for tips on how to build fusion reactors back home or harnessing its power at the source, at some point, every cent spent on every rivet of NASA’s missions will be worth its investment fifty times over.
NASA cannot and should not be compared to things like commercial products or pets. It is important in ways that will only be measurable once we’ve developed to a point where we can look back on space travel as a stepping stone to a greater future, rather than an end unto itself.