Space Exploration Is a Waste of Money

Spends the time and money to develop these products for use in space, but usually there are many civilian applications for the same products. Production of these product leads to redevelopment, sales and distribution – all of which leads to more jobs; somebody has to build, sell, and repair.

One last point, we know that Russia and China have both put men in space and now even more countries are getting involved. Obviously we have seen the power of Google Maps (and that is only at the civilian level). Imagine now, that other powerful countries have satellites to spy on us and can position weapons directly above our country, dont you think it would be a good idea to be abloe to stave that off. If we decided to stop “wasting” money on space programs, we can say goodbye to many new developments that will be out of reach of garage scientist and we can expect to be overwhelmed with visitors in the skies above the US.

Did you know that to build a space elevator (a space-platform constructed with the intent of lifting substances into Earth’s orbit) would only cost $40 billion with 100% contingency, and half that for the baseline construction cost? There are endless possibilities, ranging from solar energy farms to revolutionary and cheap intercontinental transportation. Imagine a solar farm, capable of harvesting the solar winds; this translates to an unlimited supply of energy for not just the United States, but the entire world! The human race is changing, and expanding. Soon, the Earth will simply not be big enough and we need to start considering our future as a species.

There are issues that do plague us as a race. There is poverty and injustice in the world. While these issues exist and should certainly not be ignored, the funds put forth to space exploration have a quantifiable impact and are no less of a priority. These problems will likely not be solved by the evolution of invention and space exploration alone, but as technology improves so will the lives of every man, woman, and child regardless of gender, skin color, or wealth. Space exploration needs focus and funding, it is representative of our future, and will secure it. Space exploration is arguably the single-most important investment we could possibly make.

However indirect they might be, the advances would not have come were it not for the space programmes of NASA, as there would have been no technological need. Space exploration gave impetus to projects that have been useful, as well as providing valuable scientific knowledge. For example, the laser-targetting of mirrors left on the moon by Apollo astronauts helps test and understand basic physics, which in turn leads to advances in very earthly things like electronics, hyper-conductivity, etc.

Anyway, space exploration absolutely does give us a direct benefit. When space technology has advanced far enough, we will be able to leave this planet in large numbers and live among the stars. This will solve our population/environment/resource/energy problems for a long, long time. It may take centuries, even millenia, but we will not get the technology without experimenting with it.

Potential organisms to be found in space (such as on Mars) offer exactly the same value to the scientific community, and perhaps more, as the conditions would be far more extreme than those found on the Earth. Also, though it is true that much of earth, including the ocean and Antarctica, are unexplored, it’s not as though we’re exploring space instead of our own planet. The effort being made to explore the ocean is just a great as that of Space Travel. Besides, learning about the ocean floor, while that is important, is no more important than space. What is there that we absolutely have to know about the sea floor? Basically, I think that the only reason that we are so interested in exploring our own planet is because it is “our” planet, and we are under the absurd impression that we must know our own environment before branching out into others, when truthfully, doing both at the same time is an ideal opportunity that we seem to be taking for granted.

the corporations will move in whenever they see opportunity for solid profit, but it is always science, and often government funded research, that finds those opportunities in the first place.
for example you mention satellites which are an integral part of the global communications industry, which in itself would not exist without first having the invention of telephone wires, radio waves, etc., all which have led up to space satellites.

as for the prospects of space tourism again that is simply a result of the fact that governments have funded space research for all these years and finally it is getting to a point where it’s cheap enough and safe enough to send paying citizens up there.

corporations will not do anything that doesn’t guarantee profit so will they investigate whether there is water on the moon? whether it is possible in the future to colonize it? no. it’s too much of a risk so the government has to pay for it.

Our goal here is to create a balance, not to give up one option for another.

It’s sickening to see all of these people going on and on about “saving the starving and impoverished”. Well then sell your computer. Stop commenting on here, go dedicate your life to helping the “starving and needy”. And how many tons of rice and grain do we need to keep dropping on these countries before they get their act together and FEED THEMSELVES. I know it sounds heartless, but it’s their fault. I don’t care if they don’t have money. Man lived for thousands of years off of the land and many (dumb) animals still manage to pull it off. Why do we have to send some christian missionaries over to dig them a well? Why can’t they dig their own well? Why can’t they plant their own grain? Why can’t they hunt their own game or raise their own livestock? Why can’t they move OUT of the areas of drought? Why is it OUR problem? You feel guilty because you live better? We shouldn’t help people that will not help themselves. And something is going to happen and we will ALL be dead or starving on this planet because we refused to move on and advance the survival of our species; all pissed away on supporting some people that would probably just as soon let us starve if we were the ones without food and they were the rich ones.

Most humanitarian organizations simply give poor countries money to fend for their sick and hungry when they can instead teach them how to plant crops that survive in their harsh conditions and educate people who are illiterate and turn them into doctors or farmers. When money is just thrown at their feet, what will happen if the money runs out? When they send people to give them prepared food and medication, what will happen when they leave?
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.

Really? This is actually your analogy?

Well, to begin there’s usually more than one person living in a country. Secondly I’m assuming the “1 million dollars to fix it up” means government spending on education, healthcare, policing not to mention military (which is considerably more than scientific space exploration if you live in the US). So your suggesting that governments spend doubly-doubly-doubly-triply-quadruply the amount they spend on those areas on space travel. Needless to say, this simply isn’t the case anywhere. Thirdly, “some really interesting girls” is by far the best analogy based metaphor for scientific knowledge I have ever heard. Not joking, thank you for that.

However flawed your analogy is the title “money is better used to help human lives in their own country” is interesting. But here’s the problem with that argument, the by-product of space exploration is scientific knowledge that has helped an unquantifiable number of humans since the beginning of space explorations. How do you propose to purchase MRI machines without the digital image processing NASA developed[http://techtran.msfc.nasa.gov/at_home/hospital3.html]]? And how are you going to stop your troops from being blown to pieces by land mines without using a NASA Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) scrap propellant[http://techtran.msfc.nasa.gov/at_home/landmine.html]] based device? There are numerous more examples that you can Google for yourself. The knowledge that space exploration provides is crucial for developing areas from medicine to the military. Without it development would stall. To attack space exploration in this manner is to attack the purpose of scientific research in general. Science may be done for science’s sake occasionally, but the knowledge generated always benefits humanity.

NASA, yes, is hazardous. In space flight missions at least 18 people have died, and millions of dollars have been spent on rovers that have, yes, been unsuccessful. So that means we should give up? Of course not. if at first you don’t succeed, try try again, right. And NASA has succeeded. And while its very true that being an astronaut is a risky, hazardous job, more people die from car crashes in one city in one month than people have died expanding exploration for the last forty years! And so what if failed mars missions stretch back for forty years. Poverty stretches back to beginning of history. If you want to hold of on exploration until we end poverty then I hope you don’t care if we ever explore again. Additionally, all of the hazards of Space exploration are made public knowledge, if you take the time to look, and the Astronauts, which are really the only ones threatened, are fully aware of what they’re signing on for. Their willingness to risk their own lives only serves to emphasize the imprtance of continued exploration in the Universe.

The Space exploration program is in no way “wasted money”. Anything we learn is cool because there are ninjas. You see, while we have ninjas here on earth we lack the destructive and mental capability demonstrated by the space ninjas. Wielding their flammable cupcakes, the ninjas will descend upon the earth and kill the enemies of those they work for. Unfortunately, these ninjas can only survive in Neptune’s atmosphere. But we best be usin’ some money to go to space and get them cuz there’s this dude named Daniel who needs a damn cupcake in his face.

Last thing, I wouldn’t apply to it as “Space Invasion” until we find actual life on a planet besides our own, which will never happen unless we explore, therefore, until we explore space more, your argument is invalid!!!

The future is in the stars. The discoveries that await humanity warrants excitement unlike anything else. If this website that I am posting this to, this laptop that I am typing on, and this internet we all are using is the product of the discovery of America, then the possibilities are endless if we look to the heavens.

If we have to use the money for something i would strongly approve that we use it for space exploration. Lets say the world is on its edge and we have to get off of the earth then we could take rocket ships and we could live on the moon. If we continue space exploration we could probably find a planet that has water or oxygen. The movie wall-e was a great example. the grown ups and children had to go into space and live in a giant space ship because the world ended. that is most likely to happen to us if the earth just becomes a dump.

Knowledge is invaluable. Furthering our understanding of how the universe came into being, and ultimately how we came into being, cannot be measured as useful solely in terms of cost. What price to pay for knowing that in the future, humanity can be saved because there are other planets out there capable of sustaining life?

Scientific knowledge has intrinsic worth. Space exploration is just one aspect of science that seems to have little impact on our daily lives. Who cares if the Higgs-Boson exists? Very few people. But governments have funded a new particle collider at CERN to find it because they recognise the importance of finding it to understanding the universe.

It’s sickening to see all of these people going on and on about “saving the starving and impoverished”. Well then sell your computer. Stop commenting on here, go dedicate your life to helping the “starving and needy”. And how many tons of rice and grain do we need to keep dropping on these countries before they get their act together and FEED THEMSELVES. I know it sounds heartless, but it’s their fault. I don’t care if they don’t have money. Man lived for thousands of years off of the land and many (dumb) animals still manage to pull it off. Why do we have to send some christian missionaries over to dig them a well? Why can’t they dig their own well? Why can’t they plant their own grain? Why can’t they hunt their own game or raise their own livestock? Why can’t they move OUT of the areas of drought? Why is it OUR problem? You feel guilty because you live better? We shouldn’t help people that will not help themselves. And something is going to happen and we will ALL be dead or starving on this planet because we refused to move on and advance the survival of our species; all pissed away on supporting some people that would probably just as soon let us starve if we were the ones without food and they were the rich ones.

Compared to other areas of government spending (e.g. military), the cost of space exploration simply isn’t ridiculously high. There have been space vehicles built in the private sector for as little as $25m, a drop in the ocean compared to US spending in Iraq, and the net benefits outweigh even these figures.

Without the urge to ‘see what’s out there’ the continents would still be populated by the indigenous races. North Americans would all be Native Americans, Africans would all be black, and Australia would have only Aborigines and kangaroos. Let’s take this argument to its extremities: Suppose no one had ever wondered if there was another little village somewhere in the world. Then every group of civilised people would have to grow in their own shell of ignorance. The printing press would have remained in Germany unless some other nation happened to stumble on the same process. The same would apply to…well, the list is just too long and life is too short.

Many discoveries and products have been developed from the knowledge gained from space exploration. For example, NASA created Velcro which is now used in many clothing items, bags and so forth. Non-stick pans and surfaces were also created as a result of space exploration. Now we can cook without worrying whether or not our cakes will stick to the sides of our pans. Overall, space exploration has provided us with new knowledge and as a result of this, many new and intriguing inventions have been made.

It’s sickening to see all of these people going on and on about “saving the starving and impoverished”. Well then sell your computer. Stop commenting on here, go dedicate your life to helping the “starving and needy”. And how many tons of rice and grain do we need to keep dropping on these countries before they get their act together and FEED THEMSELVES. I know it sounds heartless, but it’s their fault. I don’t care if they don’t have money. Man lived for thousands of years off of the land and many (dumb) animals still manage to pull it off. Why do we have to send some christian missionaries over to dig them a well? Why can’t they dig their own well? Why can’t they plant their own grain? Why can’t they hunt their own game or raise their own livestock? Why can’t they move OUT of the areas of drought? Why is it OUR problem? You feel guilty because you live better? We shouldn’t help people that will not help themselves. And something is going to happen and we will ALL be dead or starving on this planet because we refused to move on and advance the survival of our species; all pissed away on supporting some people that would probably just as soon let us starve if we were the ones without food and they were the rich ones.

No one has ever said that space was not meant for us to cross, who is to say that the oceans were meant for us to cross into America? How many men died crossing the ocean to the Americas and other contintents? Much more then seven I can bet you, but I am not saying their death was pointless and for waste. They knew the risks, and they took it for the sake of knowledge.

It is also not meaningless, how is it meaningless? Many many many technologies have come out of it. (See The Largest Benefits)

Beyond the side effects, which were revolutionary in and of themselves, we may need Space more than we think. We all know, unless we’re dillusional, that our planet won’t last forever (found out through Space exploration, BTW), and that how long it lasts relies heavily on our surrounding environment. The more we know about out own Galaxy, and even just the Universe, the safer we can potentially make out planet. Besides, if we’re not carefull, we’re going to be emigrating to one of those planets out there sooner than we think. Where would we be if Earth became uninhabitable and we, having cut our Space program, were unable to find a substitute?

Space travel has given us a lot of new things for example the micro chip, the CAT scan and so on. You might say that we could just put together a group of scientist to figure it out, but and idea has to come from something, and they wouldn’t just make a CAT scan if someone told to to make something to scan a brain, and even if they would, it would take a lot more time. Also, space travel could benefit our future, if we ended up making settlements on the moon or mars, we might be able to mine there and get rare minerals, or a huge supply of a mineral, boosting economy. Think of America, if someone had put a stop to earth’s exploration due to poverty, we wouldn’t have one economically strong country(USA) to help the poor.

Plastic were invented by material engineers working on the space program. it is a large, profitable, and useful industry. Parts of your computer are made of it. Innovations in computing were needed. More efficient fuels were researched. The Internet was a joint military and NASA project. Obviously you are taking advantage of them right now.

It’s pretty simple. This is were research happens. Test, trying things out. See what works. What can be improved. Patents on new innovations to create a more sustainable and efficient world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off.

Space Exploration has given us many,many technologies that are essential.

Satellites were some of the first venturers into space and are another critical part of our society.

Weather Forecasting (Satellites. Very important for hurricanes and dangerous storm systems, have saved lives and help us prepare for the worst.)

Velcor and non-stick pans! (Mostly a joke, but hey, they work!) (General Technology.)

GPS (Very critical if your lost somewhere, has saved lives!) (Satellites.)

Long range television! (Satellites.)

Long Range Communication (Phones,Cellphones,etc.) (Satellites.)

Internet. (Satellites, and power lines of course.)

(Much much more.)

Now onto the somewhat psyhcological and green-wise part of why we need Space Exploration.

If we stopped warring with eachohter and wasting precious minerals that we have on this Earth -on- war, we would have a lot more resources to spend on more important things such as daily life, and hey, space exploration wouldnt mind some more attention either. If we spent our time looking for other planets, and other areas of expansion. We would be a much more healthy planet and society. Our Earth is also nearlly completely explored except for the oceans depths which are frankly impossible to get to the bottom too. The pressures are far far too powerful and some even say its more dangerous to trek to the bottom of our oceans then it is into space. Our bodies and steels cannot handle the intense pressure they have for more then a half hour. (The window of an exploratory sub cracked and the crew nearly died before they had to immediately go back up.)

Look at the casualties of war and the waste of resources and land. Oil spills are causing massive damage to the eco-system, the recent gulf spill has me worried that the entire balance might just be at stake. We have seen that solar powered cars can convert it to electricity and has just as much if not more power then gas cars. (Instant accelereation* and some have gone to 100 mph.)
* You have to rev your engine on a gas car to get gas into the engine before accelerating. With electricity the power is instant.

Solar Power is infinitely renewable (Until the sun dies.) and infinitely powerful, why waste money on oil rigs? Your going to get alot more money on solar power and less expenses with minor maintence.

There are so many more things I can name at this time, but here are just a few as I must go eat for now.

To put it bluntly, if aliens were discovered on the face of Mercury, wouldn’t you be interested in hearing about it? I know I would.

Just as man could help but wonder if the Earth was really flat, or if there was anything outside the ‘Known World’. We now feel the same about space, human kind has always needed answers, questions temp us, pull us together and satisfy us when we find the answer. The question’s being asked at the moment are: ‘How did the universe begin?’ and ‘Is there life outside of Earth?’. These questions drive so many people that calling space travel a ‘waste of money’ seems to be an insult to so many people’s lives and careers!

Space exploration can lead to humanity’s safety in continuance if/when space exploration have developed more efficient ways to travel. Mars has been dubbed the Earth due to it’s availability to terraforming. The Safety provided of moving to Mars will give a sure securance if Earth was stuck by devastation of the cosmos.