16 April 2008
Nine Good Reasons for Space Exploration
Posted by Ryan Anderson
Advocates of space exploration often get asked the question: “Why should we spend money on NASA where there are so many problems here on Earth?” Universe Today has been compiling a list of responses to this question by space-bloggers from across the web. Check it out, there are some great answers.
In response to Universe Today’s call for answers, we decided to compile a list of our top reasons that space exploration is a worthwhile endeavor. I also encourage everyone to read The Case for Space Exploration, a collection of essays and articles put together by the Space Foundation.
Now, without further ado, our list:
1. Perspective – As our telescopes probe the depths of space and time and our spacecraft missions reveal the scale and diversity of worlds even within our own solar system, we are provided with a humbling sense of our place in the universe. Carl Sagan expressed the significance of this perspective in a beautiful passage in his book Pale Blue Dot. You can also listen to Sagan himself read the passage in this video clip. The world would be a better place if everyone watched that video.
2. Protecting and Understanding our World –
- NASA’s Earth Science division helps us understand the fantastically complex world that we live on.
- Studying other worlds like Venus and Mars teaches us how special our planet is, and provides sobering examples of how the climates of planets can change.
- NASA-funded research scans the skies for dangerous asteroids, and missions to asteroids teach us how we might be able to divert them from a collision course, should the need arise.
3. Inspiration – The Apollo missions inspired an entire generation of students to pursue math and science careers. As our society becomes more technology-dependent, the populace needs to become scientifically literate to keep up. Telling students that “You could be the first astronaut on Mars!” or “You could be the one driving the next Mars rovers!” is a pretty effective way of inspiring them to study science and math.
4. The Economy – NASA does not launch buckets of cash into space. The majority of the money spent on space exploration goes toward the salaries of thousands of skilled American workers who make NASA’s missions so successful. For more on this, and its connection to the recent Mars rover budget scare, check this post.
5. Exploration – To be human is to be an explorer. It is part of who we are: since the first tribes left the African savanna and spread into Europe and Asia, we have had the need to explore the unknown. Now humans have visited or settled every corner of the globe. The instinct to explore is still active, but there are very few outlets. Some people seek out extreme or exotic places to satisfy this need, risking their lives to do so. Others look to the skies. It may be an old cliche, but Star Trek had it right: Space is the final frontier, and it calls to the explorer in all of us.
6. New Technology – Space exploration brings together a lot of smart people from many different fields and puts them to work on some very difficult problems. The result is not only fantastic scientific discoveries, but also many useful inventions. From healthier baby food to technology to better diagnose breast cancer, to farther flying golf balls, NASA technology is all around you. Check here for an extensive list.
7. Answering The Big Questions – How did life begin? How did the universe begin? How was our world created? Are we alone? These questions and others have been asked by every generation since the dawn of time. That we can even ask them is a testament to the power of the human brain. Now, because we are smart enough and bold enough to explore the universe, we are finding the answers. In the words of Carl Sagan, “We are starstuff contemplating the stars.”
8. International Collaboration – Large space exploration projects are almost always the result of international cooperation. The International Space Station is the most obvious example, but the space shuttle regularly has astronauts from other nations, and many robotic missions include instruments built by teams in other countries. As NASA gears up to return to the moon, precursor missions from Japan, India, China and Russia are already in orbit, are planned, or are under construction. Future human Mars missions will almost certainly involve multiple space agencies to spread the cost among several nations.
9. Long-term Survival – As it stands, all of humanity’s eggs are in one small basket called “Earth”. It is only a matter of time before something happens to our planet that is so devastating that it changes the course of life as we know it. Whether the disaster is natural, like a rogue comet, or self-inflicted, like nuclear war, it is possible that our home will no longer be habitable. What happens, then, to all of the accomplishments of the last thousand generations of humans? All of our art, our music, our literature, our science, even our very genes could be wiped out. Unless, of course, there are a few humans living elsewhere in the solar system. Space exploration and colonization of the Moon and Mars are an insurance policy for humanity and all of our achievements.
That’s what we came up with. We think that, based on the reasons above, it is certainly worth it to spend 0.60% of the national budget (just six out of every thousand dollars) on NASA. We’re interested to hear what you think. Is the investment in NASA worth it?
NASA does not launch buckets of cash into space.
I’d love to see a scientific experiment that tests the behavior of buckets of cash in space. Is anyone modeling this? Why isn’t anyone modeling this?!
In seriousness, this is a nice list with a lot of compelling arguments. I think the important part, which you emphasize here, is the huge breadth of NASA’s impact. For any one or two of the nine points you address, 0.6% of the budget seems huge, and as you describe the scope of the impact of that money that it starts to sound more reasonable.
Also I think the NASA website has a flash program showing something about the impacts of NASA science on human health (which was unexpected, to me anyways). That might fit in well as a sub-item on one of your points above. Maybe #6.
“The majority of the money spent on space exploration goes toward the salaries of thousands of skilled American workers….”
I never thought of that before! Also, I think the US spends a lot on war (and war hurts people).
Anyway, all these reasons sound good! Shiny.
[…] exists in your toothpaste. One of our Nine Good Reasons for Space Exploration that we posted about last month was new technology – NASA programs are constantly pushing […]
More than anything, this list made me think about what it could accomplish with 5.0% of the national budget (eight times its current allotment).
I don’t think the price is worth it. There wouldn’t be many hungry people around if that money was spent “wisely” on humanity. Personally, I don’t think there is any life out there. Not even a blade of grass!!!!!!
As Obama pointed out in his speech yesterday, it is a false choice to claim that we should fix problems on earth before exploring space.
World hunger is not caused by a lack of money or even a lack of food. It is caused by improper distribution and various trade policies that make it difficult to get the food to places where it is needed.
Killing NASA wouldn’t solve those problems.
yes you should
No wonder I do not see, as I work in the field of education (http://essayvoodoo.co.uk/economic-dissertation-help/)
I can say that nothing changes dramatically.
they are all rubbish
i agree everyone is soooooooo RUBISH
they are all doing it for money.
they all do it for money to get rich 🙂
i dont htink hey are doing it for money to get rich but sometimes certain contries are racing each other to try and see who could get somewhere in space first ex: russia and america raced each other to get to the moon first so they are acting like its a contest.
Dominik: Thanks for your insightful comments. Could you please explain, for future readers, why they are all rubbish?
Stefan: You don’t know what you’re talking about. Everyone who works at NASA or academia could easily have gone off to work at big industry or defense projects and made much much more money. It’s a labor of love.
[…] Ryan did this a while ago, the Humans Space Flight Plans Committee is in hearings, and I’m […]
lol this so funny
It’s a great list that will never get us out there exploring space. We’ve been toting that for forty years now.
Guy Laliberte’s trip into space for 30 million has apparently netted him more coverage than a season of F1 formula racing…or 592 million in advertising value.
Is sponsoring space exploration profitable for private corporations? Since all other forms of advertising are horribly saturated now with little in economic profit, space exploration absolutely a way for corporations to distinguish themselves above their competition. That it’s incredibly cost effective shows just how much we’ve dillied on space exploration.
Who would have thought that sending a man into space would be that much more cost effective than buying advertising on TV? It costs less to send a person into space than to market a product on TV.
Let me repeat, space exploration is cheaper than TV advertising.
Guy’s trip to space should be an eye opener. This could be the beginning of a true space rush through corporate and private sponsorship.
[…] the typing, please have a look at this collection of responses. Other good responses are here, here, and here. We can’t afford to not fund human space […]
sometimes i think that space exploration should stop because contrys could use the money for better things like health but my head is telling me they should continue space exploration because we get to understand more about planets and our dear planet earth.
Hello,
This is less a comment and more a request, so I’m hoping you’ll intercept this before it gets posted on your comments section. I’m writing from a publishing company in New York, and we are in the process of obtaining necessary permissions for one of our upcoming books. The author would like to include this post as a reading selection. How shall I go about obtaining permission to reuse the text?
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I used to feel that billions, or even millions, shouldn’t be spent on space exploration when there were so many in need of health care, improved nutrition, etc. But, as someone who spends a lot of time reading on and considering such questions, I’ve come to believe otherwise.
To start with, ours is a very wealthy planet; Many of our humanitarian problems have to do with human nature and not a lack of resources. So, being for humanitarian progress doesn’t intellectually require being against space exploration.
But, secondly, Earth has an out-of-control population problem that sooner or later will have to be dealt with. Pessimists might say that terra-forming and settling other planets is millenia away, but I don’t buy that. If the past few centuries have taught us anything about human technology, it’s that it far outpaces expectations. 2 centuries ago, who could have predicted nuclear energy or weaponry? 2 centuries from now might just might find us settling the moons of Jupiter.
this page helped like fr
[…] AGU Blogosphere; https://blogs.agu.org/martianchronicles/2008/04/16/nine-good-reasons-for-space-exploration/ […]
[…] are multiple, truly valuable reasons to expand our human presence in the solar system. Beyond the most commonly cited reasons and the long list of technological and medical advancements spun off from the human space program, […]
[…] Nine Good Reasons for Space Exploration […]
[…] Nine Good Reasons for Space Exploration […]
As a psychologist and one who grew up along with the truly greats of US space exploration and all the related successes of the 1960’2 and 1970’s in astronautics and spaceflight and having watched NASA’s more recent failures (all associated with very odd hiring policies and even stranger funding policies) the grandiose but relative meaningless “goals” we see here cause me to wonder–especially in view of the lack of “maned missions” and the massive whole that leaves for Americas adversaries to full–about the point of any funding at all for an administration who’s best efforts in recent years have been, essentially, a plethora of pretty pictures who’s only point seems to be, literally, busy work for thousands of employees who, given the fact that the US, is officially the worlds second worst educated country, seem ill suited for any actual breakthroughs in human knowledge, advanced exploration of space or of fundamentally improving the quality of life for the tax payers who’s money and expenditure thereof is their sole reason for existence and an agency and who appear to have serious trouble justifying expenditure of said funds.
I am certainly curious about the universe and how it is constructed. But then I am an engineer with a scientific background. I AM interested in the geochemistry of Titan and the energy sources for the volcanoes of Io. But how many people are like me? Even if we were to find life on Mars or the subsurface oceans of Europa, how long would that hold the attention of the average human before the next political scandal, blockbuster movie, or natural disaster distracted them. We are failing miserably in keeping our own world pristine. Some people claim going into space will help us heal the Earth. Well it’s been nearly half a century since the Apollo astronauts sent us pictures of that delicate blue world where we all live. And we have global warming denial from the highest levels of government, the continued destruction of the biosphere for profit, and cancerous population growth with no end in sight. The extinction of other species is a fact right now. Good intentions are not enough in the face of greed and hate which have never stopped being in control of our destiny. You have to clean up your room before you can go out and play. You can’t reach for the stars while the Earth rots away underneath your feet.
space is so coooooooooooool!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ze Russians and Americans did infact race to ze Moon. But back zen vwe were known as the Great Soviet Union. All of zis rubbish on how ze americans beat us is a bunch of, how vwe say, фиктивный, or fiktivnyy. Vwe are ze ones who vwere first to ze moon. Vwe had rovers there before ze race even started!
It say that space exploration comes up with new innovations, but why spend all that money on stopping cancer instead of freeze dried ice cream
If humans could put the world to rights by cancelling all space research then space research would naturally have to wait until the wrongs of the world are corrected. But people should not pretend that the general situation is as clear as this. There will always be
Problems regardless whether there is space research or not. Space research has so many
benefits that unfortunately many, and probably most, people simply do not realize.
It may now be too late to save society now anyway but without exploration it certainly will.
Also, many and probably most world problems can not be solved by simply throwing money at them, as as been seen all too often in many places of the world. People go on
About the need to solve problems like poverty and hunger but the talk about dealing with them often just remains just that – talk.
One simple measure humans could do is to abolish all nuclear missiles and weapons and put the money spent on those in trying to deal with world problems , of which there are so many and increasing and getting worse with every single day. But nuclear weapons and missiles and weapons are increasing again, not decreasing. But if humans lack the will to get rid of these weapons – the continued existence of which still threatens all of us – it will be impossible to see how humans can solve much more complex problems like the climate, over population and depletion of world resources. Maybe the best thing people could do for the planet is not to have children.
huh, you know what, I was asked to mention three reasons for why to explore Mars and other planets, which I did it briefly. I am very happy that all my reasons are from the top 9 reasons in your descriptions.
thank you for all this reasons, it was really helpful
THAT IS GOOD