Space exploration pointless

How many billions of pounds are spent on space exploration? How many trillions of pounds are spent on space exploration? I personally find this shameful when we havn't even got things right here. If the money that was spent on one spacecraft were put into educating people from the countries that we bomb, wouldn't you think that would be more benficial to humankind?

Why should we explore space when we have so much to here? How can anyone justify the money spent when there are millions going hungry?

Um, bugger all is spent on space exploration.

The entire MER mission cost was under 1 Billion dollars.

How much is spent each day on the war on terror alone?

Originally posted by Kano
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How much is spent each day on the war on terror alone?

God only knows Kano. It's the same with everything. The U.K alone, if it decided to use just the money it spent on cat food and aftershave in one year, could get rid of third world debt and educate, cloth, feed.

I struggle to believe that it dosn't cost billions (or a hell of alot) to send spaceships up into the vast unkown? Shouldn't we figure out problems here first?

The human race is all about exploring the unkown. What would have happened if people had stayed content over in Europe and said "Well I don't think we should explore away from here because we have too much to deal with at home." Etc. there's new and exciting things to be found in space, much of which could be very beneficial to the human race in the long run. We probably won't know until a long time whether or not exploring space is a good call, but we have our ancestors to look at when it comes to the benefit of exploration.

Space exploration might actually not be pointless...I mean...check out all of the pretty pictures we've accumluated over the years! I say it's well worth my tax dollars!

But seriously, all these countries at war that you speak of, space exploration is one of the FEW things that thes countries can actually work together on. It's one of the last ties we have to some other countires, why lose that? Plus, it's someone's passion, maybe not yours, but someone's.

Regardless of how much money is being spent on space exploration, it's someone's big money, and if they thought that war or hunger was more important, they'd be putting it there.

Besides, you could never feed the world. Truth is, many populated and starving places on the planet are not arable, THAT's why they are starving. Equal distribution is a good thought, but honestly, would never work.

The money needs to be spent on space exploration because we are going to need somewhere else to live and destory after we have completely corrupted the Earth.

But seriously, we are all curious creature and constantly strive for greater things. It is just unfortinite we do not also take responcibility for the effects that we have on said things.

Go to this link:

NASA

Then do a search for "benefits." You will be able to see how all of the research that was done has benefited mankind.

You may want to pay attention to the parts about every day items that they developed for use in space that have crossed into the public domain.

Originally posted by Faisca
What would have happened if people had stayed content over in Europe and said "Well I don't think we should explore away from here because we have too much to deal with at home." new and exciting things to be found in space, much of which could be very beneficial to the human race in the long run. .

Sure, exploration is good, discovery is good. It would not be a good thing if, as you said, nobody bothered to explore because they have problems where there are, however within this context I tend to disagree. So far I cannot think of a thing that space exploration has done for us here on Earth. As jonna said, when this place is f*cked (pardon my French) then we move elsewhere right? Well how about we actually look down for once. Our planet needs us right now, we are toasting up! Not only that, we are destroying trees and natural resources and killing animals at a horrible speed. How can we justify spreading human life to elsewhere in the galaxy after all this.

We can't we use science to come up solutions for these problems instead of looking for the next mountain to climb and put our flag up on. At what cost are we doing these things?

Originally posted by COOL HAND
Go to this link:

NASA

Then do a search for "benefits." .

According to the NASA site, space exploration appears to have helped putting more airplanes in the sky. This just goes back to my point about the envirmonent, but i will not rant again.

Sure COOL HAND, there will be some benefits, but do these size up to the real issues that are facing mankind?

Firstly, its not like that money is just shot into space, its all economics, the money itself isn't destroyed, its circulated back into the economy. The NASA employees get paid, the contractors get paid, the instrument makers get paid. They use their money to buy food/cars/homes. The money goes round and round the economy.

Simply throwing money at the poorer countries does not solve their problems. If you gave away all the cat food and aftershave money it would put tens of thousands of employees of cat-food and aftershave companies, their suppliers, deliverymen out of work. As well as producing an over-supply of fish/chicken/meat and whatever else cat food and aftershave is made of. All deflating the economy.

Its all well and good to make la-dee-da examples like that. But the real world application is a lot more complicated. On a large scale, money is the blood that flows to keep the economy alive. Not the fuel that it burns to keep moving.

Sure more resources should be directed towards less-fortunate countries. But why sacrifice a small, low funded area of science that gives such a high return? Count the costs of the multi-million dollar missiles and bombs getting thrown around like so many fireworks. The cost of the war in Iraq for the US alone is already over $125Billion, and is soon to go over $150Billion. Consider that that is on top of the ongoing operations in Afghanistan at around $10Billion, or the entire regular defense budget of $400+Billion.

In the US (as I imagine in all countries), funding for space and space exploration is less than 1% of the Budget. Why just shut down something that has been giving so many good returns?

Additional, e-t, science isn't a tool that can only be used on one thing at a time. There are a hell of a lot of people working on the problems you are talking about. But space exploration continues to give a lot of useful scientific knowledge.

Not to mention instantaneous worldwide communications via satellites and so forth.

Originally posted by Kano
Firstly, its not like that money is just shot into space, its all economics

Its all well and good to make la-dee-da examples like that. But the real world application is a lot more complicated. On a large scale, money is the blood that flows to keep the economy alive. Not the fuel that it burns to keep moving.

Sure more resources should be directed towards less-fortunate countries. But why sacrifice a small, low funded area of science that gives such a high return? Count the costs of the multi-million dollar missiles and bombs getting thrown around like so many fireworks. The cost of the war in Iraq for the US alone is already over $125Billion,

Kano, you make a good point, and don't even get me started on the cost of war. My example of the cat food and aftershave was just to show how little we would have to sacrifice in the western world to help those elsewhere. 'Throwing money' at the problem may not help, but how could buying schools, food and water for people who don't have them be bad?

I just feel that Space exploration seems to be reading for a dream that isn't going to be areality for any of us, why not help those who are in need right now?

Originally posted by earthtone
So far I cannot think of a thing that space exploration has done for us here on Earth.

Well I did a bit of searching, and I came up with a few things...

What do you think blast-off does to your blood pressure? When Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in space 37 years ago, Project Mercury scientists had to invent an automatic measuring device to find out.

Today, you can find the device in just about any drugstore for an instant check-up. It is just one of an ever-growing number of medical spin-offs from space.

www.cnn.com...

That article talks about a bunch of good things we've gotten from space exploration.

And here's a really good site that answers your exact question...

Some of the most frequently asked questions about the U.S. space program are "Why go into space when we have so many problems here on Earth?" and "What does the space program do for me?" These are legitimate questions and unfortunately not enough people have been made aware of the vast benefits the space program provides that increase the quality of our daily lives. Applications on Earth of technology needed for space flight have produced thousands of "spinoffs" that contribute to improving national security, the economy, productivity and lifestyle. It is almost impossible to find an area of everyday life that has not been improved by these spinoffs. Collectively, these secondary applications represent a substantial return on the national investment in aerospace research. We should be spending more.

www.thespaceplace.com...

So there are a couple of answers to your questions. I enjoy my scratch-proof lenses, my purified water, and my bball shoes, to mention a few things. And I'm sure there are many people out there who are glad to have many of the technologies given to us by space exploration's research, especially women who's breast cancer has been detected and stopped, and anyone who uses a pacemaker. Just a few examples of space exploration's benefits to mankind.

[edit on 14-6-2004 by Faisca]

hmm... with all the practical things that have come from space exploration i would say it's a good thing. a VERY good thing. also, some research can be done ONLY in space do to the lack of gravity or the atmosphere. not to mention studying other planets can help us to learn more about our own.

and yeah, as kano said, look at how much is being spent on the war on terror!

[edit on 6/14/2004 by cmdrkeenkid]

Faisca, thanks for the links, I am becoming less and less ignorant all the time.

originally post by cmdrkeenkid

look at how much is being spent on the war on terror!

Thinking about the cost of any war makes my stomach turn, it is pure evil to waste that money on killing people.

Space exploration.

International efforts, give countries the opportunity to
work together, regardless of political views.

The ability to test out new technologies, without worrying that
your company will go bankrupt. A private company will not do it, unless
they have a glimmer of hope for profit.

YOu might learn something about yourself (Earth).
For example, why is Mars dead now, but may have
been a literal "second Earth" in the past.

It's a "drop in the bucket" budgetwise.

And, my personal reason. It's really friggin cool..

It's a shame that no other reason can bring people of different countries together in such a way Space doubt. You certainly don't doubt space exploration there sir!

Why does space exploration only get a 'drop in the bucket' from the budget. I certainly rate it over buying more and more weapons. Soon however there will be space weapons of course. . .

I'm going to jump in here with an unpopular argument in favor of war and space exploration...

First of all eploration and the advancment of information and technology should come before humanitarian needs. It is technology and understanding of the universe around us that can do the most good. If in 1900 the US had spent money on shipping food to other countries in need instead of spending money developing farm machinery and railroads, then today we would still be shipping food via horse drawn cart and slow ships. Which is better, slow small amounts of shipping food or massive air drops like take place in many areas of the world? Also which is better... sending some grain to an arid land for starving people or sending seeds for bioengineered wheat that can grow in a dry climate?

Saving people NOW at the cost of science and exploration is dooming humans to population caps, limited resources...and war for space and food.

Now for war. In the 1930s many countries had small militaries to protect thier own country. This was even true for the united states. But then Hitler came along with world domination in mind and changed everything. Countries found themselve unable to defend against the german war machine and in responce the US changed from an average country to a war manufacturer to SAVE european lives and freedoms. This bred a new america where people realized the only way to ensure your way of life to to protect it with force if needed.

War exist because resources are limited things, be it oil, food, wood, metal, anything. Only so many people can survive off of the earth and survive well. Therefore there is war. By lving better and consuming more you better your chances for survival and reproduction. War exist in the animal world as well. Killing others for their resource is part of humanity. And even if it mean killing people, it also means survival. The survival of many european countries of the 1940s involved KILLING lots of germans. Such is life on earth with humans.

Its easy to sit back and say "war is bad" but would you still feel that way if some other country though having a house was selfish and people should live in caves? Whos to say that cat food is selfish?

In the end humans will always have war as long as we do not have unlimited access to everything we want. And if you disagree with that, well, it doesn't matter, because the person who does think war is nessesary will kill you.

Biological, social, and political evolution dictates that advancment of technology and the ability to wage war is successful. Cooperation and humanitarian actions only exist to help stablize societies.

I'm not a cruel heartless person, and i do wish we could do without war or famine, or anything else that involves suffering, but these are the reasons for the way we are. We will probably never change.

in my opinion we should concentrate more on space exploration.... They are now starting to allow private businesses to jump in too... Im not too sure where I stand on this, except for one thing... It would be nice to see them and NASA work together.. Hopefully we can achieve more.

Also dig around through some hubble pics... You will be amazed

[edit on 14-6-2004 by Thatoneguy]

Originally posted by earthtone
How many billions of pounds are spent on space exploration? How many trillions of pounds are spent on space exploration? I personally find this shameful when we havn't even got things right here. If the money that was spent on one spacecraft were put into educating people from the countries that we bomb, wouldn't you think that would be more benficial to humankind?

Why should we explore space when we have so much to here? How can anyone justify the money spent when there are millions going hungry?

what if the answer can only be found 250,000 miles up?