is it just me or is the whole space/mars/moon yada yada the most stupid crap ever?

Question

going to the moon and doing space walks and seeing if theres possibility for life on the mars is such a waste of money, who really cares bout any of that crap? spend the money on the already ridiculously cheap AIDS medicine for people in africa who cant afford it. or spend the money for clean water for ppl who dont have it. or buiild some damn schools in countries where there are no schools...

yeah its just me, i dont think any of the posted arguments are right. its ridiculous, whatever. its such a waste of money.

Answer 1

I agree with you, but how about moderation in everything.

Answer 2

Well sure there's that way of thinking and lets say for instance we just stopped going into space all together and spent all that money on cheap AIDS medicine for people in Africa and better schooling in third world countries, and lets say 50-75 years down the road when the world is a perfect little utopia and one day a astronomer looking up at the stars finds a asteroid the size of Texas heading this way, what would happen then?

Now that everyone is living longer lives and people aren't getting sick as often, we see a rise in the world population 50-75 years down the road, lets say 9 maybe 10 billion people but no where to go no space stations, moon colony's, Mars colony's or any other place to go if a mass extinction event happened.

Answer 3

There are many that feel as you do. But their logic and yours is flawed in many ways.

Space exploration has done far more to advance the human race than you will ever know... even in medicine which seems to be a basis for your argument. The US government only uses about 1-2% of its annual budget to fund space exploration... compare that to about 30% for the military.

Your arguement is also riddled with words like "crap" and "damn". Obviously, you've not been very well educated, as those words tend to weaken an argument exponentially. If you have real reasoning besides your own flawed opinion (which you are entitled to, however unsupported it is) that is what you should be arguing with.

Nothing anyone says on this post will change your mind or sway your opinion, you've made that clear. However, look at what would be without the space programs of the world. Millions of engineers, administrators, technicians, contractors, and many other professions would be out of work. You would put a ghastly number of people out of work.

The other thing, is that without space exploration, without satellite technologies we wouldn't have the internet as it is today. We wouldn't have cell phones, worldwide news, exchange of information.

But your set in your ways, and as an engineer for a NASA contractor, I'm glad I have a job and that there are only a small number of people like you out there.

Answer 4

I know that you haven't given this much thought, so I'll be gentle.

1. Going into space is an investment in the future of the human race.

2. A lot of people care about that "crap"

3. Why can't people who have Aids just stop spreading it? Wouldn't that be even cheaper than having to send them medicine?

4. Clean water? Why don't people learn how to make simple sand filters taught in survival class? Boiling helps. The problem is uneducated populations increasing through lack of understanding the impact on the local environment. If they had some basic science teaching, they might get it.

5. Space exploration requires a lot of schooling. Increasing the amount of schooling people need to get ahead might increase the number of schools available, but more to the point, who cares about schooling people who won't stop having sex even though they are dying of AIDS?

I don't mean to be callus, but you haven't thought much about opposing arguments before you posted this question.

Don't get me wrong, I know that the world needs food, schools, and medicine, but wouldn't you know it, science and technology help to push us in that direction! Understanding Mars could provide us with an escape hatch when this planet overpopulates, since we keep feeding the people who keep reproducing even though there is no food to be found in thier country. It's either that or there is going to have to be a major dying off of the human population--the Earth can only take so much!

The moon and space stations provide places for us to do research that can't be done here on earth due to too much gravity, including creating medicines.

What we really need is a push for people to be more curious about science, sociology and humanity. And more ambitious about going to school. If you really feel that strongly about helping those people in need, you are right on the money about schools--join the peace corps and go teach them to be more careful about thier breeding habits! Teach them a love for learning and maybe we will start to see some positive change when they are able to make thier OWN schools.

Space exploration may be a lot of flag waving, but it is unavoidable. We have to know what is out there, and eventually, we have to go there, no matter how idealistic some people think that sounds. It is simple reality. The Earth is our home, but then, Europe was home to the early settlers of the US, too.

Answer 5

Yes, its just you.

The majority of thinking adults know that exploration leads to experimentation, discovery, and new technologies (maybe to make it easier to clean the air and water here at home), and new knowledge (to share with our children - well maybe not yours, you have a rather closed mind). That new knowledge and technology might lead to a total cure of AIDS and other diseases we can't beat yet. New technology can lead to cheaper energy (freeing up funds for schools), more efficient food production, etc.
And even if we don't find life on the moon or Mars, there are 2 worlds that we could turn into massive farms (just need water, sunlight and minerals).
All in all, staying home is like burying your head in the sand, hoping that we will fix what we have broken with the same minds and same technology that caused the breaks in the first place.

Answer 6

Lacy,

I'm sure there are others out there who feel the same as you do....

While you may not care, there are others who do. It is interesting to search for life in other worlds... to press the boundaries of what is known.... to seek out new worlds and perhaps find out more about where we came from.

This is a big enough world where the people who feel led to build schools and manufacture medicine can do that... while those who feel led to their calling will do that. If the whole world used all their resources to make aids medicine and build schools... we would soon be out of resources to build that aids medicine, and we would be out of money to fund the schools.....

What lies in space may one day save humanity... It may be resource... it may be an intelligence.... it may a new home after this one is gone.

Answer 7

We now know how fragile is our spaceship, the Earth.
Its resources are not infinite and we are overpopulating it.
It is our single point failure possibility.
We might be forced away from it by some not so unlikely event.
All living creatures tend to spread and occupy as many different environments as they can. It is to increase their possibility of survival and avoid extinction.
Why shall humanity not be doing the same instead of concentrating all efforts in solving our day to day never ending problems?

Answer 8

in about 50 years our planets resources will be almost completely exhausted. as the human race, we are consuming our planets resources at an alarming rate. faster than it can remake them. and it doesnt seem like we are slowing down any time soon. plus, we are running out of space to live. why dont we look at the whole issue instead of just a part of it. if we dont think of expanding, we wont have anything or anywhere left to live on or off of. so i support this so called "crap" you're bashing. but it doesnt mean we aren't making an effort to do anything about those other issues, because we are. do your research.

Answer 9

Many of our minds need to know these things, as well as everything else we can know. You talk about spending money on things for physical bodies; but we must also spend money on our minds to keep them healthy too.

This is why we always try to spend money on both.

Answer 10

Thinking it is crap is just a way to say I'm scared and don't know what's going to happen when I die. To continue our existence it may be imparitive to discover other ways to exist outside of earth. I believe that is what their goal is.

Answer 11

well from a statistical standpoint the only way man can survive
will be to spread out amoung the planets...there is only so much
room here and bad things happen in crowded places... :)