Why do we spend hundreds of billions of $ on exploring space, we should fix the problems on this planet first?

Question

Even if we find life somewhere else, we couldnt go there in our lifetime. Wouldnt all that money be better spent on helping all the more serious issues on our own planet. Imagine what $400 billion that we recently spent on a space exploration to mars would have done for the poor of our country or other important issues that affect lives of suffering people on this planet!

Answer 1

I agree.I am tired of NASA telling us that what they are doing is going to benefit mankind,but they never say when or how.I don't see how launching probes to Mars (which usually fail anyway) is going to help mankind.I think it is a waste of taxpayer dollars to spend billions on space exploration which usually result in catastrophic failure.

Answer 2

400 billion on a space exploration to mars? i doubt that, the latest space probes have been million dollar projects, nothing has been in the billion dollar range since cassini was launched to saturn, and that project was conceived back in the space race haydays.

in all the millions spent on exploring space are actually quite small. heck the politicians waste more money campaigning than the space program uses, why don't they use that money to do some good instead of driving around the country bragging about how great they are.

plus there are benefits of the space program, without it we would be completely defenseless if an asteroid is heading towards us, now we have some chance at least.

plus you cannot stop people from looking up at night and wondering, eventually some of those people might go up to space, or some other country might, maybe a country not so friendly as the US, then maybe they would put weapons up there and wreak havoc upon you, and you couldn't do a damn thing about it. ok its somewhat farfetched, but it could happen. and i would rather know that the US is the leader in space than many other countries.

Answer 3

What $400 billion?! It would cost less than 100 billion to send HUMANS to Mars. And that money would be spent over a decade. Are ther humans strolling about Mars today?

And considering how space exploration has directly benefitted humanity, solar cells being only one example, you think the TRILLIONS spent on war has benefitted anyone? The problems of the planet could be solved if the US stopped waging war against it.

Answer 4

NASA gets $17 billion in next year's budget, a fraction of 1% of the US FEderal Budget. Defence gets over $400 billion, and health and social security gets $700 billion. NASA has never spent $400 billion on a single project, nor has it ever had that much to spend.

Yes, space research is expensive, but it produces many benefits. Computer technology, medical technology, home entertainment technology, even sport have all been enhanced by the space program. A little research rapidly shows that the money spent on space is a tiny fraction of that spent already on suffering on Earth, and we STILL have those problems. I assume you will be selling up your home entertainment system to spend your money on more worthwhile humanitarian projects, since you obviously deem scientific research expendable.

Answer 5

In science you have to go down a lot of obscure dirt trails to find the few roads that actually take you somplace. NASA helps us travel several of them.

The "our lifetime" criteria is curiously shortsighted. When investing in basic research, you need to think generationally at least. Madam Curie never would have imagined radiation treatment of cancer or nuclear power plants (well, maybe she might have imagined the latter, but she sure as heck did not live to see them.)

Julius Edgar Lilienfield studying conductivity in the 1912 eventually led to the development of the transistor.
I doubt he imagined the powerful computers we have today and his funders certainly didn't.

Some of NASA's work helps us understand how our planet works (think Earth Observing System satellites and solar physics satellites). A lot of it is really only valuable as entertainment (most of deep space astronomy, I am afraid, though we do learn a little about fundamental physics via astronomy) and the bulk of the money is spent on manned space exploration which is very hard to justify, except again as entertainment value. Also, NASA is still pretty active in aeronautics which has clear applications.

Nevertheless, there is some benefit, and think about NASA's budget in terms of your personal tax bill. . . $60/year per citizen. $0.16/day. Compare that to the total discretionary daily federal spending per citizen in FY 2007 of $25.57 ( this does not include fixed outlays like interest on the debt, social security and medicare). Less than 1% of your tax dollar is going to NASA. Whether you still feel it is a waste or not, you are picking a curious scapegoat.

Answer 6

So... you basically think we should make ourselves nice & comfortable on this planet until it ends, or until we make it uninhabitable first.

The thing is, there will ALWAYS be suffering people on this planet. We've spent $trillions trying to fix things. And, in fact - the little (comparitively) we've spent on space has given us some of the answers to that suffering. New technologies, new tools, new materials, new industries.

Stopping our exploring of space won't do anything other than cripple our technological advancement, and there will STILL be people suffering.

Answer 7

Even with all that money here, nothing would get solved. Look at how the Bush administration is taking $$ away from children's health care and spending tons by paying $120,000 for Halliburton truckers to run convoys in Iraq.

It's not the lack of money, it's the lack of brains.

Answer 8

Opinions are great. I'm not sure why you are posting it on a question and answer site. I think you might be looking for a chat room.

Funding for government programs is determined by Congress and the President.

I'm sure that your local Representative would be happy to hear your concerns.

During your meeting, don't forget to ask him/her how much is spent annualy on the defense budget and the Iraq war.

Answer 9

Yeah your suitable, all of us know not something approximately our planet. have been nevertheless living in caves, strolling around with golf equipment, and strolling everywhere....... Umm mone(Y) is getting used to discover oceans with the aid of inner maximum agencies, and that they might ask for government investment in the event that they arrive across something. ....The Air tension deals with monitoring the climate. you know with the satellites and all. and that i dont think of that controlling the climate is plausible. possibly with the aid of lowering pollutants (like we are....) will help it. guy you needless to say have no concept what your speaking approximately. you will possibly desire to delete this Q and stay in college.

Answer 10

i dont know lol
i agree it would be better for our generation to be spent here and now,(in other words it would make our lives more comfortable, but would ruin the lives of our children and grandchildren and so forth) but what would it be spent on? helping economies? that would mean more and more coal and oil consumption, which is gonna make us wish we had the means to get to another planet, but 100 years from now, we gonna wish that 100 years ago we hadn't decided it would be more important to help poor people destroy our atmosphere