i know that this question has probably been talked to death..but..???

Question

has anyone ever thought of how assanine it is for the government to spend billions and billions of dollars on the space program, trying to find out if there is other life, when they should just be worried about the life on this planet, and make sure that they are all fed and clothed and housed properly???

i mean,learning about mars and jupiter,and landing on the moon is all very exciting and enlightening,but,can we get real????
did we really need to know that pluto was never really a planet?? did that really help anyone??? i just don't get it!!!!

Answer 1

Probably someone else will give this same answer, but...

The most important reason to do space related research is to develop better technology for getting to other planets, and eventually to other solar systems.

Humans NEED to get off of this planet if humanity is going to avoid going extinct. Earth will not last forever, and neither will our sun. Eventually conditions in our solar system will change so as to make it impossible for humans to continue to survive here.

Of course, this won't happen for a long, long time, (hopefully). However, it will also probably take a long, long time for us to actually manage to develop technology that will allow us to colonize other solar systems. If we don't work on developing that type of technology now, and focus exclusively on this planet, by the time people realize they need that kind of technology it could be much too late.

Also, basic science often doesn't have an immediately obvious payback for investments made in research. However, this type of knowledge has proven necessary for many technologies we are now developing. Its hard to see a real need for multi-billion dollar super-colliders - what good is it going to do us to know more about subatomic particles that normally don't even exist in nature? Well, we don't know, but in the past, such knowledge has allowed people to come up with useful technologies, and odds are it will help in the future too.

This is one activity that humans are involved in that will actually benefit our distant descendants - most of the stuff we normally do will make stuff worse for them.

The first space launch took place only about half a century ago - now we have robots on Mars and satellites orbiting that planet. That is a huge leap in progress for only around 50 years. If we are making progress that fast in this field, I think it would be a shame to stop. Who knows what we'll see in another 50 years? This is one area where humans are actually progressing.

Also, if you DID actually manage to properly feed and clothe and house everyone around the world, that would probably cause those populations to increase even faster than they are now. It won't be long before we're going to have to ship people off this planet due to over population. Mars seems to be a fairly decent place to start a colony, (not great - but doable).

Answer 2

Half of the world's over 6 billion people probably live on less than 1 dollar a day, but have you as an individual who enjoys much more comfort than you really need ever thought of giving that extra money towards helping those unfortunate poor of this world? This doesn't happen in the real world, neither with individuals nor with governments. At least the space program and its affiliated technology advances human knowledge. What we should be really worried about is unwinnable wars and unnecessary interference in the affairs of other countries. The expenditure on the Iraq war could make every American a near millionnaire or wipe out poverty from the entire world....But no, in the real world, good and bad will always remain side by side; one cannot exist without the other.

Answer 3

There is a flaw in the implication of your question. The flaw is that the government 'spends' the money as if that were the end of things. But it's not.

When money is spent for any government program, that money doesn't stop, in this case with NASA or its subcontractors. These organizations have employees and suppliers and investments and so on. The money is essentially introduced into the economy.

Over all, it doesn't matter much where the government spends it's money, it will end up in the same grand pile. If it went to social programs directly, those programs would also need suppliers of services and goods.

You can get the benefits of a broader and better capitalized economy by spending funds anywhere. You might as well spend them on things that never spoil- like information about the larger universe. One never knows when it will be important.

Answer 4

Has anyone ever thought of how asinine it is to spend so much on football? We spend more on sports than on space, although I suspect most people don't know that and probably do not even believe it is true now that I am saying it. You cannot just put every aspect of life on hold until every problem in the world is solved. If we did that, there would be no space, no football, no TV, no Internet, and no progress would ever be made. Some day, hundreds of years in the future, people without enough money to travel to other planets will be considered poor. That is unless we just give up on space now, in which case all people will forever be so poor that they cannot travel to other planets.

Answer 5

Boy did you set yourself for attacks! Be prepared. Before you attack anything or anyone that you obviously know NOTHING about, you should attempt to educate yourself on the subject so that you dont come across as such a dumba**.

NASA does far more than just attempt to find life in outer space. In their research and development of space projects, NASA has developed an incredible amount of products that you use every day from the mattress you sleep on to the clothes you wear to the way that you purchase and preserve your food to the television that you watch to the cell phone that you communicate with. Everything they do brings a benefit to EVERY PERSON on this planet and for you to think otherwise just shows how stupid that you are.

Answer 6

it's a good question!.... all these billions that we spend on space exploration actually do have a genuine use.... not only does it foster new inventions that will be good for us here on Earth, like the foam bed, but it's taking the necessary 'baby steps' that man needs to take to prepare himself for one day getting our butts OFF this planet and on to another one.... we WILL one day need a new place to live.... what's happening now is the preparation for that move.... we have to find somewhere to go, figure out how to GET there and LIVE there, if it's not totally compatible with our form of life.... so, learning to live and explore in space is just the first steps... and WE have to do this to lay the ground work for those who will follow us.... our GGGGgrandkids may be the ones who will need to leave... and if we don't prepare the way, they could be lost... mankind could be lost.... and whether that would be a bad thing or a good thing is a whole 'nother argrument....me, I'd like to see the groundwork laid, so that when that genius arises that discovers the first real 'warp drive', they'll know where to point that first ship out!!!.....

MORE good could be done on this planet, if they'd quit with the WARS and still go on with the space exploration!!

Answer 7

If it weren't for space exploration, the satellites that you use every day would not be up there.

There are trillions of dollars to be made extracting natural resources from outside Earth, with no pollution involved. A few billion dollars spent on exploration is a drop in the bucket.

Do you think that Queen Isabella wanted to "waste" money for no reason when she sent Christopher Columbus to find a new route to China? The small investments she made to explore returned to her country millions of times more resources then what was spent.

Answer 8

And where does the money go? Into jobs to engineer and build the devices that make this exploration possible. Those dollars actually go directly back into the economy. Now,how about the Billions and Billions spent to kill and torture people? That's more of a concern to me! Have a great day!;-)=

Answer 9

As of 1999, NASA's budget amounted to 0.8% of the Federal Budget. If that money were all diverted to humanitarian efforts, those budgets would rise an imperceptible amount, and the effect on individuals would be negligible. However, the benefit that NASA brings, both directly (through communication satellites, weather satellites, etc), and indirectly (through trickle down technology improvements, and money spent in the economy at large) are not negligible.

Answer 10

Fire resistant coats for firefighters, foam beds, bullet proof jackets, barcodes, the Fischer Space Pen (Possibly the coolest), Just to name a few.

OOOH!! Almost forgot! Freeze dried food! Being able to have an Ice Cream Sandwich ANYWHERE is absolutely fantastic!

All this and more came about by "Wasting money"