Is the Space Race an obscene waste of money?

Question

With millions starving on Earth, is it worth the superpowers spending so much sending probes etc into space?

Answer 1

No, we need a place to send all the poor people.
Outer space is the perfect place for them.

Answer 2

Fiscal year 2008, US FEderal Budget:

NASA: $17billion
Department of Defence: $580 billion
Department of Health and Social Security: $700billion

Now, with figures like that, if the problems of starvation, homelessness, etc. is the money spent on space going to make so much difference if it is spent somewhere else? That money leads to breakthroughs that have benefited the entire world dramatically over the last 50 years. Computers, weather forecasting, global communication, knowledge of Earth's resources, and even a new consciousness of the planet arising from seeing those pictures of it hanging so small in the vast blackness of space, all have come as the result of the tiny fraction of the world's money spent on space research.

Why do do many people see the world as an either/or scenario? Either we explore space OR we help the starving. Why can't we do both?

Answer 3

Hello Mikey,

I certainly believe I understand what you are saying, but in my own opinion I do not think that the exporation of space is a waste of money.

Neither do I believe that there is a 'space race' any longer.

Although billions of £s, $ and rubles have been spent exploring space., there has been some fantastic breakthroughs in ways to make our lives easier and even more importantly, medicine. Millions of lives have been saved because of medical breakthroughs brought about by space exploration and research.

Far more wasteful and pornographic is the fact that the world powers spend trillions on researching, developing, making and USING weapons with the sole purpose of killing, maiming and destruction.

Although it will taken many, many years to get back the money spent on space exploration, anyone wishing to use the space shuttle to launch a satellite or do experiments in space have to pay for it. I am sure that there is profit now being made doing this. This profit can and probably does go toward more space exploration.

Once a bomb has been made and dropped, there is no profit in that. In fact it creates much more expense in the devastation and death it causes.

Stop this and there would be plenty feed the starving, care for the sick and house the homeless.

Although it is a pipe dream I still live in the hope that the world will one day see sense.

Poseidon.

Answer 4

The Russians pretty much won every single race during the Space Race. They were the first to send a human into space (Russian was also the first language spoken in space), they were the first to send a probe to mars, the moon, and venus, the first to launch a satellite into space, and the first to send a woman into space, among other things.

The only thing the Americans did first was send a man to the moon.

The problem is how do we quantify these achievements? Do the Americans really believe that the entire Space Race consisted of only a single goal; to land on the moon? The Space Race consisted of a lot of goals and the Russians were the first in every single one of them but one. Why exactly, then, do Americans keep insisting they won the Space Race, "hands down"?

Answer 5

Space research is not a waste of time or money. Other then warfare / defense, nothing has accelerated technological innovation as quickly as space research has. Everything from computers to composite materials to statistical quality control / management methods to the cooking of your breakfast has benefited in one way or another from space research. You could easily argue that without the military uses of space there would never have been the interest or investment that there has been in space. However, you could also argue that almost every type of research has military benefits. Now, some of this research would have been done anyway, but without the massive investments in space research we wouldn't necessarily have them - or they wouldn't as available or beneficial due to licensing / patent issues. However, it is true that the model of space research has become rather inefficient and wasteful. That's what happens when science starts being run like a business where the ONLY concern is return on investment. It also doesn't help that every few years some bureaucrat takes away resources from one project to save a few bucks on the national budget, or pushes a new pet project through without giving sufficient funding. With longterm plans that change every few years, it's no surprise that nothing seems to get done. It also doesn't help that the field has become more evolutionary instead of revolutionary.

Answer 6

NASA's scientific investigation into the nature of our Universe has contributed greatly to the technical world in which we live. We talk on cell phones, cook with microwaves, have laptops with wireless connections, an international network of computers that anyone can use called the Internet, a web of airlines that allows people to travel as often as they can afford to travel (even twice a week coast to coast, as someone I know does). Some of our inventions are directly related to NASA investigations. Others are related in spirit.

There is also the fact that Mankind has always wondered what is "out there". At one time, that meant across the land mass that took so long to cross. Then across oceans. Then the Moon. And now beyond.

NASA is very important. We're not spending enough.

Millions starving has nothing to do with money. It has to do with the nature of Man and the fact that we do not live in a perfect world. We have the resources. We have the money. If we could convince everyone to focus on making the world an ideal world, then everyone would be fed. As long as we have terrorists killing innocent people, though, I don't have hope that that will happen any time soon.

Answer 7

Neil deGrasse Tyson wrote:

"How many times have we heard the mantra: “Why are we spending billions of dollars up there in space when we have pressing problems down here on Earth?” Let’s re-ask the question in an illuminating way: “What is the total cost in taxes of all spaceborne telescopes, planetary probes, the rovers on Mars, the space station and shuttle, telescopes yet to orbit and missions yet to fly?” Answer: less than 1% on the tax dollar—7/10ths of a penny, to be exact. I’d prefer that it were more, perhaps 2 cents on the dollar. Even during the storied Apollo era, peak NASA spending amounted to no more than 4 cents on the tax dollar. At that level, NASA’s current space-exploration program would reclaim our pre-eminence in a field we pioneered. Right now, the program paddles along slowly, with barely enough support to ever lead the journey."

A real obscene waste of money is what the world is currently spending on wars everywhere.

Answer 8

When ancient civilisations first decided to explore a neighbouring valley,they quite possibly discovered a river.Yet its possible the valley in which they originally dwelled yielded no such life giving luxury and they could well have been drinking from the occasional muddy puddle.

The people who starve on earth do so because the countries in which they live are overpopulated.Consideration of contraception and planning would be a much simpler and far more effective remedy than encouraging further population by throwing millions of dollars at the problem.

Answer 9

Definitely no because it creates competition among nations to create newer and better space crafts and unravel many secrets of space

We actually benefit from it because newer satellites and space vehicles makes the world a better place to live

And new technology develops faster when there is fierce competition. There might be few stages where money could be lost but to gain something we have to loose

Answer 10

What "space race"? That was over long ago. The U.S won hands down. Now all our space exploration efforts are cooperative.

The U.S. currently spends almost all the money that used to go to NASA on feeding the rest of the ungrateful world, only to see all that largesse pocketed by tinpot dictators and despots, who let the food rot on the docks so that they can retain control over their starving populace.

Answer 11

There's always been, and always be starving people. There were at the time of Columbus. What bothers me is the $350+ billion dollars we've wasted in Iraq. Not to mention human lives. Only a few people have been killed in the space race, as you call it.