WHY EXPLORE SPACE?

"Wouldn't money spent on space exploration be better invested in providing food for hungry people on Earth?"

It might sound heartless to say this, but it's a fact of life:  There have always been hungry people, and there will always be hungry people—as long as there are stupid and greedy politicians.  Cutting off funding for other things does not eliminate hunger; it just ensures that those other things never get done.  For the truth is that the problem of hunger today is not one of production, but of logistics.  Earth's food producers currently supply enough to satisfy the appetite of every person on the planet, if only the dictators, warlords, bureaucrats, and speculators of the world would stop playing politics with it.

The fact that we use some resources for other things does not mean that hunger is correspondingly increased.  Space exploration has in no way inhibited feeding the hungry; on the contrary, it has provided powerful tools essential for increasing food production to meet present and future demand.  For example, nowadays we rely on weather satellites to monitor precipitation patterns and predict crop yields, and we depend on communications satellites in all phases of food production, processing, and distribution.  Abandoning our space programs now (along with the technologies they afford us) would actually bring about a marked decline in food production in fairly short order, and hence exacerbate the problem of hunger.

 

"But except for satellites, why explore space in the first place?  After all, it's mostly empty, and what resources there are can't be feasibly tapped for any practical purpose, right?  It's a lot of effort and expense to put into nothing!"

If the cost of space exploration worries you, consider this.  It has been estimated that every dollar the U.S. government has invested in NASA has generated, either directly or indirectly, between six and seven dollars in long-term general economic growth.  Translated into personal income, that's more than enough even to generate the tax revenue to recover the original dollars invested.  From an economic standpoint, NASA is the closest that government has ever come to creating a perpetual-motion machine!

How is this possible?  The fact is, space exploration doesn't simply produce flags on the Moon and pretty pictures of Saturn's rings, as many people suppose.  It also fosters the development of many useful technologies which otherwise would evolve only very slowly, if at all.  We can thank space exploration for many modern developments, without which our current quality of life would be much less agreeable than it is.  For example:

• MICROELECTRONICS:  This is a field which probably would not exist without the demand created by the needs of space exploration.  Or if it did, its products would be prohibitively expensive.  Without it computers would still be room-filling contraptions beyond the means of all but major corporations, and the Internet would have to chug along at about 300 bps or less.  In a very real sense, you are able to read these words today because someone went to the Moon thirty years ago.

• TECHNOLOGY:  Because of space-age technology, many conveniences—from CD players and VCR's to microwave ovens—unheard of two or three decades ago, have become common household items which we would now be loath to do without.

• COMMUNICATIONS:  Communication satellites make possible a vast array of conveniences, from personal pagers and portable phones, to global positioning and locating, to worldwide broadcast of news and cultural events.  They even enable medical and surgical teams to consult on-the-spot with experts around the world.

• WEATHER:  Weather satellites offer the convenience of more reliable weather forecasting, the life-saving ability to give early warning of severe storm activity, and the long term benefits of helping to predict crop yields and climate changes.

• MATERIALS:  Space-age adhesives, lubricants, alloys, and high-strength plastics, ceramics, and composites enhance our lives by making the products we buy better and safer.  And also cheaper, thanks to the development costs having been borne in large part by space exploration.

• MEDICINE:  Microsurgery, modern implants and prostheses, CAT and MRI scanners, and many other life-saving and risk-reducing developments owe their existence, in large part, to space technology.  Cancer can now be diagnosed and treated in its earliest stages.  Problems which required major surgery just a couple of decades ago can now be corrected with minimal risk and discomfort.  And much more, thanks in part to techniques, tools, and materials developed so far in the space exploration effort.

 

"Still, most of this stuff could eventually have been developed without the expense and effort of sending spacecraft to Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and beyond, where no one in our lifetimes will ever set foot.  What's the point of sending probes to places where humans might never go?"

Besides indulging natural human curiosity, studying the composition, atmospheric behavior, magnetic fields, and other aspects of other planets and their moons yields new insight into how our own planet works, as well as how it came into being in the first place.  And perhaps it will even lead to new ideas about the origin of life itself.  But if we must have a more important reason than simply satisfying our curiosity, there is a most compelling one hanging somewhere over our heads.

Although it might sound like science fiction, it is no hyperbole to suggest that the exploration of space might ultimately make the difference between survival and extinction for the human species.  Our increasing knowledge of the space around us has revealed certain dangers (particularly asteroids and comets whose paths cross the orbit of Earth), which we must investigate further in order to ensure the safety of mankind and its home planet.  Although the probability of a potentially catastrophic impact is negligible in any given year, over the course of thousands of years there is a significant risk.  We know that such events have occurred in the past, and we can be certain that they will occur again.  At this point, however, we do not know whether the next major impact will occur next week, or a hundred million years from next week.  Only after the risk has been accurately assessed can we decide what, if anything, could or should be done about it.  In the meantime, all we can do is hope our luck holds out.

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Perhaps the most important thing that space exploration has given us is something that cannot be measured in convenience, dollars, or time saved.  It is a new view of our own world—a small blue sphere turning slowly in the black and frigid vastness of space.  Long believed boundless in its capacity to absorb the insults of man's folly, Earth is now seen as it really is, finite and fragile.  We are becoming aware of the natural mechanisms which regulate the "comfort level" of our little planet, and of just how precariously balanced those mechanisms are.  Perhaps, with a little wisdom, we will shift from plundering the Earth to caring for it.  And perhaps, if we learn to treat it as our home rather than as our rubbish heap, it will remain an agreeable place to live awhile longer.

=SAJ=