Move 2: Critics of Space Exploration
The Money Issue
Manned Missions to Space
Relevance of Spin-Off Technologies
By NASA’s 30th anniversary, the total cost of sustaining and advancing the space program had reached 195 billion dollars derived almost solely from public funds.
Today, millions of people around the world suffer from devastating hunger and malnutrition, lack adequate housing and education, and are prone to many diseases.
For many, the maintenance of the space program does not give back to the national economy as much as it should, for it ultimately drives money, resources, and talent away from helping people in need and addressing imminent environmental problems such as deforestation, ocean pollution, climate change, drought, and increased desertification of natural habitats.
“We must attempt to understand the hopelessness, the sense of being at the whim of tragedy – a tragedy brought about by nature, by man, or by man's indifference. These are the burdens we should lift from the people of the Earth before we go looking under the rocks of far-away worlds.”
- Gonzalo Munevar
One of the main goals for the space program since its inception was to take humans to space and test the effects of gravity on human health. However, as scientists strive to reach farther places in the universe, the feasibility of having humans on board of spacecraft decreases significantly when taking into account the cost and the risk of carrying out such missions.
Robotic missions to space would ultimately provide a more efficient, cheaper way to explore the universe without having to put human lives on the line, especially when considering how many robots could be currently roaming around Mars, collecting more information than humans ever could, if we were not putting so much money and effort into creating limited human settlements in Mars.
Even though many important spin-offs of technologies today have come from their development for space exploration, most scientific breakthroughs from space exploration come from ground-based research where technologies can be tested in Earth-like conditions.
Many critics suggest that the pursuit of other opportunities for exploration, like deep ocean exploration, can keep human adventurers happy and fulfilled and is much safer, less costly, and more valuable in terms of return of investment in scientific breakthroughs.
