Is manned space exploration a waste of money?

by free2beme 22 Replies latest jw friends

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  free2beme

  I was watching a program the other day, and it mentioned some interesting things about exploring space. For example,

  1. Nothing has been found on other planets that we need or would benefit from. Rather the opposite, we have found hostile environments that would kill us.

  2. The cost to get a man to these places is astronomical, and not something that would reap benefit to our planet.

  3. So far, nothing within reasonable traveling distance has shown itself worth an effort that would require man, and would not be done easier with machine.

  So with this in mind, other then the travel we see with the Space Shuttle in our own orbit, that has shown some medical breakthroughs and so on. What really is the benefit to spending billions to get someone to Mars or beyond?
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  jayhawk1

  I am glad they are going to fix the Hubble Telescope instead of letting it die. I have no idea what the appeal of going to Mars or even back to the Moon would be. Maybe there is some benefit, but I don't know what it would be and at what cost is it worth it.
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  serendipity

  I'd rather see the money spent on immunizations, food and curing diseases.
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  zeroday

  For the cost of one shuttle mission NASA could send 10 robot missions to our solar system. Manned space travel is a waste of money. Space telescopes, orbiters, and rovers would give us much more information about our system than all the manned space flights combined.
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  Gregor

  The Hubble Telescope is wonderful. Glad to hear today that they are going to repair it and keep it going.

  However, the other stuff, space station etc. is nothing more than a money/political hole. NASA is a huge parasite organization that must have fresh blood ($$$) to keep going. So they keep coming up with GEE WHIZ projects that reqire manned mi$$ions. Mars, the Moon or anything else to justify the huge amounts of money they require to survive. I think they should turn to the earths oceans. There is where some real answers lie for energy, food, etc. It has become a glaring oversight in the focus of resources by the worlds wealthy countries.
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  free2beme

  I thought it was interesting in a response to the question, "Why have we never returned to the Moon?" They said, "Because there is nothing there."
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  AnonyMouse

  Spend the money to research intergalactic travel. Or terraforming.
  
  The population won't get any smaller, we need more space. Once the government realises that you can make money appear out of nothing, they can start up big projects.
  
  How to make money out of air? Simple. Instead of backing up money with gold (a metal...whoopdee do), back it up with actual WORK. People get paid for the amount of time worked, quality of work, and the (can't think of a word) 'work where it's needed'. Meaning, the more a job is needed, the more you get paid. The money is completely electronic. No1 can say that it's fake, because they had to work to get it.
  
  And asteroids are known to have rare substances on them. An expedition that found a large platinum deposite would pay itself off easily. Well, once they figure out how to get into space cheaply.
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  Stephanus

  Only when it is Government pissing your taxes away on big ticket items like the shuttle programme and the International Space Station. With private investment, where people and organisations spend their own money on stuff, that's different. Only $20m of private money was required in 2003 to break out of the atmosphere in Spaceship One, whereas the Mercury programme was probably more than that in the early 60s, even before adjustment for inflation. The need for big government involvment in space is dwindling. Weapons platforms and space races are giving way to sub-orbital passenger flight and space tourism. Bring it on!
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  under_believer

  Mankind hasn't even been to space since 1972... I don't think we can say whether it's worth it when we haven't even tried it more than a handful of times. The Space Shuttle isn't a spacecraft. It's more of a "low earth orbit" craft.
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  zagor

  Actually space exploration doesn't cost nearly as much as this was in Iraq, in fact, it is laughable to compare it. And if economy was managed properly you wouldn't even notice it.

  Had king of Spain thought like that 600 years ago, today would Chinese live on teritory on United States and you probably would be born in a world so different that you probably don't even want to know about.