Space exploration costs billions of dollars. Do you think this money is being spent wisely or foolishly?
99358
I think it is incredibly wise to spend money on space exploration for several reasons. The first reason is jobs. Thousands are employeed by NASA. These include scientists and engineers who design and conceptualize new means of travel, down to the workers who manufacture these new ships. Then the space program encourages those who study science and engineering. One element to judge a great society it the emphisis it places on technology. The Roman Empire was noted on its advancements in civil engineering and its growth of technology. Next examine the things we take for granted that developed from the space program. Think of the things we use everyday that were developed by Nasa engineers. Velcro and Microwaves come directly to mind and the personal computer was built on the foundations of NASA research. Then finally the most obvious reason is discovery. How do you put a pricetag on knowledge? The more we understand about the cosmos the more we understand about our own world.
185289
well let me tell you the first natural resorce we will run out of...it is not oil or natual gas it will be water...the most imporant...at the currant rate of polulation increase we will have to use every last drop of fresh water to surive in about 120 years...of course we can distill sea water but that will only delay the stituation...we are not going to find any more water on this planet so space is the nest best altenative...that is quiet honestly why we should keep space exploration alive...the only thing i would like to see is corpations and indivuals do it as well...\n\ntruthfully there will always be poor...sad to say...but hey look at it this way...did you get a internet connection...did you go out to eat this week...do you have cable tv...and i would be willing to bet that you have a computer as well...you could spent the money on some charity instead...it is not alway the goverment that should fix our problems...sometime we have to do it
257901
not for a long time. nasa doesn't have the funds to do any hugely major projects like it used to. it costs a lot to put stuff into space, and as far as mars is concerned, they're not about to launch
892479
It is absolutely worth the cost.  \n\n1.  The advances made in science by space exploration affect our everyday lives.  Things from velcro to GPS has some aspect of space exploraiton involved.  What is developed for use in space finds its way into our lives on Earth in many wonderful ways.\n\n2.  Exploring the unknown in and of itself is worth it--we must expand our minds, our knowlege, our understanding of the universe.  \n\n3.  Only by learning and knowing the world/universe in which we live can we fully fathom our own part in it.\n\n4.  We need to dream.  We have dreamt of exploring the stars for millennia.  It is in our nature to reach out to the stars.\n\nOf course it is worth it.  And it deserves to be funded with much, much more money than it currently is.
110439
Many experiments that have help us advance in medicine are conducted in space. Our planet can be in danger of asteroids plunging into us, and can result in life on earth being destroyed, and by expolring space, we can find out and save us, so yes, it is worth it. And it's fun!
89493
No, I do not think we should stop manned space flights.\n\nThere is an element to exploration that requires a human be involved.  You just cant get the full experience from robot transmitting data millions of miles back home as you can by standing on the surface of another world.\n\nPart of exploration means taking risks.\nManned space missions may be more expensive and more dangerous than robotic landers or space probes, but it is necesary to get a better picture of out place in the universe.\n\nI am not saying I am against probes through.  Some places are not yet practicle to send people.  For instance, sending a human out to Pluto would be extraordinarily difficult and ungodly epensive, so instead, NASA sends a probe.\nWe are slowly working our way up to sending humans to Mars, we arent quite there yet, so in the mean time, the Martian rovers are working great.
526582
Good question!\n\nA there are two groups of people with different points of views. I will try to overview both of them.\n\nFirst, there are the people that are promoting space travel as a tourist approach.  They are basically in it for the money.  A new gimic to get money from people is always around the corner.  There idea is not too weird however, because people looked at each new mode of transportation as a weird idea.  As people used the new mode of transportation from boats, to horse and buggy, to trains, to automobile, and to airplanes; each of these was improved to accomadate and make that particular mode better and safer.  So, although, there are people in it for the money it would have the benefit of making space travel safer and better as it develops.\n\nSecond there are those in the scientific point of view.  They feel it somehow cheapens and degrades their efforts for true space exporation.  They want money from the government and donators to help fund their projects into outer space to discover new things in space and on other planets.\n\nActually, we need both types of ideas and the people that feel that way.  To keep most people interested in space efforts all the attention possible must be give to the effort.  So any thing that brings attention to the efforts of space is usually a good thing!\n\nRemember that creativity comes in many forms and it is the end results that counts.  We need more people to grown up wanting to explore space and going into college after those courses that will help them to become scientists, idealist, pilots, ground personell, and so forth.\n\nSpace tourism may never become an everyday event, but it will sure help get some attention to the space programs of today.
34236
why would it be just bush? i believe many presidents have given money to space exploration, was kennedy not president when we landed on the moon? i realize that it is popular to bash the current president but all have given money to space exploration, not just bush
1011045
Actually, military spending is an extremely inefficient way of spending money (which I believe was your point).\n\nI was talking to an economist who argues that if the money the United States had put into the military since 1945 had been spent in the civilian sector instead, the GDP would have grown 32-fold over what it is now... a $350 trillion economy. There would be "cruises to Mars and Jupiter" under the "Travel" section of Answers.
633362
Yes.  But only if the amount of resources we can get continue to increase.  If we can develop robust space industry this will not be a problem.
907818
Of course not. NASA spent billions of dollars on styrofoam rockets and plastic movie sets. And Congress let them.
1076466
Cool, thanks so much for the idea. I believe that the space industry would love it.\n\nI have a few connections with Raytheon (formally Hughs Aircraft) and a few connection within the military. I will take my idea to them and see if I can get it started.
613382
The cost to go into space is in the millions because that's what it costs to send someone into space.  It's not a big conspiracy or anything, it just costs a lot of money to build a space shuttle, fuel it, get it into space, and keep people alive for a couple days.  Government and private grants cover research missions, but the government isn't going to shell out a couple million dollars for a tourism trip.\n\nThe physical requirements are not unreasonable either.  The lack of gravity puts a huge strain on the human body.  When astronaughts come back, they have decreased muscle tone and heart strenght.  While in space, they have to work out regularly, but still, on Earth your muscles are constantly working against gravity, and when you come back, your muscles aren't ready for it.  If you aren't in exceptional physcial health, the loss of muscle tone could be extremely dangerous, and potentially even fatal.\n\nThe psycological qualifications are also not without reason.  Being in the confined space of a space shuttle with a small number of people for several days puts a huge strain on the human psyche.\n\nThat said, if I had the chance to go into space, I'd do it in a second, no doubt about it.
96109
It depends on your goal. From your extended question it sounds as if we should be terra-farming extra solar planets. i'm not sure we'll be at that point in another 1000 years, even if we put our minds to it.\n\nOne could argue quite reasonably that our CURRENT space program hasnt achieved much. the space shuttle never accomplished a fraction of what it was designed to do. The space station just kinda goes around and around. \n\nTo type out the statement  "All our efforts so far has yielded no result" on your hyper-fast micro computer connected to a planetary data network is a bit short sighted. Nearly 50 years of space exploration has produced a wealth of technological advancements. \n\nYou also have a few billion years to worry about a place to go when the sun and earth die out. Maybe less for the earth, that's probably addressed in another question.
1013886
space exploration is being slowed down, but not for reasons of the deficit.  the amount that is spent per year as a percentage of the amount spent the previous year on space exploration has been less than 100% for over a decade.\n\nthe biggest amount of deficit spending is done on the military.  hundreds of billions for the military compared to a few billion (if that) for space exploration -- and that includes ground based, satellite, probes and manned.  if you want to turn off the deficit, you have to turn off the biggest leak.  space exploration is not it.
1038371
space research is just a research to locate more speific life beyond our planet. However the people do not care about whats happening in our planet. Diseases are spreading killing almost a million or more each year, and economic losses due to spending money on useless things rather then useful things like charity or helping the homeless kids in all parts of the world. Africa and India is mainly homeless children, where at least a child dies every sec due to diseases or other serious conditions. Money is the only thing that could buy these children homes and food n other basic needs of life then people should be helping not spending money on space research where they are not helping anybody with anything. First they consider saving their own planet then beyond the planet. thats all =)
468087
I think it's the human desire of finding out the mysteries of our world and beyond. Not only that, there are the advances in science that come about from space research. eg teflon, satellite communications.\n\nThere will always be a need to help some group of people, but that also doesn't mean that we should stop everything else.\n\nPutting it another way, I guess one could say "why should you spend your money at the cinema, on a book on candy or anything else not essential to surviving when there are poor people starving in the world?"