FairFiend

In light of the recent tradegy of the Columbia shuttle disaster, I am reminded of a book I read awhile ago by Robert L. Park called "Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud."

The author makes the case that space exploration is better suited for robots and machines rather than humans. Why spend trillions of dollars to send people to Mars for example, when we can send a robot (which we already have) at a much, much less financial cost and at no human cost?

The author also asks, what really important scientific discoveries has the space program discovered as a result of sending humans into space? Tang? Has it discovered any new advances in medicine? Physics? Chemsitry? Do we really need to build a billion dollar (or is it trillion dollar?) international space station to study the effects of weightlessness on ant colonies?

I still believe in the importance of the space program, but I do think the author does make some good points. I would like funding for the space program to go towards scientifically worthy endevours rather than for some political/public relations image.

Zar

I think robots and drones are an excellent way to explore space, especially when we are making new steps to more distant places. We should do this for safety and for the economical gathering of information. But I think it is entirely in keeping with the spirit of exploration that imbues this enterprise to send real humans into the reaches of space at some point. We must send some of our fellow humans to experience these places if we can, because nothing can substitute for that.

Autonemesis

I think it's important cast our eyes beyond a view of our own navel. Eventually our sun will die, and all life in this solar system will die with it. We will either learn to escape to another star, or we will perish and all that we have done and produced will be dust. If the human species is to survive this, someone will have to be the first person to venture into deep space. I agree that it isn't strictly necessary for us - this generation - to do any work towards that goal. After all, there's probably three or four billion years to go before changes in the aging Sun become a urgent problem (assuming an asteroid or comet impact or a nearby supernova doesn't get us first).

But if every generation has that attitude, who will end up doing any of the work?

Zar

Gosh, we humans probably have no capability to comprehed how long 3-4 billion years is. That really is a lot of time, so I'm not too worried about that. Maybe we should be more worried about an asteroid hitting the earth during that time. That would probably happen a lot sooner.

Just Another Infidel

I agree with Kind Bud on this and I would add that there is a real possibility this ball of mud we live on could be smacked by some other significantly large heavenly body someday. It'd be nice to have the technology to prevent this.

Furthermore, we'll probably consume all of our resources or otherwise make the Earth uninhabitable long before our sun burns out. We really need to learn how to gather raw materials and colonize elsewhere.

In response to the OP:

We've realized many positive spinoffs more significant than Tang.

The Space Place

My $.02, JAI

Koiyotnik

As far as medical advances go, I remember reading an article a few years back how scientists were studying the effect that space travel has on bone deterioration.

Of course, this really isn't applicable to life on earth, but if the human race has the goal of living in space, this could be a key study. That's looking at long-term applications, though.

Krieger

Any funding of scientific progress is worth it. In this age, NASA is one of the few things that the US government does right (for the most part). However, I don't want NASA to send a manned mission to Mars, because I don't want the US government to get the credit for that in the history books. It should be an international mission.

elwoodblues

Considering how the ISS has turned out, that sounds like the worst idea ever.

Krieger

There needs to be an international space agency, it is hard to get a large number of organizations to work together without stronger leadership. Speaking of the ISS, the last I read it is coming along quite well.

elwoodblues

Well, yeah. Except for being 4 to 6 billion dollars over budget, scaled back, and of dubious scientific use, it's coming along very well.