Why don't we pump more money into space exploration?

Sleeve · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:08

Doonhamer said:
Until space makes us money or will help us potentially win a war nobody will care or seriously invest in it. Like almost everything in this world its driven by money.

But it 100% would in the long run.

imagine all the potential new elements, minerals and resources that must be available on these planets.

I cant understand how the Human race can just sit by knowing we are on a floating ball of mass surrounded by space and not even be interested in exploring it.

janp · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:08

Too much money spent on wars etc.

I agree with the OP though, we should invest globally into space exploration. Until all countries start working together though, which is never going to happen.

Mason- · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:09

Imagine a world though where there really was world peace. The thought of anyone killing anyone was absolutely disgusting to every single person in the world. There is no need for the police or armys. Imagine the amount of money that could be invested into other things. Obviously this is all hypothetical but the amount of money that is put into militaries and forces for our protection is insane. It annoys me also that Russia/China/Usa/UK/France if they see another nation increase there nuclear arsenal it's all "OMFG they have more weapons than us and could potentially kill us all, invest more into better stuff than they have" It shouldn't happen. They should all be disposed of. But it will never happen.

Mr-White · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:09

tom_e said:
Because we don't have the cash to keep things going on Earth never mind in space.

The Government wastes too much of our money. I'd happily eject all the benefit scroungers into space to fund our space program.

MW

Hamish · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:10

Sleeve88 said:
See this is what I don't understand.

Why do people have no interest? How close minded have you got to be...

We are so keen to traverse our own planet and explore as much of that as we can, but we have a vast expense surrounding us which we haven't even scratched the surface of.

But why? There must be a benefit or a desired outcome, there is only so much science to do in space and no matter how much science improves it will likely be impossible to explore outside out solar system ever and even then it will be infesable to send any more than a handful of people into space due to the huge energy required.
Space travel is not as important as science fiction would have you believe.

dbmzk1 · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:11

Because we don't have any money.

Plus space exploration is not exactly high up on our list of priorities right now and rightly so.

As much as I'd love to see us on Mars or in the USS Enterprise, it's not realistic at the moment. We don't even have flying cars yet

Jono8 · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:18

What money?

Conscript · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:21

Given that modern space exploration has only been in existence for what...50 or 60 years? I don't think were doing too badly when you consider the huge technological barriers.

Sleeve · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:26

dbmzk1 said:
Because we don't have any money.

Plus space exploration is not exactly high up on our list of priorities right now and rightly so.

As much as I'd love to see us on Mars or in the USS Enterprise, it's not realistic at the moment. We don't even have flying cars yet

I just cant understand that.

Why do we as a race just accept that we are here on this planet and not care what else is out there? It should be top of priority's in my opinion.

LordSplodge · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:26

StonedPenguin said:
Because we're broke.

dbmzk1 said:
Because we don't have any money.

Not that simple. If we spent the ridiculous amount of money we spend on war on space then we'd probably have a moon base...if not more.

Alas fighting <insert current bogeyman> is better than space. Terrorists may kill a few thousands but an asteroid could kill us all.

CrispyOtter · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:26

Because we can't even manage one planet... let alone a space franchise.

LordSplodge · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:29

Conscript said:
Given that modern space exploration has only been in existence for what...50 or 60 years? I don't think were doing too badly when you consider the huge technological barriers.

40 years ago we could go to the moon. Now America can't even put a man in LEO without the help of the Russians. Yeah that's good progress right there.

Calabi · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:29

Doonhamer said:
Until space makes us money or will help us potentially win a war nobody will care or seriously invest in it. Like almost everything in this world its driven by money.

You have to invest money to make money. If thats true then we will never get that far into space. For a very long time its going to be extremely expensive and a money sink. I doubt it will ever be profitable.

If we want to exist for more than the average species lifespan we have to get out into space as soon as we possibly can. Because if we're at the point where we've run out of resources and we need to mine space, but we havent done the expensive pre investment and research then its going to be too late.

arknor · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:31

Hamish said:
What do you mean "all available resources"? Like literally forget all other priorities and go into space? what is the desired outcome? Sounds pretty stupid and short sighted.

tons and tons of earth rare minerals in space

the only problem is getting them down to earth the potetial returns are enormous for the first country to manage it

also 50 light years from earth there is this bad boy
a diamond that is 2,500 miles across and weighs 5 million trillion trillion pounds, which translates to approximately 10 billion trillion trillion carats, or a one followed by 34 zeros.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/9295/astronomers-find-a-huge-diamond-in-space/#ixzz289159yn0

LordSplodge · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:32

Private companies may be the key to our future in space.

Like the plans by two of the Google execs to create a company to mines asteroids: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/24/mining-asteroids-on-moon-precious-metals

The Dread Pirate · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:33

We've already done so havn't you seen the spacestation thread!

Firestar_3x · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:34

Sleeve88 said:
Why do we as a race just accept that we are here on this planet and not care what else is out there? It should be top of priority's in my opinion.

Right.

Plenty of people do care, we are actively doing something about it, and no it shouldn't be top priority.

LordSplodge · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:35

arknor said:
tons and tons of earth rare minerals in space

the only problem is getting them down to earth the potetial returns are enormous for the first country to manage it

From the moon (all that good Helium-3) it's not hard. Expensive but not hard. Mass driver on the moon, aimed towards earth. Retro rockets on the mine carts to slow them down and a heat shield for reentry.

All done on automatics. Orbital calculations are childsplay for a computer.

Asteroids are similar. The mining operation could use mass drivers to launch carts towards earth. These a caught, decelerated and dropped into the sea. Less risky than the alternative of moving the asteroid into orbit.

Conscript · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:37

LordSplodge said:
40 years ago we could go to the moon. Now America can't even put a man in LEO without the help of the Russians. Yeah that's good progress right there.

Firstly, you were referring to the global race, so surely it doesn't matter who's help is required.

Secondly, I think a little context is needed here. I would say that going from putting a man on the moon to putting a robotic rover on the Martian surface in just 40 years is pretty good going when you consider the astronomical distances involved and the logistics of doing it successfully.

Yes, increased funding would help, but I don't think it's fair to say that we are doing badly as a species. You have to start somewhere...

Diagro · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:41

Sleeve88 said:
This, exactly.

Give nasa 1/2 of the defense budget and we will be on the moon in no time!