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

[Devrij]

I do. Turtle ftw!

Are you suggesting we Zerg rush the solar system?

We've tried your strategy, and all that's happened is we've maxed out our base and filled it with basic units. Meanwhile aliens are capping useful points and building on them. We must expand!

 

[*Moangroan*]

I mean seriously, as a global race, why do we not put all available resources into exploring space?

We are on this tiny ball suspended in nothing, surrounded by trillions and trillions of other planets and stars, I simply cant see why we dont spend more money and resources into exploring further.

The more I think about space the more tripped out I get, its fascinating. i just wish all of human kind shared the same thoughts.

Space exploration etc etc is mind expanding...unknown...positive and adventure stylee.

But if you build those traits then you're not going to be a good little slave and work all week for a pitance and repeat this till your 70 and too old to do anything. Dont think for yourself be a good sheep....head down work hard...and dont question.

 

[LordSplodge]

There is enough nuclear fuel on earth to provide clean power for hundreds of years. And Geothermal and Solar energy to last millenia.

Good luck with solar and geothermal sources providing the rising energy needs of a burgeoning planet.

Secondly, sure not a lot threatens the Earth but a fairly small asteroid wipes mankind out. That would happen if we had people permanently off-world.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Physics, we need some giant breakthroughs before space travel is worth spending money in. While Nasa has certainly come up with innovations, they don't have the budget or capability to realistic develop the next propulsion method, I mean, rockets, this is ridiculously old technology, unreliable, not very safe, incredibly expensive and requires a disposable method of launch.

The real reason to go off planet is to be on another planet, till we can get the taking off, landing and taking off again in the same vehicle, then there really isn't any point being out there, at all. We send probes that cost silly amounts of money to other planets, and simply things like proper communication can't be established.

We could spend 100billion a year , or a trillion, making loads of wasteful space ships, sending off probes and finding out not much at all, or wait 10-100 years, have a realistic propulsion technology, other technologys, and spend the same amount but have it actually be worthwhile.

It's epic we got a couple guys onto the moon in what is not much more than a tin can, but other than a few rocks, theres nothing much more repeated trips can do. The ability to take off, go over there, take equipment/building materials/oxygen supply, come back, and do it again, over and over, easily and relatively cheaply... theres just nothing significant that can be done.

 

[LordSplodge]

We send probes that cost silly amounts of money to other planets, and simply things like proper communication can't be established.

We could spend 100billion a year , or a trillion, making loads of wasteful space ships, sending off probes and finding out not much at all.

Curiosity had a tiny budget of $2.5 billion dollars. That's not silly money compared to the $720 million pounds per day the Iraq war cost. The scientific returns from Curiosity make that a very cheap investment.

As for spending a hundred billion a year, well the entire Apollo program cost just $25 billion and put a man on the moon in less than ten years. Give those in power a reason and they could easily put a manned base on the moon. What use is that I hear the naysayers cry out. Funnily enough it then becomes even easier to launch rockets as escape velocity from Selene is a lot lower than Earth.

I grow tired of the rhetoric about we shouldn't be spending money on space when people are starving in Africa or whatever other rubbish excuses people come up with. If mankind had took that attitude they'd have never ventured out the caves.

Our future is in going forward, alas we have become a petty race, bickering over pointless things, squandering insane amounts of money a year in wars without end. Firmly stuck in the present with no ambition, no drive. A ****less lazy bunch who frankly I am ashamed of calling my fellow humans.

Reminds me of the line Ripley says to Burke in Aliens: "Well you don't see them ****ing each other over for a god damned percentage"

EDIT: Dear Forum admins can you please fix the stupid swear filter? F E C K less is not a swear word.

****·less/ˈfeklis/
Adjective:
(of a person) Lacking in efficiency or vitality.
Unthinking and irresponsible.
Synonyms:
powerless - ineffective - helpless

 

[Conscript]

We've tried your strategy, and all that's happened is we've maxed out our base and filled it with basic units. Meanwhile aliens are capping useful points and building on them. We must expand!

Unable to comply; building in progress

 

[Spook187]

It will happen one day otherwise the human race will die, we only have a finite amount of resources to play with, who knows what technology they will get out of the Higgs particle for space exploration.
lol at the ones who say space/science is wasted money, ok what else should we do, go back living in caves

 

[Castiel]

I mean seriously, as a global race, why do we not put all available resources into exploring space?

Because the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few.

In other words, putting vast amounts of resources into space exploration when there are millions of people starving or dying of easily curable disease and poor living conditions is pretty irresponsible.

Until which time that the needs of the many require space exploration for whatever reason, resources or it becomes truly economically viable then it should remain something that we fund but not at the expense of more important projects a little closer to home.

 

[Muzza1875]

Curiosity had a tiny budget of $2.5 billion dollars. That's not silly money compared to the $720 million pounds per day the Iraq war cost. The scientific returns from Curiosity make that a very cheap investment.

As for spending a hundred billion a year, well the entire Apollo program cost just $25 billion and put a man on the moon in less than ten years. Give those in power a reason and they could easily put a manned base on the moon. What use is that I hear the naysayers cry out. Funnily enough it then becomes even easier to launch rockets as escape velocity from Selene is a lot lower than Earth.

I grow tired of the rhetoric about we shouldn't be spending k,new on space when people are starving in Africa or whatever other rubbish excuses people come up with. If mankind had took that attitude they'd have never ventured out the caves.

Our future is in going forward, alas we have become a petty race, bickering over pointless things, squandering insane amounts of money a year in wars without end. Firmly stuck in the present with no ambition, no drive. A ****less lazy bunch who frankly I am ashamed of calling my fellow humans.

Reminds me of the line Ripley says to Burke in Aliens: "We'll you don't see them ****ing each other over for a god damned percentage"

EDIT: Dear Forum admins can you please fix the stupid swear filter? F E C K less is not a swear word.

Thanks for your post sir, well said

 

[Allnamestaken]

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.

Ahhhhh sooo defeatist if everyone thought like this we would still be in the stone age.

 

["andy"]

Instead of forcing the unemployed to work in Tesco force them to work on building space stuff

Sorted

 

["andy"]

its things like this that flag up how bizarre the whole concept of money is,
can you imagine an alien asking why we hadn't explored further when we are capable of doing so, and explaining its because we don't have enough of this thing called money

It's madness isn't it

 

[Nymins]

Instead of forcing the unemployed to work in Tesco force them to work on building space stuff

Sorted

That would be safe.

 

[Sleeve]

Surely if its a global effort money becomes null and void in this situation anyway?

 

[Mp4]

We need more british rovers

 

[Tefal]

its things like this that flag up how bizarre the whole concept of money is,
can you imagine an alien asking why we hadn't explored further when we are capable of doing so, and explaining its because we don't have enough of this thing called money

I'd imagine that they';d ask "why are you letting so many of you die of starvation" rather than "why havn't you explored space".

 

[Werewolf]

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.

That to a large degree.

IIRC NASA has the same basic budget now it had in the Apollo era (something like 2.5billion USD), not increased with inflation, but roughly the same budget, with 40 odd years of the value of the dollar dropping in real terms.

The thing is, that space exploration is an easy target for politicians who want to look like they are saving people money, as a lot of people don't realise how much of the tech developed for space use affects our day to day life.
For example from memory when there was an urgent need to develop a radar system for aircraft to detect weather patterns and downdrafts etc, it was NASA that got the job as they were the only organisation with the expertise, the equipment and the manpower to risk commercial models of aircraft to test the systems and deliberately risk the circumstances that caused the accidents (except with pilots who were aware of what might happen, so prepared for it), to test them.

I think it was also the Space program that bought us some of the QC methods now used around the world to detect flaws in welding and the like, because NASA needed to know the joints on fuel tanks etc were perfect before use.

It's a shame, in real terms we've gone backwards in the last 20 years, we no longer have a reusable manned space programme anywhere in the world, the likes of the Virgin One space craft are interesting, but not AFAIK able to make it to high orbit, or carry any meaningful payload.

 

[no_1_dave]

Until we have the technology to travel faster there is little point in exploring space. I am sure once we have the technology to travel the speed of light space exploration will start on a larger scale, but even then you're talking hundreds of years to explore a tiny area. I wish I was born in the future when this is possible instead of in the 80s

 

[Neil79]

Kickstarter - space programme?

 

[Skillmister]

It is a sorry state. There is so much more we could be doing but we're far too concerned with blowing each other up for whatever reason amongst various other trivial things. None of that will matter when we run out of resources/land/patience.

In an RTS, you don't just camp your resource-rich starting point. You immediately expand and grow resources far and wide before developing them into solid bases. Why aren't we doing that? How do we know there aren't aliens out there rushing us right now?

I like this



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