Space travel?

[miffy63]

Does anybody else agree that space travel is a waste of money. Millions is poured into this worthless activity and I think that the money could be spent better elsewhere. Please, somebody tell me what the benefits are to sending men into space.

[dot.hawkes]

well if you have several million to spend on a few days holiday, you can go up there for yourself in a few years and spend your vacation gazing down on earth, bet that would be a chance of a lifetime, apparently there are only a few people in the world that can afford the holiday though

[Loosehead]

it's not that simple. Countless things you use everyday are spin offs from space travel research. Go into your kitchen and you will seen lots of them. If it was not for research in the space race and indeed in world wars we'd all be living in mud huts. Necessity is after all the mother of invention. So on balance I'd say no it's not a waste of money.

[Loosehead]

from the tone of your question I sense that you are the sort of person who thinks that very spare penny should be spent on the NHS so perhaps you'd be interested in a few medical break thoughs from space travel research:
http://space.about.com/od/toolsequipment/ss/ap ollospinoffs.htm

[Loosehead]

more medical stuff:
http://www1.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/spinoff.html

[EngTeach]

I agree with the kitchen research. Wthout the space program my mother would not have her addiction to ugly Corelle dishes. They do last forever. She's had only 2 different patterns since she was married in 1964!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, I do know that much valuable research has stemmed from the space program. Just watched the US latest shuttle go up and was still excited about it like a little kid.

[miffy63]

I guess I've been out voted, space travel does have its place ~ I suppose It just doesn't interest me.

[Sam the Man]

A quote about why we should go to Mars which sums up my views of the subject:

"'Cause it's next. 'Cause we came out of the cave and we looked over the hill and we saw fire. And we crossed the ocean and we pioneered the West and we took to the sky. The history of man is hung on a timeline of exploration and this is what's next. "

[Loosehead]

fair enough miffy, it's your choice to be uninterested but please don't continue to believe that it's a "worthless activity" and that it is a "waste of money" because it isn't.

[Octavius]

When the early NASA astronauts went into space and were carrying out their research and writing, they found that because of gravity their pens would not work properly. So to overcome the problem they spent millions of dollars and developed the anti-gravity pen that was usable and reliable in space.

When the Russian Cosmonauts were faced with the same problem, they used pencils.

[Loosehead]

another common myth Octavius!

[WaldoMcFroog]

Yes, I agree with Loosehead (for once!):

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen .asp

[Octavius]

So all these years I have been duped? The blighters. Although I wouldn�t put it past the Americans.

[jake-the-peg]

Well there are two very seperate things here - space research and manned space research.

Generally I'm pretty opposed to manned space research as it depletes the coffers of unmanned missions.

A good example of this is the proposed mission to the moons of Jupiter got canned when the "manned mission to Mars thing came up".

The spin-off argument isn't really particularly sound because there's no particular reason why manned space flight should kick up any more usefull spin offs than unmanned or indeed any high spending research project like the LHC at Cern.

And I find it hard to believe that if I took NASA's budget and distributed it around reseach groups at Universities I couldn't come up with more valuable products by targeting funds.

However there are some things that people in space are particularly good at, such as servicing satellites. Hubble would never have worked without a human crew going up to fix it in the early days and should the impossible happen and a manned mars mission ever find micro-fossil life, it would be the most important discovery in biology ever.

[miffy63]

Ok ok you are all right and I'm wrong, space travel is necessary and apparently interesting (to some people). I will appreciate it in my own detached way.

[Llamatron]

I would say that the long term future of our species depends on it.

One day, as in 'when' not 'if', there will be some global catastrophy. Whether it's an asteroid impact, the volcano under Yellowstone or our own stupidity, one day something will practically wipe us out. We need space travel and ultimately colonization of other planets to hold off our extinction.

[jake-the-peg]

Sorry Llamatron but the planets in our solar system are really unsuitable for conversion. Even if the technology existed it would take hundreds of years to accomplish.

I also have to break it to you that travelling to othre stars is strictly science fiction too.

There is no lifeboat, we only have the one planet, we are only ever going to have one planet - when it's gone naturally or otherwise so are we.

In real terms we have been around for moments and will probably not last all that long.

We are cosmic mayflys - beautiful, impressive but short lived

[Loosehead]

I find myself in the unusual position of agreeing with Jake, spot on with the mayfly analogy

[Llamatron]

Jeez, you're so negative.

And never say never Jake. One thing people have proved time and again is that we suck at predicting the future.

[neo.]

yes

[Robb Phoenix]

I guess every human being on the planet must support it as whether you are interested or not
OUR PERMANENT EXISTENCE IN THIS UNIVERSE WOULD BE ENSURED ONLY BY THE COLONISATION OF EXTRA TERRESTRIAL PLANETS.
Think of the insecurities we face now (i'm tired of naming or hearing of them) then you will know why it is so essential.