Yes But... Is Space Exploration Worth It?

To: "Lin Choi Foo"
From: Randy Culp <culp@execpc.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 20:55


Hi, Lin Choi Foo -

When the money used for space exploration is totalled up and presented as a single sum, it looks like a lot of money that one is then tempted to apply to other purposes. That is a deception. In the United States, the federal government each year spends less than 1% of its budget on space exploration, and more than 30% of the budget helping the poor in this country. That means that if the space program were completely eliminated, a poor person instead of getting $1.00 would then get $1.03. That does not seem like the extra help they really need to save them.

What would we lose for giving the extra 3 cents to the poor (or some other program)? Well for one thing without the space program you and I could not be having this e-mail conversation because there would be no communications satellites. There would be no weather satellites so there would be little or no warning of hurricanes or typhoons. I'm not sure about Malaysia, but in the United States it is now unusual for a lot of lives to be lost in a hurricane, whereas in the past we could lose thousands of lives to these storms. The difference is satellite surveillance of weather systems. We would certainly know and understand less about our solar system and universe without the space probes and orbiting telescopes provided by space exploration. We would also understand less about the earth, about ecological systems, about efficient ways of growing crops and controlling pollution.

The reality is that the space program has done a lot to save the earth, save lives, feed people, and bring us together through closer communication. The space program has shown us an example of how to solve seemingly impossible problems. We should use this example to help us solve other difficult problems, like world hunger. It is a mistake to say that since we have problems that we haven't solved, we should stop solving other problems as well.

It is also ironic to claim that we want to save the present and forget the future. What do you do tomorrow, when the neglected future has become the present?

You can get details of the US space program budget at http://www.nasa.gov/hqpao/fy98_summary.txt or at the NASA Budget Material page; and you can get info on the US Federal Budget at www.cbo.gov.

Hope this helps.