Should We Focus on Earth or Space?

Iamge source: nasa.gov

Should we focus on fixing the issues here on Earth, or should we continue to fund space research until we get to a point of finding a “New Earth”? We may not be at a point of being able to travel to a new planet and start a civilization, but we do have to worry about investing in space exploration or investing in our own environment and governments. An article on Discovery News provides arguments from both sides about which we should focus on.

Focusing on space exploration leads people away from caring about our own earth. There are many natural or unnatural disaster all around the world, but instead we spend money on sending rockets into space. The money we lose on these rockets are pretty big numbers. A space shuttle costs 450 million dollars to launch, and throughout all the years of maintaining and visiting the international space station we have spent 142 billion dollars. That is a lot of money that could be spent on other things such as foreign aid.

I thought this was a very convincing argument, but it suffers from a few flaws. I've mentioned in previous blog posts that this money isn’t just burnt as the paper fuel in the rocket engines. All this money is put back into the economy, spending for materials and contracting technologies. Some of the most expensive stuff, such as rocket fuel, is starting to go back into our own economy. That is thanks to the oil market in America growing significantly thanks to Hydraulic Fracturing. The other issue is look at the current amount of money that we already spend on foreign aid is 37.68 billion.  While the current budget in NASA is 17.647 billion. Taking that into account we are already spending more money on foreign aid, not space.

Most reports that say that we've already ruined the environment long in the future, and even if we changed now we won’t be able to fix it. Also how many people are actually making the change? We all know that we want to but the only initiatives taken have been campaigns. If space was explored there is a high chance we could find a new planet similar to earth, and be able to start off with better knowledge of the environment. We may not want to leave earth behind but soon it may be the best option.

Our understand of earth will also improve with space travel. Understanding other planets and having a better view of our planet through improved satellites would really help us with new research on our own planet and solar system. Technology would also be advanced as we try to be the most efficient with our money and resources as we travel throughout space.  So when it comes to the question of whether we should focus on earth or space, we realize that focusing on space also focuses and improves earth.

Future Research:

How could space technology benefit earth's environment?