Anyways my worries for human race aside, this was a very interesting read. Well articulated thoughts and I found myself nodding to most points, thinking yeah that’s right! 😊
Totally agree about having the thirst for knowledge and discovery.
But I have a qualm about the amount of money/energy/time/resources spent on things like finding water on Mars when we have abundance of it here at home and are being wasteful. Polluting what we got and looking for outside sources… couldn’t we have spend some of those resources trying to manage/maintain what we already have ?
That has been the most common question I have been asked since I started writing. These are valid questions and I have tried to answer some of them in this article. I'll probably write one more on these questions.
The bottom line is that NASAs budget is 1% of the total US budget. For that, we get to do experiments on ISS that will help us grow food better and improve our health. We get to launch a satellite that will measure Earth's fresh water accurately. This will compliment several other satellites that help us understand climate change better. We also get to launch missions to other planets that help us understand how climate evolved on them and model how Earth's climate might be similar. Then there are countless innovations in airplane design that make our flights safer and more efficient.
Scientific curiosity drives all of that and some missions might not make sense now, but they are vital for human knowledge. The key is that nothing is stopping us from taking care of our planet. These two things don't have to prioritized against each other.
Anyways my worries for human race aside, this was a very interesting read. Well articulated thoughts and I found myself nodding to most points, thinking yeah that’s right! 😊
Totally agree about having the thirst for knowledge and discovery.
But I have a qualm about the amount of money/energy/time/resources spent on things like finding water on Mars when we have abundance of it here at home and are being wasteful. Polluting what we got and looking for outside sources… couldn’t we have spend some of those resources trying to manage/maintain what we already have ?
That has been the most common question I have been asked since I started writing. These are valid questions and I have tried to answer some of them in this article. I'll probably write one more on these questions.
The bottom line is that NASAs budget is 1% of the total US budget. For that, we get to do experiments on ISS that will help us grow food better and improve our health. We get to launch a satellite that will measure Earth's fresh water accurately. This will compliment several other satellites that help us understand climate change better. We also get to launch missions to other planets that help us understand how climate evolved on them and model how Earth's climate might be similar. Then there are countless innovations in airplane design that make our flights safer and more efficient.
Scientific curiosity drives all of that and some missions might not make sense now, but they are vital for human knowledge. The key is that nothing is stopping us from taking care of our planet. These two things don't have to prioritized against each other.
Thanks for asking Shruti!