OT Artemis ii

[SithHappens]

Unlike you Sith, I?m a space travel/sci fi cynic. Rightly or wrongly it all leaves me cold.
Again, rightly or wrongly, my attitude tends to be?we have a planet, let?s sort the one we?ve got out before indulging further in some sort of macho space race at enormous expense with, imo, very little reward.

I?ll readily accept that I know very little and am more than a little ignorant on the subject but, as an obvious enthusiast, can you tell me how humankind has benefited from the numerous expeditions - from Yuri Gagarin onwards - in my lifetime?

Non stick frying pans? Seriously though.

Isn't it about expanding our knowledge of the universe we live in?

The same could have been said for seafaring explorers ? We had a country why did we need to go elsewhere? So you might think what's the point in going to the moon, but if we do it properly this time it will be a stepping stone to greater things, maybe not in my lifetime but maybe one day people being able to travel to the planets and further will be thankful for the baby steps being taken now.

It seems crazy to he talking baby steps when humans went there decades ago but that chance was lost (The song Sleeping Satellite sums it up), but we are still only 120 years since the Wright brothers. Talking of the Wright Brothers, imagine if someone said when they flew their first flight of just a couple of hundred meters that that was a waste of time?

I think its human nature to be curious and explore, even those of not lucky enough to have discovered other countries and cultures or traveled to space still explore. Most of us love to travel, you could say why do I need to travel overseas on holiday, I don't need to, I want to. I could just as easily holiday in my back garden and give the money to the homeless.

So I guess what im saying is we don't need to go to space, we want to, we want know if there is life out there. Imagine if we hadn't sent probes to the planets we'd still probably think Venus and Mars were lush paradise populated by other intelligent species.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Agree with you 100%Sith... Man is curious, a natural explorer. Without this the planet would never have been explored.

[ramAnag]

I agree completely with your view of human nature and the desire to explore and I’m not really arguing because I recognise that, while I invariably agree with you politically, we just happen to respectfully differ on this one.
I don’t think the comparison with travelling around the world is necessarily valid, after all, you and I are both comparatively well travelled but have probably ‘explored’ less than 20% of our own world - possibly between us - so there’s a good deal still to go at.
I just get a little frustrated when there are so many problems right here, right now to solve. A cure for cancer, for dementia, for MND a resolution for the millions who are starving or displaced etc etc and we keep spending money on space exploration which, in your own, admittedly lighthearted, words has so far given us ‘non stick frying pans’ and the future possibility of ‘star wars’.

[SithHappens]

I dont think it's an argument that can be won. If its something that's not of particular interest then to convince of it's worth is always going to be a tough ask.

History is littered with examples of where money has been spent to satisfy our thirst for knowledge that you could argue could have been funnelled elsewhere.

How much was spent searching for, finding and visiting the wreck of the titanic? What value do you put on that? It's still a wreck on the floor of the ocean, no lessons learned, we just know where it is that's it.

How much on the excavation and understanding and learning about dinosaurs? The point? They are still dead, people are called Drs and paid millions a year to understand more about them, they could be still Drs and paid the same money to make people healthier.

I don't believe either of the above, I'm very interested in both but you could argue neither enrich mine or anyone else's life that much other than the knowledge of what is or was.

[ramAnag]

I dont think it's an argument that can be won. If its something that's not of particular interest then to convince of it's worth is always going to be a tough ask.

History is littered with examples of where money has been spent to satisfy our thirst for knowledge that you could argue could have been funnelled elsewhere.

How much was spent searching for, finding and visiting the wreck of the titanic? What value do you put on that? It's still a wreck on the floor of the ocean, no lessons learned, we just know where it is that's it.

How much on the excavation and understanding and learning about dinosaurs? The point? They are still dead, people are called Drs and paid millions a year to understand more about them, they could be still Drs and paid the same money to make people healthier.

I don't believe either of the above, I'm very interested in both but you could argue neither enrich mine or anyone else's life that much other than the knowledge of what is or was.

Not really an ‘argument’ at all, Sith. Just a discussion and I’m certainly not suggesting I’m right.

Not sure you can compare it with the Titanic which, as far as I know, beyond the initial investigation, wasn’t funded by public money or in such enormous sums.

I absolute concede that it’s interesting - more so for you than me but that’s beside the point - I’d just be more convinced if the last seven decades of space exploration had provided something that genuinely benefited humanity.

[SithHappens]

I guess take away satellites and our lives would be significantly different.

[ramAnag]

I guess take away satellites and our lives would be significantly different.

True.

[Geoff Parkstone]

True.

To a degree it's knowledge for the sake of knowledge but then so is, for example the study of English literature, the Latin language etc. Should we stop spending money studying that ??

Besides exploration of the moon could result in Farage finding somewhere to deport the illegals too instead of Rwanda 😃

[SithHappens]

Actually had a look and the discovery of the titanic was funded by the US Government

A quick Google also shows lots more in the benefits from space exploration column, a big one being innovation of Solar Powe technologies.

[ramAnag]

To a degree it's knowledge for the sake of knowledge but then so is, for example the study of English literature, the Latin language etc. Should we stop spending money studying that ??

Besides exploration of the moon could result in Farage finding somewhere to deport the illegals too instead of Rwanda ��

Or, as already suggested, we could just ‘deport’ Farage, Trump, Putin and the Ayatollahs there and be much better off knowing that space exploration has benefitted human kind after all.

Hope things are looking up for you, GP, but I don’t think you can really compare the funding for the study of English literature with the amount spent on the space race.