Year after year, humanity’s situation on Earth becomes more precarious, with climate change, economic insecurity, and viral pandemics stressing the world’s resources. Some are wondering: Why are we spending all this money on research and spaceflight?
And it’s easy to see why this argument arose: There are big problems to solve here on Earth, and going to space is expensive.
This oversimplification ignores the nature of humanity, the drive that has made us the dominant species on Earth, and if we are to stay that way, space exploration is vital.
Space exploration can save your life
Humans didn’t evolve to go to space, but we go there anyway.
This has led to the development of various technologies that fuel the economy and improve our lives on Earth.
Without space programs, we wouldn’t have GPS, accurate weather forecasting, solar cells, or UV filters in sunglasses and cameras.
There is also medical research going on in space at the present time that can cure diseases and extend human life, and these experiments cannot be conducted on Earth.
Asteroids do not interest us
Speaking of saving lives, space exploration could save all of our lives.
The solar system has calmed down a lot since early times, but there are still an unknown number of large asteroids and comets that could strike the planet and make the COVID-19 pandemic seem like a pleasant memory.
The issue is not if another large asteroid will hit Earth, but when? A robust space program is the only hope we have of deflecting such an object.
And if we are not working towards this goal, humanity already has an expiration date.
And NASA is currently making plans to launch a spacecraft into an asteroid to test one possible way to save Earth from such an impact.
space colonization
There are currently nearly 8 billion people, which is a lot.
However, we are all crammed together on this one planet, so if something were to happen to Earth, our species could be wiped out.
It is suggested that colonizing other bodies in the solar system (or building our own orbital habitat) is a way to create a backup of humanity that will survive no matter what happens to Earth.
And in the future, perhaps it will be people from Mars who will never set foot on Earth, the technology to make this possible and sustain people independently of Earth will not develop itself.
Space mining can save the world
As the population continues to grow inexorably, the pressure on our natural resources continues to increase.
The extraction of precious metals has led to a host of problems, including environmental damage and human exploitation, but there is a wealth of precious materials out there.
Startups like AstroForge want to mine asteroids rather than Earth, which means effectively supplying an unlimited supply of rare raw materials on Earth.
Humans are explorers by nature
There are more practical reasons for space exploration, but one of the main reasons we should keep going is that we are explorers.
This is why the number of human beings is in the billions. Since our first steps, we have sought to learn more about the world around us, and this has allowed us to build a civilization that spans the planet.
Space exploration is an opportunity not only to discover new worlds and build advanced technologies, but to work together towards a greater goal regardless of nationality, race or gender.
If we stop exploring, we stop being human.