From The Earth...
This is not a post about comics.
Not long ago NASA's latest Mars lander touched down on the Red Planet. It traveled 422 million miles to get there. That's a very long way. It cost about half a billion dollars to put it there. I for one think it's worth it.
Like a lot of people who read comics I was raised on science fiction. For me, space has always held an intrinsic fascination. it still does, of course. Otherwise I wouldn't read comics like Green Lantern Corps or still watch episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
We don't really know that much about what's out there. Which is why there is so much fiction and fantasy written and produced about it. And I love that. But for me, it's not enough. I want to know what's really out there. I want to know if there is telepathic, shape-shifting, ice cream-creating, fire-fearing life on Mars. Or if there ever was.
And I want to know if there is nothing but permafrost as well. Because no matter what's out there we need to explore it. Exploration of all the infinite frontiers is one of the things that makes us human. Some people think it's a waste of money; they wonder why we should bother exploring space.
I'll tell you why we should be exploring space: because it's there. It's out there and we're down here. And if we can go there -- if we can get even the tiniest glimpse of what's beyond the world we know, then it's worth it.
We probably won't find any Kryptonians. And I hope we don't meet any world-ravaging artificial intelligences. But we will find something there. But only if we reach for those stars...
posted by Diamondrock @ 8:00 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Hmmmm . . .
At $4 a gallon (and it probably needs premium), that works out to almost 3.4 miles per gallon, based on $422M mi & $500M. Not much worse than a Hummer and a WHOLE lot more interesting and educational.
ur an idot ernie, if you thik that it is still using gas all the way there, once it escapes earth's atomosphere it doesnt need to propel itself, there is no gravity no friction absolutley no inference on motion what so ever in space,
Historically, early sailors explored our world and exploration always benefited the explorer. Either there was new land to acquire or gold or just the fascination of meeting new races and cultures. There was always something valuable to bring back home that encouraged even more exploration. However, the trillions of dollars we spend to go Mars doesn't yield anything of real value that is worth the cost. The end result of our exploration is an intimate analysis of dirt and rocks. Sure, I was also raised on sci-fi movies where our imagination and curiosity drives our motivation. In the end though, given the more pressing and urgent needs of the people here on earth, I can't justify spending innumerable sums of money to go to Mars to bring back a bunch of dirt and rocks.
If we humans are to survive; we need to
leave the planet; and go to the stars for
no planet supports life forever. This means the end of humanity if we do not continue
seriously our space programs. Anyone who
objects to the space programs as a consequence of "cost" should keep this in mind. It boils down to survival of our species!
Hey anonymous,
Perhaps we should save our money exploring the unknown and instead blow other human beings up and wage war... maybe that would be a better use of the funds.
Bring back a bunch of dirt and rocks? That's the value you see in this project? If it were up to you, why would humans go out into space, period? Aren't there more "important" things we can spend our money on? Heck, we should abandon all space exploration projects, right?
Clearly you are a narrow minded person who is satisfied with the status quo.
A quick enumeration of the tangible benefits derived from the space program include major medical advances, solar cells, computer technology, satellite communications, and therefore the networks behind the Internet, and GPS. And that merely scratches the surface of the huge dividends paid from a modest expenditure in the national budget of the US.
Mars is the future, another stepping stone, much as the Antartic and oceans are now. It is the destiny of our species to move from Mother Earth to other places.
We are still in the infancy of space travel, so ignorance may be excused as to why we should still 'waste' more money on getting off of this small rock. As the technology improves, and our social compacts mature past motivations based solely on materialistic greed, we shall be able to venture forth as the adventuresome and inquisitive creatures we are.
Hopefully, we will survive our foibles to reach that stage of development.
To: Anonymous #1 --
My post was intended as humor, but since you insist on taking it seriously, let me say that fuel economy is considered an average value unless otherwise specified. Otherwise, we'd not consider fuel used while your Hummer went downhill. I appologize for not realizing there would be those here that did not understand the concept of "average."
To: Everyone Else --
Here's something else to put the NASA exploration budget into balance. In 2005 -- the last year I could find figures -- the US burned $366 billion in gas (at $2.60/gal). Assuming Diamondrock's "half a billion dollars" to be correct, it would take less than a 0.1% reduction in gas consumption (at today's prices) to fund this latest trip to Mars.
Maybe someone who knows NASA's current annual budget could figure out how much we'd to reduce our gas diet to pay for the whole shebang.
What if our vehicles averaged 35mpg? The Federal gas tax could then be raised a little as an incentive to economize, and it wouldn't hurt so much. (US gas taxes are way below the rest of the developed world.)
Then, I'd bet we could be doing some serious space exploration, plus have funds to improve medical care, education, etc.
Wow, never thought there would be this many responses to a non-comic post. Maybe I should just stop writing about comics!
Thanks to those who agree that space exploration is important... I meet a lot of people these days who, like one of you anonymouses, think that it's all a waste.
But there have always been dividends from space exploration, and like a lot of things it gets cheaper as you go along.
(And for the record, it's closer to 557 million dollars according to this Time article: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1809476,00.html)
But I'd be for it even if it *was* more expensive (or wasn't inevitably going to get cheaper). Mars IS the future. Like rocket scientist said, it's a stepping stone to bigger things (though Mars is pretty big!). It'll take decades -- maybe more -- before we're ready to really push out into space.
But if we don't take those baby steps today, we'll *never* get there...
*Gives the secret sci-fi, Star Trek geek handshake* I'm with you. Personally I think many people have it all wrong. The criminal waste is every penny spent on American Idol, The Bachelor, and American Gladiators.
To this day I get giggly when I think of the fact that we have an international space freakin station.
Not to mention the fact that if we're going to have a really juicy break through in alternative power sourcing it will probably be related to the space program.
When we first gazed at the moon through powerful telescopes, the moon appeared to be full of dirt and rocks. However, we were not convinced so we sent astronauts there. They brought back samples for scientists to analyze and it was confirmed that indeed, this was just dirt and rocks. However, we were not convinced so we went to the moon another dozen times or so just to really be sure it was real dirt and real rocks.
When we first gazed at Mars through powerful telescopes it appeared to be a mysterious planet. Our early flybys of this planet revealed a terrain full of dirt and rocks. However, we were not convinced so we sent Rover there. The little robotic vehicle traversed the topography sending back pictures and data and guess what? - more dirt and rocks. However, we were not convinced so we sent Phoenix there. It landed safely and started analyzing the soil and sending beautifully detailed images of a Martian landscape full of … dirt and rocks.
But wait, this is different. The Phoenix landed in the North Pole area in the hopes of discovering life. Its little sensors microscopically scrutinized the soil and made an amazing discovery. Mars is still full of dirt and rocks. But wait, this is different. The dirt has a pattern to it.
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