Why we explore

By Jason Davis
 
Why should we spend money exploring space when we have so many problems here on Earth?
 
As a space news reporter for a non-profit that advocates for NASA funding, I get this question a lot. It was posed to me again recently, so I decided to collect my thoughts and offer some answers.
 
First, we need to clear up some common budgetary myths. NASA's annual budget is about $19 billion. That may sound like a lot, but it's actually just one-half of one percent of the country's total spending. To look at it another way, if you represent the federal budget with one dollar, NASA consumes a half-penny. The National Science Foundation, which covers many astronomical programs in the U.S. (many of which are here in Arizona), gets even less.
 
Our military, on the other hand, currently spends about $600 billion per year—roughly 15 percent of the national budget. Discretionary programs like NASA are practically rounding errors when compared to programs like Social Security, health care, and defense.
 
Not that you could even reallocate those dollars. Agencies like NASA often enjoy strong, bipartisan support because they boost their local economies. For example: Houston's Johnson Space Center, the home of NASA Mission Control, contributes $3 billion per year to Texas' economy. Try telling Senator Ted Cruz you're closing NASA to focus on other problems, and see how he reacts.
 
Space science helps proliferate advanced technologies. Many things we rely on every day, such as laptops, GPS-enabled phones and even carbon monoxide detectors, have spaceflight roots. NASA research has led to major advances in aerospace, robotics, materials science, healthcare, food safety, environmental protection, and more. That's why a country like India, with crushing poverty problems, still invests money in a space program.
 
We humans are naturally curious. We explore the cosmos because we want to know who we are, where we came from, and ultimately, whether or not we are alone. NASA is searching for signs of past life on Mars right now. In a few years, the agency plans to send a spacecraft to Jupiter's moon Europa, which could harbor life in its salty, subsurface ocean.
 
Solar systems like our own are probably more common than not, based on the hundreds of planets orbiting other stars we've discovered. The next generation of ground-based telescopes, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, may be able to detect signs of life-unique processes like photosynthesis on planets orbiting other stars.
 
What if we find signs of life beyond Earth? It could change the course of human history. Think of the societal implications if we discover we aren't alone in the universe.
 
Funding space science (or any other science, for that matter) versus saving the world need not be an either-or proposition. We can easily do both.
 
The question is: Do we have the will?