Is space exploration a waste of money and time? Is it worth that time and money? Why to waste money up there if we have so many problems on Earth? If somebody asked you this question, how would you answer?
Let's start with a simple question. What percentage of the Indian budget Do you think goes to ISRO? Many people might think that more than 20% of India's budget goes to ISRO. But it turns out that only 0.4% of the Indian budget goes to space exploration i.e. For comparison, 16% goes to the military and 60% goes to social programs like Social Security, unemployment, Medicare and health care. And this structure is similar to most of the countries.
So with that being said, let me tell you some incredible things that we get in return for that half a percent of the budget. Why should we spend time exploring space when we have so many problems here on Earth? Some of our ancestors probably asked "Why should we waste time trying to figure out agriculture when we have so much work to do hunting and gathering?" or "Why should we spend so much time messing around in boats when we have so many issues here on the land?" And the answer to all three of these questions is the same: Reaching for new heights often creates new solutions and opportunities for people back on the ground.
There are many such satellites launched by many countries that study soil, do weather forecasts, etc. They all help the people on Earth. How? The amount of money to send a satellite in space to study soil and weather costs the same as feeding the whole continent once. But with the data gathered, humans can do agriculture depending on that study and enjoy the yields for the whole life!
Many satellites sent, especially by NASA detect forth coming asteroids. These may help evacuate people early and know the possible threats. Same is with weather.
Just imagine how much we get from that half a percent of the budget. And you still think it's useless? More than half of the space exploration is done for welfare of humans!
And this is the image that my friend's mom shared with me yesterday. Now let me tell why ISRO, NASA, Spacex, ESA, and all the space exploration companies invest millions and billions of dollars to study Mars. Rovers that we sent to Mars are to gather data on what it would take for humans to live there and establishing a permanent human outpost on Mars which would serve sort of like a backup spot in case something catastrophically bad happened here on Earth.
And another point, without that 0.5% of budget and precious hours of scientists being wasted, forget about GPS, TV, all the cloud networking, computing and internet!
Not all the money from that half a percent is spent on the mission. A major portion of that goes to the skilled and hardworking scientists, workers, and engineers. So space exploration doesn't spend all money on exploration itself. (Quite ironic!)
Here comes another question from the people- Why we need government funding for space exploration? Why not Spacex and Blue Origin like private companies do all the work? But if that was true, CNSA, ISRO, NASA, JAXA, ESA wouldn't be on the top 5!
So? Space exploration not only helps for welfare of humans, but also explores and makes our origin more clear. It's not a waste of time and money. Whatever spent on it is worth it!
Posts before October 2021 have been marked as "Old Posts". Less likely, but they might have out dated or incorrect information, ugly looking bits of code, no labels, etc. Don't get me wrong, many of these posts are top-notch and interesting too.
I thought it would be better not to delete or revamp these posts, even if they suck. The bitter truth is that old works always suck, but I take that as a positive tool to convey that I am growing. Besides there's no better way to showcase my journey without these old, messy, poorly written posts!
I thought it would be better not to delete or revamp these posts, even if they suck. The bitter truth is that old works always suck, but I take that as a positive tool to convey that I am growing. Besides there's no better way to showcase my journey without these old, messy, poorly written posts!
Old Post