[aleksm97]

Instead of focusing our budget on resolving climate issues and pollution on our own planet, we somehow try to blow our money into space exploration. I get that it's a good thing to do in the long run, but until we fix the issues that are present around us, there won't be a long run.

[stupidcar]

Have you ever looked at a US budget breakdown? I suggest you do so now: https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-bud...

Nasa's yearly budget is less than $20bn. Compare this with the ~$600bn on the military, the ~$1.2tn on social secure, the ~$1tn on Medicare, etc. Space exploration is a drop in the ocean. Yet people troll that it's some huge, wasteful money sink, even when the US government is spending $1.5tn on the T35 fighter jet alone.

Moreover, Nasa's scientific work does help with tackling climate change and pollution. They are the ones launching satellites to monitor the Earth's biosphere, and doing work like National Climate Review[1], even as the current administration is removing all reference to climate change from the output of other Federal Agencies.

[1] https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/11/us-government-climat...

[melling]

Isn’t that the same classic argument people use to claim we shouldn’t use money for space exploration? “We have all these problems...poverty, etc”

[627467]

ahhh climate change and pollution is the new "poverty and war"...

[qbrass]

Not that we've solved those problems and needed a replacement.

[problems]

Depends how you look at it - ditching the planet might be our only shot at a "long run".

[AlphaGeekZulu]

Yeah, exactly. And it will be certainly much easier to terraform Mars into a habitable environment, populate it and use it as a starting platform to reach new, fresh, habitable planets in deep space, lightyears away – than to agree upon an earthly effort to limit a temperature rise to 1,5 to 2 degrees Celsius by means of some modifications to industrial production and eliminating bad habits.

Maybe earth becomes a better place, when the people who think so, have all left for new unearthly frontiers! The sooner the better. I am all in for the new space program!

[aleksm97]

https://www.wired.com/2014/02/happens-body-mars/ read up something on this topic. It's nice to imagine that we will soon be able to colonize Mars, but we are far from doing so and making the planet habitable for humans would take much more effort than to fix the one we already have, if the presents issues can be fixed we could lower defense spending and spending in other areas and then we could focus all that money into space exploration, but as things currently stand by multi-tasking we aren't exactly moving forward a whole lot.

[AlphaGeekZulu]

Ah, yes, I forgot to put the irony-tags on my post.

[aleksm97]

Sorry English isn't my native tongue so I misinterpreted the second part, although it could be just because I'm a little slow on the pick up :v either was it's totally my fault.

[maxxxxx]

No worries. No money will get spent. Since Bush it's part of a new President's first year ritual to announce an incoherent manned space program and ideally scrap the previous one. That's just standard procedure.

[beobab]

That's an interesting take on it. Is there anything that makes you think that they would spend it on climate issues and pollution if it wasn't spent on space exploration?

[aleksm97]

Considering that they already spend about 700B$ on the defense budget it would probably not happen and they would find something else to spend the money on which isn't nearly as reasonable as combating present issues. Anyhow I'm neither a communist nor a advocate for the poor, it's just that these are the type of problems that could end as all, not just the poor nor the middle class, thus people should voice their opinion more about it. But it seems to me that from the moment the election has been decided/won no one get's a say in the matter aside from the people that got elected, now don't get me wrong as winners they should have every right to make the final decisions, but sometimes asking the general public on what issues the government needs to tackle next is more reasonable then the old "I don't care about your opinion, you lost the elections, now wait 4 years and try again!".

[serf]

we had some pretty pressing issues last time we went there, too.