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Anyone who spends more on escaping Earth than on saving it is saying f*ck you to most of our 7.7 bio. people.
by okintheory 7y ago
Anyone who spends more on escaping Earth than on saving it is saying f*ck you to most of our 7.7 bio. people.
- walrus01 7y agoExcepting the fact that technology developed for space (1957-present) has made huge improvements in ground based life. At its absolute peak the Apollo program consumed 4.4% of the US federal government budget. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/infographic.view.php?id=11358 https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/infographic.view.php?i... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies
- wongarsu 7y agoEven technologies that are not direct spinoffs often benefit greatly. For example the Apollo onboard computers created demand for smaller computers, accelerating development of integrated circuits and dropping their price. Some credit Apollo with singlehandedly dropping IC prices from $1000 to $20 [1]. If it wasn't for Apollo we likely wouldn't be on this forum. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_integrated_circuit#First_semiconductor_ICs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_integrated_ci...
- viklove 7y agoAs a society, we can allocate resources to both of these problems in order to ensure the longevity of the human species. This kind of defeatist attitude is what's holding us back.