"When a Kid loves space and rockets, when he spends countless time reading science-fiction books, it's because to him it's fun, fascinating and exciting, not be

"When a Kid loves space and rockets, when he spends countless time reading science-fiction books, it's because to him it's fun, fascinating and exciting, not because it's supposed to feed starving children. I doubt an adult rocket scientist or engineer is fundamentally different. Deep down he just doesn't give a crap about starving children in Africa." I appreciate your focus on measurable behaviors. But make no mistake, there are lots of people involved in space science because they want to improve people's lives. There are unique opportunities to measure climate change from space, for instance, and significant numbers of people in this area have literally devoted their professional careers to finding out what's going on with climate change. They will tell you that straight out, and their decisions in other areas of their life mirror that outlook, so you can tell it's not lip service. The people who study planetary atmospheres can be motivated by similar considerations (hello, runaway greenhouse effect), also terrestrial weather (hurricane intensification, tornado genesis, etc.), space weather (solar flares, etc.), ecological forecasting, etc. Some folks are drawn to these areas because they matter in an obvious way. You are correct that some space scientists/engineers are motivated by pure curiosity, tenacity, novelty, etc. -- inward-looking things. But by no means all, and in some disciplines, it tilts rather the other way.