I need to know what the point of spending thousands of US dollars on space trips is meant for. I don't know what we've accomplished and found beneficial to society and the overall growth of human living by having money and such being tossed for the government to send random men up into space. I don't understand why space travel is so necessary. Please tell me how the moon launchings weren't fake, or needed for the human race.
http://www.care2.com/causes/5-things-we-have-thanks-to-space-exploration.htmlhttp://www.universetoday.com/37079/benefits-of-space-exploration/In a time when economic austerity is en vogue, we find ourselves debating what is worth spending money on and what isn’t. Programs have to justify their existence and those programs that are seen as ancillary or superfluous get the ax. Unfortunately, often science that doesn’t have an immediate practical use is seen as fluff and a waste of time and money. In the United States, NASA can be an object of this debate. We should not be exploring the solar system, some say, when we have so many problems on the Earth. This, I believe, is an incredibly myopic point of view that ignores the myriad of technological advances that make our lives longer, safer, and more fun made possible by the space program.
Cell Phone Camera
You know how you basically can’t buy a cell phone anymore without a camera? Yeah, you can thank NASA for that. In the 1960s, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) first developed the concept of the digital camera. In the 1990s, a team at the JPL worked to create cameras that are small enough to fit on spacecraft while maintaining scientific quality. One third of cell phone cameras contain the technology developed from this research.
Clean Energy Technology
Not every piece of technology is directly applicable to non-space faring activities. But, more often than not, technology developed for space flight is refined to create something useful for us land lubbers. For example, the company that developed the Space Shuttle Main Engine is using the expertise gained to create clean energy technology that would decrease carbon emissions by 10 percent, the equivalent of taking 50,000 cars off the road.
Scratch-Resistant Lenses
In an attempt to find diamond-hard coatings for aerospace systems, the Lewis Research Center contributed to making sunglass lenses more resistant to scratches and spotting. A technique for creating diamond-hard coatings was developed and patented, and in the late 1980s Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. got a license to use the patent. The technique was further developed and later used to make lenses that are scratch-resistant and shed water more easily.
Water Filtration and Purification
Lest you think NASA tech is just used for superficial creature comforts, think again. NASA has contributed quite a lot to the development of water purification technology over the years. Just by necessity, NASA developed ways to filter water for manned space missions. But that’s not all. Water purification technology also helped treat contaminated water after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico. Furthermore, technology developed to purify water on Apollo spacecraft is now used to purify dolphin tanks and is an alternative to chemical disinfectants.
CAT Scans
A space program needs a pretty good digital image analysis to locate and measure objects. Digital imaging is the computer processed numerical representation of physical images. The JPL played a lead role in developing this technology. This has proven incredibly useful in a variety of medical technologies, like CAT scanners, radiography and microscopy.
These are just a very few of the derivative technologies that we have thanks to investment in space exploration. You can find many more on the NASA website. But, at the risk of sounding like a new age hippie, these ignore perhaps the most important impact a robust space program can have: inspiration.
Space is undeniably huge and strange and beautiful. It’s a mistake to think of the study of space as esoteric. Billions and billions of years ago, supernovae exploded and littered the universe with the elements necessary to create the Earth and everything on it. We literally owe our existence to dying stars. It’s what Carl Sagan meant when he said that we are made of star stuff. The study of space is the study of us and our place in space and time. These are questions philosophers and theologians have been pondering for millennia, and these questions have answers. All we have to do is invest in finding the answers.
I know of no astronaut who returns from space after seeing the Earth with no artificial borders and advocates that we become more divided, more hostile, or more petty. There is something about knowing that we are on an insignificant pale blue dot in an insignificant galaxy that makes one realize how special life is. And we wouldn’t even have a clue if not for our ability to explore our corner of space.
Read more:
http://www.care2.com/causes/5-things-we-have-thanks-to-space-exploration.html#ixzz3vpwvLrp6---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program#LegacyScience and engineering[edit]
Further information: NASA spin-off technologies
The Apollo program has been called the greatest technological achievement in human history.[92][93] Apollo stimulated many areas of technology.[citation needed] The flight computer design used in both the lunar and command modules was, along with the Minuteman Missile System, the driving force behind early research into integrated circuits.[citation needed] Computer-controlled machining was first used in the fabrication of Apollo structural components.
Cultural impact[edit]
The Earth over the lunar horizon, photographed by the Apollo 8 crew
"Everything that I ever knew – my life, my loved ones, the Navy – everything, the whole world was behind my thumb." –James Lovell
The crew of Apollo 8 sent the first live televised pictures of the Earth and the Moon back to Earth, and read from the creation story in the Book of Genesis, on Christmas Eve, 1968. This was believed to be the most widely watched television broadcast until that time. The mission and Christmas provided an inspiring end to 1968, which had been a troubled year for the US, marked by Vietnam War protests, race riots, and the assassinations of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
An estimated one-fifth of the population of the world watched the live transmission of the Apollo 11 moonwalk.[94]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_MarbleThe Blue Marble photograph taken on December 7, 1972 during Apollo 17. "We went to explore the Moon, and in fact discovered the Earth." –Eugene Cernan
An effect of the Apollo program is the view of Earth as a fragile, small planet, captured in photographs taken by the astronauts during the lunar missions. The most famous, taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts, is The Blue Marble.
Many astronauts and cosmonauts have commented on the profound effects that seeing Earth from space has had on them;[95] the 24 astronauts who traveled to the Moon are the only humans to have observed Earth from beyond low Earth orbit, and have traveled farther from Earth than anyone else to date.
According to The Economist, Apollo succeeded in accomplishing President Kennedy's goal of taking on the Soviet Union in the Space Race, and beat it by accomplishing a singular and significant achievement, and thereby showcased the superiority of the capitalistic, free-market system as represented by the US. The publication noted the irony that in order to achieve the goal, the program required the organization of tremendous public resources within a vast, centralized government bureaucracy.[96]
I see your point. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we developed all that technology for the practical purposes? Think of how much money and time we could save if we didn't waste any of the money on stupid space stuff.
