It cost 10 billion dollars to build, but that was spread out over two decades. So far it is performing exactly the way it is supposed to, and our whole understanding of the cosmos is being changed. “The big bang theory” is being seriously challenged. We’re seeing large galaxies in places they shouldn’t be. Many of our traditional theories about the universe are being challenged. I know it sounds ludicrous that we would spend all that money so a bunch of old men can do better star gazing, but if humanity doesn’t want to become extinct we need to learn all we can about the universe so we can one day travel the vast distances of space.
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As interesting as that is to learn, and don’t get me wrong, I wanted to be an astronaut when I was in grade school, it’s still ten billion that could have done so much good on Earth. I’m in Canada. We’ve got tent encampments in many cities, because people can’t afford rent or a home. There are kids going to school without breakfasts or lunches. A large number of people in my country have no retirement savings (one third). I can’t walk down a certain street without encountering a homeless person begging at each intersection. From what I’ve read, the USA is suffering similar issues. People living in tents. This is just my opinion: I think that we should first work on fixing our problems on Earth, before bringing them into outer space.
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I think that if it hadn’t been spent on the telescope, it still wouldn’t have been used, either directly or indirectly, to help the people in those awful situations.
Instead, I like to look on the bright side. In this case, jobs were created, including my husband’s. NASA technology is used in many things and is something that helps us to keep progressing as a civilization. When NASA loses funding, we often lose potential inventions, which can cause stagnation in key areas of STEM development.
Plus, the world couldn’t have known about Covid and its fallout 20 years ago.
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We didn’t understand what the silicon microchip could do for us until the Apollo program. That is something that has completely changed our lives. Back when they were talking about building the “Star Wars Missile Defense System” I was totally against it because it could not possibly have worked. But in building the system we would have learned so much and made so many inventions. That’s just one benefit we get from space programs.
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It’s supposed to be a very cold winter this year. Maybe they could look to military equipment providers to help out with heaters, sleeping bags, and clothing. They could also use a few military MRE’s. (Meals, Ready to Eat.)
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I dreamt last night that I was flying on a rocket to another planet with someone.
As we got further out in the atmosphere, I started to get scared of floating in space for years. Aimlessly.
So I was glad to realise that our hot air balloon design of a rocket started to deflate.
It was a weird dream.
I don’t really know what I think about the whole space thing multiplanet inhabitants…
I think money should be spent elsewhere.
But I’m not in charge.
Ppl can do as they please.
And that’s okay.
Young women and men also enjoy star gazing and working on understanding the science and developing the technology associated with space travel, telescopes, satellites and the like.
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The only reason I would wonder if it’s reasonable to do multiplanteray thing is if other countries do it.
I agree.
It’s more important to prioritise that all people have a home and food and drink and health care.
If there is money left over after that then …
Horrible how much money is spent on weapons when that money and work could be spent doing good .
Self defence can be needed but shouldn’t need to be needed if people had decent behaviour towards each other.
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Right now we’re maintaining the ability to fight one major war and one small war simultaneously, but we can’t recruit the number of people needed to do this. There has been some talk of reducing our military to being able to only fight one major war. We could expect our allies to take up some of the slack. There are some countries that are showing signs of wanting to do that. Japan, South Korea, and Poland are all wanting to build up their militaries. I don’t know what the English are paying for defense, but I think the Germans aren’t doing that much for their own defense. Every time we get into a war we spend trillions of dollars doing the herculean task of fighting a war.
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