Still Some Very Clever People Out There

[douglas9401]

Doing useful stuff.

https://www.independent.co.uk/space/nasa-signal-message-deep-space-psyche-b2625500.html

Warms the cockles.

[wolf63]

I suppose when the wars keep going and someone releases a nuke or two we might completely trash this one.

Maybe some day we will send folk off to another planet.  They can then make a mess of it like we have with ours.

[fourteen85]

I was watching the Brian Cox programme earlier in the week, whilst being interesting their was certainly an element of why do we need to spend all the time and money to discover why mars volcanoes stopped functioning or why a moon of neptune ejects ice . seems to me that the money could be put to better use .  

[fourteen85]

There not Their 

[Radagast]

In Carl Sagan's book The Demon-Haunted World, he puts forward a scenario where the early Victorians were commanded to invent television. He then shows that they would have failed because certain discoveries had yet to be made.

Science has to be discovery for the sake of discovery and the inventions are a by-product. If you try to do it the other way around, it doesn't work.

[Khandro]

First fix Britain, then space.

[ToraToraTora]

It makes me laugh when ignorant fools moan about space exploration then blissfully use the products of that in their everyday lives without any actual knowledge.

[mushroom25]

Ian Dury had a song about this......

[Khandro]

This fool can manage quite well without non-stick frying pans. 😄

 

[Old_Geezer]

Ultimately, why do we need to exist at all ?

 

While we are here, learning how and why things are seems an excellent use of resource for it's own sake. If the knowledge proves to be of practical use, that's simply a bonus side effect.

[ToraToraTora]

10:11 well demonstrated Khandro!

So you have no mobile phone? Satnav? Microwave?

You'll never need a cat scan, MRI?

never use any cordless tools?

No LEDs in your house?

[vulcan42]

I remember reading about items we use that came from the space industry. Among the memory foam and cordless tools was an intriguing "invisible braces for teeth". I couldn't see what aspect of space exploration needed that and so wondered what was it developed from.

[naomi24]

Khandro, if science waited until everything is perfect before experimenting or exploring, we'd never progress!

[youngmafbog]

Only two things tend to advance science:

       War and Space.

Which is preferable?

[bhg481]

space research is there to further war options ie, war is the driving force for nationanal space research.

[Khandro]

TTT Who told you your list at 10:19 is space research dependant ?

Here are 10 everyday items that were invented because of space programs and research:

Long life tyres.

Scratch resistant glasses. ...

Camera Phones. ...

Clear braces. ...

Freeze dried food. ...

Ear thermometers. ...

Memory foam pillows. ...

Cordless headphones. ...

 

Was all that, paid for by public money of Billions, and the massive amount of fossil fuel burnt up worth it ?

  

[youngmafbog]

WEll yes BHG, but I'm sure you get my drift.

Khandro, without doubt Space spending has given us many things we take for granted, far more than the little shown by you and TTT.

Would you prefer to be living in the 1950's? 

On relflection you probably would.

To answer your question yes I am happy with the spend.

[Khandro]

ymb ; No I don't want to live in the 50' - (though some things were better!) but don't fall for all the guff put out by research scientists keen to continue their occupations and funding, selling the idea how necessary it all is.

Most of those technological advances have come and are still coming from the private sector.

[Old_Geezer]

Wow, just checked, that's 26 light minutes away !