Space Travel and Exploration Is a Waste of Money

I've always felt this ever since I was a kid, and now, even though I'm a staunch capitalist, I do have my limits. One of my pet peeves is the exorbitant amount of money governments put into space travel and exploration. I can never be convinced that the billions, perhaps trillions that are spent studying space and sending people into space is well justified. I had a conversation with my brother years ago, and of course, he's on the opposite side of the fence, and said that space exploration is natural as it is satisfying people's normal curious nature. He also said that don't we want to find out if there is life outside earth? I have heard this echoed from many defenders of space travel and exploration. Here is where I have an axe to grind.

Why are people caring about life outside this planet, when they can't even take care of the life on this planet? By this, I mean the enormous amounts of people who are starving on this earth, who die everyday because wealthy nations put their money in absolute dumb-ass projects like space travel. I am not some bleeding heart, trust me. If people put themselves on the street - well, sorry, I have no sympathy for them. If they don't go to school and then end up getting in a gang and then get arrested and have no money to support their child that they fathered outside of wedlock and now has disappeared from this poor child's life - well, tough crap.

But there are many people on earth, who happen to be born and live in impoverished countries. They obviously had no direct impact on how they became that way (though it would be tremendously helpful if these people did not choose to have any kids, since that's just creating another mouth to feed that they are unable to do on their own). I have no problem with countries like Canada and the U.S. pitching in, and it's good that we are...but so much more can be done if governments forget about sending a multi-billion dollar spacecraft into orbit to dock with the space station, only to discover that their multi-billion dollar spacecraft is ineed a multi-billion dollar piece of crap that malfunctions. Imagine how many people that money could have fed!

Now, I know that there will be people who say that there may be medical advancements that may be achieved. Like what? How would researching some medicine in space help on earth? The only thing being researched are reactions to space conditions and how different things react in space. If I am wrong here, feel free to email me and let me know, but I'm willing to bet that my email box will be empty for quite a while.

For whatever reason, generations of parents have been proud if their child ended up working for NASA or became an astronaut. I think I'll severely beat my kids on the butt if they ever pursued this as a career. If they became an airline pilot, I'd have no issue with that. Airline pilots have very good, marketable skills. How about astronauts? They just sit in expensive spacecraft and then go into orbit and study something that does not really do anything for humanity, other than satisfy a curiosity. When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, I didn't see what the big deal was. What did him landing on the moon do as a tangible (read what I am saying here) contribution to society? Mother Theresa did more in her lifetime than NASA will ever do in its existence. Let's take care of our own who did not do anything to deserve their plight, before we start worrying about extra-terrestrial lifeforms and whether there is water on Mars.