SASRA – What’s in it for us?
What is in it for us? – the Earthly benefits of developing space.
By Michael Neale
If you are reading this article, changes are you are pro-space development. Even so, you might still have wondered whether space development is economically justifiable. Sure, we do it to broaden our knowledge, and because it is satisfying, and it will hopefully eventually lead to us being a space-faring civilization. But how do you justify spending that much money in space while there are people living in poverty, people drowning in Tsunamis and a whole host of other problems right here on the rock we call home?
The justification of space development can become a lengthy and heated debate, which is not the purpose of this article. What you will find here by following the links below, is more information on how space development (specifically NASA) has improved our everyday life.
The first link (click here to read), is a recent space.com news article that briefly describes NASA’s hand in instant formula (for baby food), UV sunglasses, memory foam, cell phone cameras, CATSscans and MRI’s.
The second link (click here) is one of NASA’s own articles and it offers a bit more detail than the previous link. The article mentions how NASA helped with tracking hurricanes, wildfires and volcanoes, to health care monitoring, to cochlear implants, to finding good areas for vineyards, to lifeshears, to breast cancer screening, to grooved runways and a few more.
Finally, and most detailed, NASA has a publication called “Spinoffs” (mentioned in both links above). This yearly publication will give you a good idea of how NASA’s endeavours benefits society in ways you were never aware of.
By striving for the stars above our heads, we have improved the ground beneath our feet. In the end, I believe the technology and capability we gained justified the expenses.