Why Invest in Space? 🚀
Humans have always had a passion to discover, and explore. Today, we are taking that passion into space.
Space and space technologies have created some important everyday items, and events that are worldwide milestones for all of humanity such as the world’s first satellite Sputnik 1, the first Mars Rover, the Mars Pathfinder, and the first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong.
All of this considering almost a hundred years ago, humans were transitioning from horses to cars, now we have the power to leave our planet. So today, we should take that drive to invest, explore, and discover in space.
Here’s why…
What We’ve Gained, In Space 🛰
The technology we’ve gained from space exploration is being used today, no not just by scientists or billionaires, but by everyday people. Notable examples include.
- Memory foam: Was invented to improve the safety of aircraft cushions.
- Cordless tools: While the original technology came from Black&Decker, NASA collaboration with them improved the tech and brought it to a commercial scale.
- Shoe Insoles: Was invented for use in NASA’s airplane seats!
- Scratch-resistant lenses: A NASA scientist developed the tech while working on a water purification system to be used in space.
And I could keep going!
Space has already proven itself as an investment that’s given us everyday items that we use day-to-day.
Wifi & The Internet 📡
You reading this article would not have been possible without the hundreds of satellites beaming wifi down to your device. Wifi technology while still mostly land-based is making a transition to more effective satellite tech with projects like Starlink and Project Kuiper. Wifi quite literally forms modern society today. For example, the ability to share information alone has changed the way we live. There is an estimated 149 billion videos on YouTube , an estimated 6 million texts are sent a day, and approximately 1,385,000 articles posted on Medium each month 🤯 ! This is all happening because of satellites orbiting our planet. The Coronavirus pandemic has also caused us to rely even more on the Internet with us having to work and learn from home. As well as the increased demand for data among sectors such as autonomous cars, virtual reality, and video. So, space has already proven itself a good investment with positive returns, so what should we be doing to make the most of it?
“Space has the ability to produce a triple bottom line, or ROIII: Return on Investment, Innovation, and Inspiration.”
- Robert C. Jacobson.
What We Should Be Doing 🌌
Ways that we can invest into the exploration into space and space technology include increasing the budget of NASA. Many people would strongly disagree with this saying NASA already takes up too much valuable government money. According to The Planetary Society, NASA only got 22.629 billion dollars from the government during 2020 a grand total of only 0.48% of the USA’s total government spending, less than half a percent. Once you add up all the expenses of Rockets, Human test flights, Scientific Research, and Robotic Moon missions. You wont have enough money to do much more, even 1% of the US’s governments total spending would be a huge boost and would enable NASA to research and invest into bigger and more meaningful projects that would impact everyone as NASA is a government run organization and almost all of it’s research is public. Also take into mind that approximately 11% of US government spending goes towards the military!
What we’re doing today
Today with billionaires going to space, Mars missions being planned, and new spacecraft being produced like the SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy pictured above, we are entering a new space age with the likes of privatized companies entering the picture. Such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Boeing. These companies are already changing the industry and affect NASA has on it. With other countries showing increased interest as well such as China and Russia, the public sector may grow too. With these companies entering the market, space investment is growing more than ever before. The global space economy reached an estimated 446.9 billion USD in 2020 and is expected to continue growing. This in turn will continue to boost the space economy and help sectors intertwined with it such as artificial intelligence. In the future, space exploration may even become necessary for human survival in the long term as well if an extinction event forces us to find a home among the stars.
The Challenges of Space đź’«
While space has been a vessel of advancement for humanity, hasn’t come without its challenges. The idea of investment into space, doesn’t seem ideal to some. Projects cost lots of money and take time, many projects don’t even see the light of day. So, many people don’t see the benefit of putting all this money into space. However, they’re forgetting the big picture! The investment into space has already proven its worth. Now all we need to have is the will to cooperate, and work together, to achieve something to keep our passion to explore the unknown alive and well.
