Benefits of space exploration

Benefits of Space Exploration

Space was a high-tech arena where rival ideologies clashed, showcasing their technological prowess under the watchful eyes of the entire globe. The competition between the former USSR and the United States brought about a rapid succession of firsts – the first human in orbit, the first steps on the Moon, the first space station and the first reusable launch system. However, once the dust settled, and the eye-popping bill of the early space activities hit government coffers, a new rationale emerged: pragmatic use of space as the higher ground for improving life on Earth. From satellite telecommunications to remote sensing from micro gravity research to satellite navigation government space programs started investing in practical outcomes for the public good. Therefore, measuring the socio-economic benefits of space activities steadily gained importance throughout the 1970s and 1980s, an era defined as “Mission to Planet Earth.”

Direct Benefits

Knowledge of Space

Since Sputnik entered orbit in 1957 to perform Ionospheric experiments, the human understanding of earth and space have increased. The list of missions to the moon begin as early as 1958 and continue into the current age. They include notable missions such as Apollo 8 successful landing on the moon in 1968. Missions to the moon have collected samples of Lunar materials and there are now multiple satellites such as ARTEMIS P1 that currently orbit the moon and collect data.

Telescopic Satellites have captured millions of images of the universe since the introduction of satellites, such as the Mariner Space Satellites. The Mariner 4 space satellite in 1965 was the first successful satellite to capture up close images of the planet Mars. Mariner mission 6 and 7 additionally mapped the poles of the planet and relayed further images of the surface. By the end of the mariner missions in 1972, Mariner 9 spent almost a year in Martian orbit, had collected images of nearly 100% of the surface of the moon and observed notable discoveries such as the the humongous Olympus Mons volcano, more than 4000km of Valles Marineris and dust storms lasting over a month. Further mission since 1972, like the Viking project, Mars observer, Mars pathfinder, Mars climate orbiter, Deep Space 2, Mars Global surveyor, and Phoenix have obtained understandings of the climate, flood plains, and rock samples on mars.

The Hubble space telescope contributed more than a million observations of the universe that have been influential in understanding the magnitude of size of the universe since its introduction into orbit.

Mars mission-future

Indirect benefits

Global partnerships

International Space Station (ISS), space station assembled in low Earth orbit largely by the United States and Russia, with assistance and components from a multinational consortium. In 1993 the United States and Russia agreed to merge their separate space station plans into a single facility integrating their respective modules and incorporating contributions from the European Space Agency and Japan.

Some African countries, including Nigeria and South Africa, have successfully employed space technology—specifically satellite-based disaster management, climate monitoring, and green systems—to tackle workforce development issues and launch new space activities.

The United States collaborated for 20 years with the Soviet Union’s Cosmos/Bion missions and has worked with the Europe Space lab on multiple space life science experiments.

Spin-offs

NASA reports that 444,000 lives have been saved, 14,000 jobs have been created, 5 billion dollars in revenue has been generated, and there has been 6.2 billion dollars in cost reduction due to Spin-off programs from NASA research. Of the the many beneficial NASA Spin-offs technologies there has been advancements in the fields of Health and Medicine, Transportation, Public Safety, Consumer Goods, Energy and Environment, Information Technology, and Industrial Productivity. Multiple products and innovations used in the daily life are results of space generated researches. From Solar panels to water-purification to global search and rescue systems, multiple facets of life are impacted by space research and innovations.

International Space Station

-monitoring natural disasters

Biomedical Research

Beginning in 1967, NASA successfully began its Biosatellite program that initially took frog eggs, amoeba, bacteria, planets and mice and studied the effects of zero gravity on these biological life forms. Studies of human life in space have augmented the understanding of adaptive effects of adjusting to a space environment, such as alterations in body fluids, negative influences on the immune system and effects of space on sleep patterns. Current space researches are divided into the subjects of Space Biology, which studies the effects of space on smaller organisms such as cells, Space Physiology, which is the study of the effects of space on the human body and Space Medicine, which examines the possible dangers of space on the human body. Discoveries concerning the human body and space, particularly the effects on the development of bones, may provide further understanding of biomineralization and the process of gene transcription.

Debates

Cost-benefit analysis of not only the direct monetary value of space exploration but also the potential environmental and physical or physiological costs associated has left many to questions its true value.^[1] Additionally, since the disaster of the Space Shuttle Columbia in February 2003 it has been estimated that the chances of space mission failure to be 1-265.^[2]