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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benefits of space exploration | 3/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_of_space_exploration | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:13:34.024332+00:00 | kb-cron |
== Criticisms and drawbacks ==
There are three main types of criticism levied against space exploration: the cost, ideological criticism, and social criticism.
The calculations of the benefits of space exploration have frequently been criticized due to a conflict of interests argument (the agencies responsible are the ones who calculate the benefits) and the complexity of quantifying the benefits. As Matthew Williams stated: "How do you put a dollar value on scientific knowledge, inspiration, or the expansion of our frontiers?"
While some commentators have argued that space exploration is a lifeboat strategy to avoid annihilation of the human race, others have countered that it misses the point. Amitai Etzioni – Professor at The George Washington University and an adviser to the US's Carter administration – countered in Humanity Would Be Better off Saving Earth, Rather Than Colonizing Mars that: "It is better to hold off disasters at home than to assume all is lost". Etzioni also pointed out the vast cost of colonization of extraterrestrial planets by citing that Elon Musk, an advocate of space exploration and colonization, had calculated the cost of sending the first 12 astronauts to Mars at £10 billion per person. The Mars Climate Orbiter is a good example of this argument, burning up—before returning any scientific data—at a cost of $328 million.
Social critics say that the cost of space exploration cannot be justified when hunger and poverty are rampant. "As they see it, space exploration takes money, resources, and talent away from helping people in need and from improving the quality of life for everybody." In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. said: "Without denying the value of scientific endeavor, there is a striking absurdity in committing billions to reach the moon where no people live, while only a fraction of that amount is appropriated to service the densely populated slums."
Some critics have pointed out the hazards of space debris which affect satellites, spacecraft and the surface of the Earth. For example, in March 2009 debris believed to be a 10 cm (3.9 in) piece of the Kosmos 1275 satellite nearly hit the ISS. Although it is relatively rare for people on the ground to be hit by space debris, it does happen. In 1969 five sailors on a Japanese ship were injured by space debris. In 1997 an Oklahoma woman, Lottie Williams, was injured when she was hit in the shoulder by a 10 cm × 13 cm (3.9 in × 5.1 in) piece of blackened, woven metallic material confirmed as part of the propellant tank of a Delta II rocket which launched a U.S. Air Force satellite the year before. Environmentalists have pointed to the pollution caused by space exploration and at distracting Americans from a mounting pollution problem.
Feminists criticized the US space exploration programs, and even filed lawsuits, for sexist hiring practices and all-male astronaut corps.
It is unclear how much the American public agrees with the importance of space exploration. Gallup polls in the 1960s showed that less than 50% of Americans considered the endeavour worth the cost. An NBC News and Associated Press Poll in 1979 found that only 41% of respondents considered the benefits worth the costs. By the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, the percentage of those favorable to space exploration had recovered to 64%.
== See also == NASA spinoff technologies
== References ==
U Sankar(2007), Economics of India's Space Programme, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.