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Is space exploration a waste of mone
y? Yes!
 
Article A
© Business Spotlight, 1/2019
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BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT / Is space exploration a waste of money?
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Is space exploration a waste of money?
Is space exploration a waste of mone
y? No!
 
Article B
Stars and planets have 
fascinated people since 
ancient times. But while 
some people think space 
exploration is a huge waste 
of money, others see it as a 
necessary measure for the 
survival of humankind. Here, 
Julian Earwaker passes on 
both opinions.
No!
“It’s always a good thing to inspire people” – 
Massimiliano Vasile
There’s a philosophical argument not just for space exploration
but for every single thing we do that has no obvious economic
return. You cannot measure everything that humans do in
terms of economics. What’s the money value, for example, of
classifying insects or studying history? It’s how human beings
improve themselves. We explore space to understand more
about the origins of life on Earth, for example through the stu
dy 
of asteroids and comets. Increasing human understanding of
how the universe works changes our mindset, our culture; it
changes our understanding of our world in our lifetime.
The cost of space exploration appears to be expensive, but
compared to other activities, it is not. To hear that a mission
costs €400 million sounds prohibitive. But it is nothing
compared to what we spend on watching live Champions
League football on TV! We spend billions and billions each year
on arms deals and weapons to support wars around the world.
So let’s look at the return on investment not in terms of money
but in terms of what we learn from it. You see immediately that
space exploration represents good value.
There are bigger priorities than the science-fiction aspects of
colonizing Mars or going to other galaxies. For example, if you
know more about the Sun, you can perhaps mitigate the ef
fect of 
solar storms, which can be very disruptive for a lot of electronics
on Earth. Many of the essential services for life today, from
telecommunications, to navigation systems, to weather forecasts,
are affected by the activity of the Sun.
Of course, we should spend time and money saving our planet.
But spending on renewable energies already dwarfs spending
on space exploration. Space technology leads to progress in
many other fields. Power generation and storage systems in
space need to be very light, efficient and long-lasting. Many
technological developments for space are very useful on Earth
and vice versa. To stop space exploration would mean missing a
piece of the overall advancement of science and technology
. We 
have lots of examples from space programmes of increasing our
knowledge – and of people deciding to research scientific side
subjects. It’s always a good thing to inspire people.
MASSIMILIANO VASILE is professor of space 
systems engineering at the Strathclyde University Space
Institute, Glasgow.