I have been continuously following the trail of the Space Shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida to the International Space Station(ISS) and back to its return. It is indeed a stupendous achievement, if you understand the complexities behind such a complex mission. A 470,000 pound machinery stationed in the orbital outpost with crew members from the ESA, Canadian Space Agency, Russian Space Agency and Japan Space Agency conducting research activities to improve the life on earth and space. Truly incredible !!!
But what has the space station done to improve the lives of American people ? What has been the ROI of a $100 billion project ? Just that every time a shuttle is launched, a lot of media attention is given about the complexity of the project, so that the whole world keeps tuned into NASA with awe. I always wondered about the the kind of research happening in the ISS which is otherwise so difficult to carry out on Earth. The answer to it, still remains a mystery to me, even after the advent of high-performance search engines like Google.
Can't the money be used for more useful causes for the benefit of mankind ? Can't it be used to revive children in Somalia ? Can't it be used to shape up the economy of the down-trodden Asian/African countries ? Can't a better world be assembled from that money ? Can't the money be contributed to WHO for eradicating the killer diseases plaguing the world ? Can't we create a better Earth first rather than a better Space ?
Though I am an Indian and not even a paise of mine gets contributed for the ISS, the agony of the American tax payers could be felt every time the rocket zips through the atmosphere. Can the war of ego of who conquers the space be resumed after all the humans in the Earth have the basic ingredients of life ?
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
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2 comments:
The telephone ,Internet , Aero plane ,automobile -each of these development ventures cost a horrendous amount of money and were considered as distasteful waste of money especially when so many people were dying around the world due to poverty. But today we know the returns from these ventures are many orders of magnitude greater than the initial investment and each of these has helped alleviate millions from poverty.
Poverty is due to the exponential growth of man's needs in the face of fixed natural resources.
Science increase the efficiency of utilization of these resources there by reducing poverty.
Hence poverty can only be reduced through scientific spending . the richest countries today are those who spent the highest on R&D in the past 50 years.
True. But at what cost? Many countries in Africa are sinking in poverty. Another 50 years of poverty in Africa would seal that piece of world.
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