In 1970 Sister Mary was surrounded by immense poverty in Africa
she saw children dying of hunger white people were celebrating the moon landing
so she wrote a letter to NASA asking how they could justify billions of dollars
on space when so many children were starving on earth her letter found its
way to the desk of a top rocket scientist and his response inspired this
video sister Mary's perspective has come up time and time again and it's totally
understandable around the world there is no shortage of
human suffering poverty disease violence hurricanes wildfires with all the
suffering in the world should public money still be invested in NASA NASA's
budget is currently nineteen point five billion and a 2011 survey found
increased amounts of Americans don't think this is a good investment however
the same survey show that the majority of Americans believe it is essential for
the u.s. to be a world leader in space exploration while nineteen point five
billion dollars is a huge figure as a percentage of the federal budget it is
the lowest proportion allocated for NASA in almost 60 years in fact for every one
dollar of federal spending NASA receives just four tenths of one penny zero point
four percent of the budget for comparison military spending accounts
for 16% and interest payments on debt accounts for 6% what value does NASA
provide for their four tenths of a penny
the challenges of space exploration require innovation and new technology
many of these hard-won innovations spin off into technologies that solve
problems here on earth consider world hunger it's essentially a problem of
food production and the food distribution in some parts of the world
Farms are highly efficient using large scale operations driven by technology
but in many areas farms are relatively inefficient farms in the developing
world could be used better if farmers had more effective methods of water
control fertilizer use weather forecasting fertility assessment
plantation programming field selection crop surveying and so on the best tool
to provide all of this information are satellites they can observe and measure
many variables such as crop conditioners soil droughts rainfall and so on by
making this information freely available to farmers the harvests of food can be
increased by giant proportions NASA's amsr-e satellite provides this
information free of charge it catches the global soil moisture and creates
heat maps to show moisture levels it is the most accurate way to estimate soil
moisture the main determinant of crop yield which improves a forecast of how
well food will grow the u.s. department of agriculture combines this information
with weather tracks to help empower regional and national officials to
prepare and prevent food crisis innovation for NASA has also led to an
array of spin-off technologies that you use in the last week have used memory
foam or baby formula have you drunk an electrolyte sports drink does your home
user smoke detecter have you ever flown on a plane that didn't ice up and crash
what about taking a photograph on your phone the innovation behind all of this
technology was driven by NASA the insulation in your home that keeps you cool
in summer and warm in winter was developed by NASA the heat and flame
resistant clothing that firefighters use was also developed by NASA WB HRZS a
powerful coater with a terrible name was also developed by NASA it chemically
bonds with steel to protect it from corrosion and it's used in everything to
coat bridge girders pipelines oil rigs military tanks dock
equipment boys water facilities power stations antennas tractor frames and
marine* products just to name a few it was even used on the Statue of
Liberty during refurbishment and they spin-off examples don't even scratch the
surface NASA has recorded over 1700 different technology spin-offs studies
estimate that for every $1 invested in NASA the economy is boosted by seven to
$14 that means that when NASA's current budget of nineteen point five billion
dollars the US economy can expect an injection anywhere from 137 to 273
billion dollars that's much stronger than the average of return from shares or
bonds or real estate this is the first view with human eyes of Earth rising
over the limb of the Moon it was taken from Apollo 8 in 1968 it shows just how
limited that our earth is how we are just a precious island in an unlimited void
the value provided by NASA is not limited to inventions or financial
return NASA's work crosses borders and improves international relationships the
International Space Station is a great example of this the Space Station is a
joint project from the american-canadian European Japanese and Russian space
agencies at a hundred and fifty billion dollars and is the most expensive single
item ever constructed and has been continually occupied for over 17 years
it serves as a microgravity and space environment research lab with crew
members conducting experiments in biology physics astronomy meteorology
and other fields men and women from 18 different countries have visited the
station international cooperation in space is not limited to the
international space station why the Russian American relationship has been
tense following the Trump election these tension does not extend to the space
agencies in September 2017 Russia and the United States agreed to cooperate on
a NASA led program to build the first lunar space station part of a long-term
plan to send humans to Mars
the challenges of space are simply too big for a single country to continuously
push on alone space exploration breaks down borders it
doesn't care about age or race or gender or color by pushing further into space
we build unity and strength here on earth which in turn helps to challenge
the greed misunderstanding and selfish ambition that is behind so many of our
challenges we wish that every human being could see with their eyes not just
pictures but with their own eyes what the earth looked like from space and I
think it would I personally think it would change us as a species it would
change us and make us all realize that Earth is really a spaceship and we're
living on a spaceship with just a thin shell that keeps us safe from from the
vacuum and darkness of space whilst unity and improved international
relations can go a long way to reducing inequality and other global issues it
doesn't guarantee our survival as a species while Earth is the only home we
have ever known history teaches us that survival on a
single dot of dirt and water in the large vacuum of space is perilous just
ask the dinosaurs
colonizing other planets avoid see beware of all your eggs in one basket
and drastically increases our chances of survival as a species the more planets
we occupy the less likely a single event could wipe out all of us Mars is the
ideal planet for us has a similar length of days as earth and has water ice on
the surface building upon the shoulders of NASA's work there private groups such
as Mars 1 and SpaceX aiming to establish human settlements of Mars perhaps is
reasonable to suggest that these private groups should take control of space
exploration with their own funds rather than NASA using the federal budget
the problem with privatizing this sector is that these companies by their very
nature are focused on what will provide the highest return this includes
activities such as asteroid mining satellite launching and space tourism
interesting activities to be sure but focused on profit on the other hand NASA
has projects like the dart wish' dart is a planetary defense mission which aims
to deliberately crash a spacecraft moving at almost 4 miles per second into
an asteroid to change its direction essentially the Armageddon movie without
the drilling team NASA has dedicated resources to track asteroids and develop
approaches to stop Armageddon level impacts this is something that no
private company focuses on beyond these very pragmatic reasons there's another
purpose to continue to invest in NASA to inspire dreamers Jim Adams a retired
NASA executive said humans are constantly asking what's beyond the
horizon our imagination takes us there if we begin to imagine this it will
happen it is written into our DNA to ask what is next of space travel Elon Musk
says it is important to have a future that is inspiring and appealing it has
to be a reason you get up in the morning want to leave what do you love about the
future if the future doesn't include being out there amongst the Stars and
becoming a multi-planet species I find that incredibly depressing mark rober a
former NASA engineer and now a major youtuber said we sent men to the moon
orbiters to Saturn and Rovers to Mars not necessarily because there's some
financial incentive or some quick payoff that we are looking to exploit but
because as humans there are fundamental burning questions were yearned to answer
exploring the unknown and breaking boundaries that we once thought were
impossible drives innovation and flames the fire of curiosity inside all of us
so for less than half a penny on the dollar NASA provides strong financial
return with spin-off technologies that making your life better they develop
innovations they improve the quality of life for millions of people around the
world they help to break down international borders and build unity
they develop programs that could save our entire species from excision and
they inspire wonder inside of us just imagine what they could do with a
whole penny when sister Mary got the response to a letter she wrote back to
NASA saying thank you from now on I firmly believe in the profound value of
the space program what do you think is NASA worth it should their budget change
do you agree with the points I've raised let me know your thoughts below this has
been Alex from lifelong learners embrace curiosity