This deserves a little more than the Facebook post I gave it a few days ago. I have heard
so many people complaining (not just now, but over the years) about the expense of space programs -- about how we should use that money for problems on Earth. Recently, lots of people were bent out of shape about the landing on Mars -- of the new rover,
Curiosity.
What cracks me up is that I never heard
one complaint about the expense of the Olympics: 14 Billion dollars; as compared to the 2.5 billion it cost to build an exploration vehicle to send to Mars.
In lots of places on the web, you can find lists of things, from kitchenware to aviation safety, that have benefited from the technology that NASA has developed for space travel -- I won't spend time looking stuff up. But there is a lot, believe me. (I'm sure the computer I'm working on wouldn't be quite what it is if scientists hadn't had to develop computer technology for space...)
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| Apollo 11 crew at work. |
As you might expect, it's the human nature piece here that interests me. It made an impression that the Olympics were going on when
Curiosity landed and the complaints started flowing, but none of them about the exorbitant amount spent on the Olympics. We tend to miss the obvious stuff, don't we?