In your opinion, is space exploration necessary?
2026-04-10 13:06 UTC
Replies (40)
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@woodenghost@hexbear.net 2026-04-10 20:27
Space exploration is not the only thing that generates spin off effects. It’s not the only interesting science. Directly funding research into solving real problems actually works. So yes, I think it should be funded, but at this point, unmanned missions are a much better way to spend the resources: for the same money you get more science, more spin off, more everything. Just less spectacle. Space will not be profitable, or habitable in this century and that’s fine. Ultimately, space exploration is outside the realm of production and will stay there at least for a long time. Therefore, what we spend on it is part of our societal surplus: the value we collectively create, that is left over after reproducing society. What happens to that value should be decided democratically. But in capitalism, it isn’t. Corporations control almost all the surplus and spend it on what’s profitable for them. All of space funding in the US is just crumbs falling off the table of the military industrial complex mixed with the potential for propaganda. For example, all those year, when Hubble was the best telescope, the imperial oppression apparatus had multiple of Hubble sized telescopes where potential was wasted on intelligence gathering for wars. Then they got even better ones and offered a few of the left overs to NASA, but NASA couldn’t even afford to make use of several free Hubble sized telescopes.
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@Ougie@lemmy.world 2026-04-12 01:09
The military industry is unnecessary, not space exploration. If saving money is the goal, look elsewhere first. There’s so much unnecessary spending and hoarding of wealth for and by dumb shits respectively.
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@dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de 2026-04-10 13:30
Necessary? No. Not much except eating, drinking and breathing is. Even reproduction is optional from the view of a single individual. A good idea? Absolutely: 1. Exploring space tells us a lot about earth. We currently assume that the moon formed when something big collided with earth and threw lots of material into a stable orbit. This means moon is probably made of the same materials as earth and because there is no erosion nor tectonic activity on the moon, it lets us study what earth may have looked like billions of years ago. 2. Lots and lots of things that were originally developed for space are very useful on earth: teflon coating, memory foam matresses, efficient solar panels and many more. Sure, they could have been developed without space exploration but the pressure to get something *exactly* right helped a lot. And of course we directly use satellites for a lot of earth stuff, too. Think tv, weather prediction, monitoring of climate change, communication, GPS, accurate maps and many more. 3. It gives humanity something to unite behind. Even during the cold war, the USA and the Soviet Union ignored their feud for a bit to make [Apollo-Soyuz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo%E2%80%93Soyuz) happen. These days, the ISS is one of the biggest multinational projects and I dread the day it gets decommissioned because Russia will have one less reason to talk to the rest of the world.
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@disorderly@lemmy.world 2026-04-10 13:13
Space exploration is weight lifting for science.
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@happybadger@hexbear.net 2026-04-10 13:33
There's a special kind of nerd that I call Puzzle Demons. They have big brains and they get satisfaction from solving puzzles without thinking about them. It doesn't matter what the puzzle is so long as it's a challenge to solve. They'll look back on their work with satisfaction because they solved the puzzle, regardless of what that work is. Puzzle Demons in the 1940s built V-2 rockets. We gave them space travel and the puzzle became making the rocket leave the atmosphere instead of hitting cities. That space travel made helpful consumer technologies to survive in extreme environments, things that were otherwise too expensive for commercial R&D. Then we killed NASA in the 1980s. The Puzzle Demons had no socially positive puzzle. They built the tech industry instead. I dated a Puzzle Demon whose fun little puzzle to solve every day was designing the UI for smart locks that go on the bunkers of the wealthy. She was thrilled to make locking herself out of the bunker more user-friendly. There are Puzzle Demons at the social media websites whose entire job is making them more addictive for children. Puzzle Demons gave us crypto, guided missiles, murder robots, AI slop, and corporate efficiency consulting. We need space exploration to pacify the Puzzle Demons. Without it, the population is still encouraged to go into STEM but most of the STEM jobs are profoundly evil. You stick them in a NASA office and they're just building useful things. Otherwise the prestige jobs are with defense contractors, tech companies, and multinationals.
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@PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 2026-04-11 07:04
Yes, but capitalists should not do it. And actually space exploration on today's scale cost literal pennies compared to military or shareholders loot.
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@Vupware@lemmy.zip 2026-04-10 18:11
Absolutely and unequivocally yes. Nothing should constrain the boundaries of scientific study in space, especially now that our years are numbered due to climate change and dumbass fascists and dictators with launch codes. _Whities on the moon_, while a noble and valuable sentiment, should be altered to _whities on patrol_ or something. I’m so sick and tired of seeing Americans bitch about space exploration colonialism and remain silent on the colonialism that continues to kill and exploit Innocent people across the world. Yes, we need better social infrastructure desperately, but that should come at the cost of terrestrial imperialism, not space exploration.
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@diablexical@sh.itjust.works 2026-04-11 03:39
Yes. For those who consider it wasteful spending, consider that a lot of problems are not fixable by just throwing more money at them. There’s a saying that “9 women can’t make a baby in one month” even though 1 woman can in 9. Many ills of society are as much about political/social motivation, entrenched opponents/regulatory capture, NIMBYism, etc and not problems that you can fix just by spending more. There’s also the concept of a “marginal dollar” - spending one more dollar in an important area that already has a lot of money (and has problems that aren’t really addressed by just having more money) may not be as impactful as a less important area where that dollar would go a lot further.
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@Tinks@lemmy.world 2026-04-10 13:42
I am of the opinion that space exploration and settlement is the single most important thing humanity should be doing. Currently humanity exists only on this planet, which through the course of its existence has had numerous mass extinction events. It is hubris to believe that we will never be affected by one. Right now all of humanity's eggs are in this single basket, and if that basket gets kicked over, humanity could cease to exist. Now I will grant you that there are lots of things down here on earth that we should be spending money on to better the lives of humans generally, but these things are not mutually exclusive. Right now we're spending orders of magnitude more money and resources waging war on one another than space exploration. In the US in 2025, the US military budget was around $920b, whereas NASA's was $25b. The military budget was 36 times higher than the space budget. It's not even close. Space is not where dollars are being wasted. Studies have also shown that [NASA's impact is a net positive on the economy](https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/new-report-shows-nasas-75-6-billion-boost-to-us-economy/), consistently generating more economic impact than is put into it. It creates well paying jobs that employees find fulfilling and satisfying, generates public interest in the sciences, and benefits society as a whole as new technologies are developed that we all get to enjoy. I would argue that what we NEED to do is stop needlessly murdering each other over religious and social disagreements, and spend our resources on feeding, clothing and taking care of one another such that we all have the time, security and ability to watch humans go out into space with wonder in our hearts.
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@Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2026-04-11 17:52
The word necessary has a lot of wiggle room here. What are necessities? Going by the bare minimum: * food * water * protection from the elements * protection from illness/infection * continuation of the species That's about everything we truly 'need' to die of old age and not go extinct. Nearly everything people currently do is a subset of those needs. Space exploration can be marked under both protection from the elements and continuation of the species.
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@voxthefox@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2026-04-10 13:37
Setting aside all the intangible benefits such as answering why we are here and providing inspiration to generations there are tons of short and long term benefits. In the short/medium term, research is so much about solving problems and your solutions having unexpected applications in other areas. A lot of our minituarization in tech happened because we needed things smaller and lighter to lift into space, think things like your smart phone camera or laptops. Also things like cordless tools and even memory foam were originally developed for their application in space travel. In the long term, let's take a look back, what if we had the same stance when we looked at the ocean, and thought why its even necessary to figure out how to navigate the waters. For our species to propagate or even survive, we need to expand. Right now we are one decently sized asteroid from extinction, but if one day we figured out how to expand to multiple worlds, then we become a heck of a lot of more resilient.
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@Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 2026-04-10 19:14
Yes.
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@industrialholiday@lemmy.zip 2026-04-10 21:43
Well… short term no it’s not **necessary** (although as other folks have said on the thread it does give some technology advancements, and gives humanity a warm fuzzy sense of achievement) Long term, it depends on the eval criteria 1. If we want the human race to live as long as possible, then I would say yes - to diversify, distribute and minimise the risk of planetary (Earth) failure 2. If we don’t give a toss about the human race then no, the Universe will be just fine without us
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@FireWire400@lemmy.world 2026-04-10 20:33
Yes, but I think the efforts right now should go into solving the climate crisis rather than going to the moon.
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@Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2026-04-10 13:23
We had problems on earth before space exploration, and we’ll have problems on earth after space exploration. And if we colonize other planets we’ll have problems there. Because every time humans solve a problem they create more, bigger, harder to solve problems. Space exploration doesn’t affect this.
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@nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de 2026-04-10 15:40
Yes. Because I want an alien girlfriend.
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@pjwestin@lemmy.world 2026-04-11 12:25
Yes. Even if you don't think the goals of space exploration are important, we've made huge developments in medicine, engineering, solar panels, telecommunications, and road safety based on NASA technology. You're probably reading this on a phone that wouldn't exist with space exploration research. Scientific research is never a linear set of goals or inventions, and the ancillary benefits of our pursuit of space have already changed the world.
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@Robotunicorn@lemmy.world 2026-04-10 22:00
How else will we be able to someday mass travel through space to find another planet once we inevitably kill this one?
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@AnotherUsername@lemmy.ml 2026-04-10 17:37
From a risk assessment standpoint, space exploration is a VERY good investment. We need to be on multiple planets, preferably in multiple solar systems or even multiple galaxies. BUT. It absolutely must be paired with NOT destroying the planet we have! This is the only planet we've got *right now* and the only one we've got a guarantee on habitability - if we don't fuck it up. So yes, space is vital. But so it protecting this place.
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@TheAsianDonKnots@lemmy.zip 2026-04-10 13:51
There have been over 1800 “spin-off” technologies that came from the world’s various space agencies. Some of those inventions are life saving and there’s people alive today thanks to the pioneering spirit of man and the funding of countries. I don’t see the benefit of stopping now.
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@GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 2026-04-11 14:17
One day, we're going to outgrow ourselves. One day, we're going to set aside our stupid petty squabbles, and we're going to hope for something more. I want to see us reach the stars, because I think one day we'll be able to handle what the galaxy throws at us.
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@king_comrade@lemmy.world 2026-04-11 09:16
Few things are more important than Exploration. In all avenues exploration leads to discovery which leads to growth. What else should we be working on? Cos atm the western world (which I inhabit) focuses most human effort on making 'line go up' and it feels entirely wasted and pointless.
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@HubertManne@piefed.social 2026-04-10 14:58
Yes but we need to treat the earth as the only habitable place we will ever have and run sustainably. We need to be using less than one earth year of renewable resources each year and use a minimum number of non renewable. I don't think we should be sending people into space all that much. We should as much as possible seek to learn how to mine, process, and produce in space. Its certainly something we cannot do now but if we are ever to make any real progess it will have to be something we figure out. Its also likely the best direction for the resources we put to space as far as return. By that I mean the same way much of our technology was spurred by the space race due to the challenge of getting out into it and to the moon. I feel learning to mine and automate in space will have the greatest returns in technological advancement for us. I think ideally any time we send people to space whe have a destination built already for them to go to. So send rovers and such to the moon and try to excavate and build a dome or such and install equipment. I mean if we could figure out a way to automate making rocket fuel in space and could make fuel depots that would be huge. I also want to experiment with things on the moon. Like I think we should make a moon space elevator. Not because its a very necessary thing for the moon but to figure out the tech. maybe later we try to make one on mars. if we made them on a variety of space objects we might get sure enough to do one on earth.
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@dukeofdummies@lemmy.world 2026-04-11 05:21
I think so. How high the priority should be is a debate worth having, but space has *many* ways to wipe out a planet. Having two planets, having a permanent space station, could go a long way to increasing survivability. Not only that, building in a vacuum, building in zero G, even building things under great pressure, all can allow us to build new materials with brand new properties. Also, being able to sustain a small group of people somewhere completely contained an inhospitable can be utilized on earth to feed people at home, or recycle water at home.
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@TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2026-04-10 14:25
It's good to keep in mind that the cost of space exploration vastly pales in comparison to most social programs which also vastly pale in comparison to the military budget. We should absolutely focus on helping people on Earth, but we don't need to cut space exploration to do that, just war.
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@Sunrosa@lemmy.world 2026-04-11 05:19
One important feature is the psychological unification. Space becomes a "common enemy" to humanity. And humans work well under a common enemy.
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@ChaddingtonDuck@beehaw.org 2026-04-10 16:30
We have plenty of problems on the surface as it is! Why should we go underground? The surface has enough resources to sustain us right now. We don't even need mining, if we pick up enough surface rocks.
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@Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 2026-04-10 16:55
We came from the stars, we should learn about our origins.
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@TheKracken@lemmy.world 2026-04-11 14:30
Yes
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@Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 2026-04-10 18:31
Yes, absolutely, science in general is necessary for any kind of desirable civilization. Space exploration contributes a massive amount of knowledge to scientific research and betters the human race. But it shouldn't be a playground for billionaires to plan space hotels for ultra-wealthy clientele. Public works for the public good, for the betterment of our human race as a whole, not just for the super rich.
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@DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 2026-04-10 13:13
"Necessary", no. We're all fine here on Earth, where we evolved, and all that. We've gotten along just fine without leaving the planet. Desirable? Yes. But, I think we should do it with robots, because humans are too expensive due to being so fragile. Also, what should we do with what we find? Exploiting the resources of the Moon and Mars should not be allowed. Setting up human colonies there seems extravagant at this time.
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@polle@feddit.org 2026-04-11 11:47
I thought this was about factorio. :(
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@m532@lemmygrad.ml 2026-04-10 19:45
Space tech can be dual use, as military tech to destroy usa. This way we can explore space, and solve the problem at home as well.
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@whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-04-10 18:10
Many people find hope in exploration, discovery, and pushing physical frontiers. These were necessarily parts of human history that shaped our intuitions and desires and I think without new frontiers people get cynical or bored that can lead to some awful behaviors and outcomes. It's the same with scientific research it doesn't need to take the majority of the public funds but there is a minimum especially for some planetary scale science efforts. We have so many problems to fix isn't a good reason not to explore and inspire, I'm sure there were ancient people who thought investing in roads was a waste of public funds why do we need to connect to other cities or lands if we have problems already, but some of those problems were resolved with trade or treaties or pluralistic cultures the roads allowed.
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@orenj@leminal.space 2026-04-11 03:40
Strictly, no. The human spirit yearns for it though, and I think it shoukd be given a treat from time to time.
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@LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 2026-04-10 13:20
Yes
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@bunkyprewster@startrek.website 2026-04-10 13:58
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=E6c4IjUO0HY
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@RobotToaster@mander.xyz 2026-04-10 14:17
Humanity has already outgrown the cradle called earth, the longer it takes us to leave it behind the greater the risk that will destroy it and ourselves.
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@Mothra@mander.xyz 2026-04-10 14:57
Nothing is really necessary until you develop it enough to make it so. There is potential there. It could turn into something extremely useful, perhaps even life saving. I don't think we are anywhere close yet, but sometimes you get revolutionary breakthroughs that flip the landscape in a really short time.
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@doodoo_wizard@lemmy.ml 2026-04-10 20:33
The cheapest way to maintain control over the globe via military force is to establish a moon operation that runs at only a slight deficit and hold the specter of lunar regolith asteroid strikes over every person on the planet earth.