In the 1950s, humanity realized that just looking at the sky would not be enough and turned to space. But space curiosity that seems to have only 60-70 years of historyIn fact, it is as old as the history of mankind.
Space studies, which today require billions of dollars in investment for each mission,Why spend money on space when humanity has a problem on Earth?‘ is understandable, but it is criticized with some questions that have many answers. So really, why does humanity keep spending money on space if they can solve world problems?
Imagine looking at the sky 30 thousand years ago on a night when the only light was the stars…

It’s not hard to imagine that such a moment would be enchanting. If only we could look at the sky on a clear moonless night with no artificial light source Who knows what we would see. So did our ancestors. They looked at the sky for long nights. They tried to understand what they saw.
Even some studies Some cave murals date between 33 thousand and 10 thousand years He says there are representative drawings of the position of the stars. Some structures that still remain ‘mysterious’, such as Stonehenge, are also said to be closely linked to the position of the stars, beliefs and social life.
In fact, humanity Ever since he looked up and saw the sky, he tried to understand what had happened there. The answers he received to the questions revealed results that would define his life. From agriculture to belief systems Many things that profoundly affect human life are directly influenced by our knowledge of space.
Times have changed, we have started looking at the sky with telescopes, not with our eyes.

During this unimaginable time we have looked at the stars and planets and done a lot. the planet we live on and some ‘laws’ that sound simple these days We understood, we began to understand what we saw.
After tens of thousands of years, telescopes were first used about 400 years ago. We began to observe the space with more than our eyes. Then another several hundred years passed, and at last, In the 1950s, we decided to send vehicles and even people and animals into space.
Then the first humans to set foot on the moon, astronauts researching a station in space, spacecraft viewing distant planets ‘with our eyes’…
Well, what does our main question have to do with this story?

like humanity we often talk about how special we are. We are smart. We have the information. We are smart. We are skilled. There’s nothing we can’t do. If we think about what gives us this ‘trait’, we see that this is the point reached with endless curiosity, questions asked and answers received.
In other words, this is the most general and first answer to the question. It was the steps we took to learn more each time that brought our species where it is. This will not change in 2022, 2050 or 2378. Because there will always be something that people don’t know or discover. The desire to understand and explore them will always remain our main reason. But there are also other answers to this question.
NASA’s return to the moon after decades will cost $93 billion. What does it mean?

NASA will conduct a manned lunar mission for the first time in years with the Artemis mission. Astronauts sent to the moon with this mission, unlike in the past, Establishing permanent bases on the moon It will pioneer some tasks such as:
The main motivation for establishing permanent bases on the moon is to get to know our satellite better and to to create a ‘transition step’ to Mars, our main route.
The bases planned to land on the moon will humanize humanity. It will prepare you for many Mars mission challenges.. That is why Artemis’ mission is most important. To do some final research and preparation before we move our species to Mars…
Here is NASA’s budget for this purpose By 2025, it will reach $93 billion. has been expressed. Almost 15 years of versatile studies This is the total budget that is spent on the whole.
Now back to our question. Let’s look at some of the answers to why it’s important to send a man to the moon, and it’s okay to spend that much money, through some common rhetoric.
“There are undiscovered species in the world, vast oceans full of mysteries. Why are we trying to go to space instead of exploring them first?”

This is one of the biggest criticisms of humanity’s space studies. Unfortunately, this criticism is not consistent. Scientists specializing in different fields are already They research everything you can think of.. A group of astrophysicists and engineers are working on space, marine biologists study the oceans, and geologists try to understand the structure of our planet.
Space studies don’t just exist. Sharing information between branches makes research meaningful and enables us to achieve results. Science is not a limited field that focuses on a single subject. Humanity, planets and universe; To understand its existence, we need to research every area.
Studies conducted in areas other than space exploration because it didn’t get much attention from the public. usually run quieter…
“Space emissions do not directly benefit humanity. Let’s solve people’s problems on Earth instead of exploring Mars.

One of the biggest criticisms in this regard is space missions. does not directly benefit people going direction. Actually, this is a big mistake. Because the main motivation of mankind, for example, is that they want to go to Mars so badly. a rather primitive urge to ‘survive’.
Because we know that this planet cannot be our home forever. To create new options for the future of our species, explore what we can do on the closest planet to inhabitWe can say that it is the most direct benefit possible for human life.
By the way, as we mentioned above; all knowledge that can be obtained in space how it will affect different disciplines; We don’t know what kind of data it will provide for scientists investigating an entirely different situation or problem. Precisely for this reason, while the steps taken in each field of science may seem independent and not directly beneficial, they are in fact intertwined and very valuable.
For example, space exploration can teach us a lot about solving the world’s energy and resource problem. Traces of vitality we would find on another planetcan give us very important information about our own evolution and the formation of life. Or the engineering studies done for space vehicles could be used to solve an entirely different problem for humanity.
“Millions of starving people could be fed with money to go to the moon or Mars”

Another invalid argument is the claim that the space research budget can end hunger instead of going to those studies.
Before explaining in more detail why it is invalid to the annual budgets of space agencies of different countries. let’s see;
- US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): 24 billion dollars
- European Space Agency (ESA): 6.49 billion euros
- Russian space agency Roscosmos: annual average 2 billion dollars
- German space agency DLR: total in 2019 1 billion 155 million euros (Germany is also responsible for 21.3 percent of ESA’s funding)
- British Space Agency (UKSA): 569 million pounds (The UK also contributes over 9 percent of ESA’s total funding)
- Japanese Space Agency (JAXA): 500 million dollars
- China: estimated $8 billion
- India: approx. 2 billion dollars
- Turkish space agency: about $3.5 million

In addition, to take an example from the US, since this is the country that spends the most money in this regard, the annual budget that NASA receives for space exploration, A very small part of the total US budget, such as 0.48-0.50. In other words, while it may seem like a huge amount, it’s very interesting to question the fact that even the entire US doesn’t spend 1% of its annual budget on such research.
On the other hand, if you have to look to the US for a little comparison By 2021, spending on “national defense” alone will be $725 billion, $709 million. Most of this money go to weapons I don’t think it would be a miscalculation to say that… in the same year $105 billion was allocated for veterans, $96.4 billion for health services, and $66.6 billion for education in the US.
It’s funny to say the least that space exploration budgets are coveted, with states spending the most on weapons and people the most on clothing.

There are people in the world who cannot find water to drink and bread to eat. help these people striving to make life more equal and fair for them Of course it is our duty. However, by doing so it will help us to understand both our species and the infinite universe in which we live, our existence; The idea that people who live 500 years from now might have to find a new home and do less research is really funny.
affected by consumerism; as people who are constantly adding more products to their cart Before we set our sights on rockets to help people who are dying of hunger and thirst, we may need to rethink our own way of life.
Likewise, the human mind, which constantly fuels the war and never ends, before trying to prevent the rockets from going into space, when he tries to stop the missiles he throws at other peoplemaybe then we can reach our goal…