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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Uncomfortable about space exploration

29 replies

Spacerace2 · 23/08/2023 19:36

I’ll caveat this thread by saying this isn’t a pop at India but AIBU unreasonable to ask if it is right to spend so much on space exploration when so many on this planet live in abject poverty? Or is it right to try and find another planet whose resources we can exhaust?

OP posts:
Hooferr · 23/08/2023 19:38

I dunno.

Is it right to spend money inventing new biscuits/cars/shoes when people are starving? Because we do all of that too.

SwedishEdith · 23/08/2023 19:38

What if we discover something that can provide cheap fuel or be used for food production that could be feed the world?

TheBarbieEffect · 23/08/2023 19:39

YANBU. They have bigger problems they should be fixing.

Startyabastard · 23/08/2023 19:40

I thought this, OP when I saw the headline.

daffodilandtulip · 23/08/2023 19:45

We watched Ad Astra last night. Films that show people living in space don't seem so far fetched anymore and it's scary.

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr · 23/08/2023 19:53

We can and should have both. It’s not either / or. Governments choose not to fix inequality.

Isitsixoclockalready · 23/08/2023 19:56

Spacerace2 · 23/08/2023 19:36

I’ll caveat this thread by saying this isn’t a pop at India but AIBU unreasonable to ask if it is right to spend so much on space exploration when so many on this planet live in abject poverty? Or is it right to try and find another planet whose resources we can exhaust?

I get the sentiment. We've got no chance of reaching the next star system with current technology, let alone anything further.

SophieJo · 23/08/2023 20:14

The review by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact said the government spent £2.3bn on aid to India between 2016 and 2021, including the provision of loans by the government-run British International Investment to mainly smaller companies. In total, loans to India represent 28% of the BII global loan portfolio.

BMW6 · 23/08/2023 20:19

I often wonder if poverty is actually fixable OP. There are so many factors involved and no way of solving it that I can see.

FixTheBone · 23/08/2023 20:21

Not this again....

You realise they don't shoot all the money into space withthe rocket right?

MrsTerryPratchett · 23/08/2023 20:34

We're all living in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.

Striving is important for the human spirit.

sheworemellowyellow · 23/08/2023 20:36

So, you saw the headlines and thought “India has so much poverty! They should be spending their money on feeding their population rather than reaching the moon!”.

Assuming you’re in the UK (not unreasonable for MN), how is this NOT a pop at India when you live in a country that can’t ensure its poor are fed adequately but there is one single family living in palaces and castles and holding a fortune worth billions, when plentiful ordinary people live in houses worth tens of millions of pounds and other see their children suffer in mould ridden social housing, when waterways are used as sewers and agricultural land is sold to the highest bidder for profit, when access to basic emergency health care and dental care is lottery based, policing of the capital city is rife with racism and sexism that cost people their lives, education standards are slipping ever lower, the country voted to leave the best economic community it had access to, and so forth. People in glass houses and all that.

You do you. Let India do itself. It doesn’t need your commentary.

sheworemellowyellow · 23/08/2023 20:39

SophieJo · 23/08/2023 20:14

The review by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact said the government spent £2.3bn on aid to India between 2016 and 2021, including the provision of loans by the government-run British International Investment to mainly smaller companies. In total, loans to India represent 28% of the BII global loan portfolio.

Here’s an idea. How about the Uk repays in reparations all that it looted and stole from all it colonies over centuries, with interest, and we drop this “aid”? Interested?

FYI at the latest estimate, the UK would owe over $23,000,000,000,000 to West and East Africa alone for lost GDP (not counting lost opportunity).

MrsTerryPratchett · 23/08/2023 20:46

FYI at the latest estimate, the UK would owe over $23,000,000,000,000 to West and East Africa alone for lost GDP (not counting lost opportunity).

And of course the human beings and all their descendants who died and were never born.

That's quite the legacy to face. Better not.

mimbleandlittlemy · 23/08/2023 20:47

OP - worth reading The Future of Geography: How Power and Politics in Space will Change Our World by Tim Marshall.

CalistoNoSolo · 23/08/2023 20:48

MrsTerryPratchett · 23/08/2023 20:34

We're all living in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.

Striving is important for the human spirit.

This.

lljkk · 23/08/2023 20:50

I get enraged about the money wasted, and pollution caused, by (real life) space exploration. That the whole fantasy is seriously entertained about our species colonising other planetary bodies. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

LuciferRising · 23/08/2023 20:51

In general terms, we need innovators and explorers. Think about the 1100s and compare to now. Where we would be if there was no innovation and exploration? It doesn't mean you can't also focus on the other stuff. There are plenty of humans to focus on everything.

TheInterceptor · 23/08/2023 20:51

BMW6 · 23/08/2023 20:19

I often wonder if poverty is actually fixable OP. There are so many factors involved and no way of solving it that I can see.

'The poor will always be with us.'

Original poster
Spacerace2 · 23/08/2023 20:54

Fgs @sheworemellowyellow that is exactly what i am saying and the question I’m asking of all nations involved in space exploration - read the OP

OP posts:
TheInterceptor · 23/08/2023 20:57

As to the OP - technology developed for space exploration trickles down for more earthy uses. Things such as oxygen therapy, metallurgy, heat shields, solar panels etc. have been vastly improved by the money and technological expertise in space travel. Learning how to grow food in less than optimal conditions is priceless.

WhereTheTeapotsJibberJabberJoo · 23/08/2023 21:03

It could create jobs in India though. But I have mixed feelings. There are surely better ways to create jobs for more people.

sheworemellowyellow · 23/08/2023 21:06

Spacerace2 · 23/08/2023 20:54

Fgs @sheworemellowyellow that is exactly what i am saying and the question I’m asking of all nations involved in space exploration - read the OP

Your timing betrays you. Did you post this at the time of Russia’s failed attempt to land last month? Or when China sent three people to the space station? Or indeed ever before?

It’s fine, post whatever you want whenever you want. This is a public forum. In the spirit of a public forum I’ll post that it’s disingenuous to preface your post with “this isn’t a pop at India”. It’s very “some of my best friends are black…”.

SomeFuckingWizardry · 23/08/2023 21:45

TheInterceptor · 23/08/2023 20:57

As to the OP - technology developed for space exploration trickles down for more earthy uses. Things such as oxygen therapy, metallurgy, heat shields, solar panels etc. have been vastly improved by the money and technological expertise in space travel. Learning how to grow food in less than optimal conditions is priceless.

This. Space exploration leads to innovations that can translate to something useful for us - who knows what this could lead to. List of some of the inventions resulting from innovations necessitated by space exploration. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/20-inventions-we-wouldnt-have-without-space-travel

20 Inventions We Wouldn't Have Without Space Travel

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/20-inventions-we-wouldnt-have-without-space-travel