I think it is tempting to say yes, but there are alot of problems on earth at the moment. Shouldn’t we make sure we can handle a single planet responsibly before we go about travelling across the galaxy. I think that poverty, corruption in political systems, inequality and the energy crisis are all bigger problems and should receive more attention 🙂
I would like to see more time and money put into space travel and exploring our galaxy, as long as this doesn’t come at the expense of more pressing problems on Earth. If this space exploration work is mainly for the purpose of colonising space, I agree with George that we need to solve problems on Earth before ditching our planet!
Space exploration could also be for the sake of curiosity, just having a look to see what’s out there. This sort of “curiosity-driven research” is important for many reasons. Firstly, I think most people would be interested if we found some alien life whilst travelling across space! Secondly, in trying to do things that have never been done before, new technologies have to be invented. These technologies then make their way into wider use for the rest of humanity. So curiosity-driven research can be seen as investing in technologies of the future!
I definitely think space exploration should continue as it’s given us so many benefits and knowledge thus far. However, there’s still things we don’t know about our own sea floors so I think there needs to be a balance between doing the amazing cool science and the practical science that’s maybe less exciting, but has more imminent impact for improving our globe. I’d say a focus on environmental and CO2 reduction research, as well as clean energies and plastics disposal is a higher priority
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