Billions upon billions of dollars/roubles/yen have been spent in the last half century or so to begin the human quest into space. Many would argue that this money could have been used to build better roads, better healthcare…indeed, it could even have been used to help stem the tide of famine, war and disease.
And from a moral standpoint, its hard to argue against these causes. If you were to stand in front of a camp of thousands of refugees in Sudan or any other famine or war-torn country, could you justify spending the money and resources needed for space exploration while people are dying from lack of basic things like food and sanitation?
The ultimate job of the human race is to survive - its our most basic building block, and its what has got us this far. Realistically, the Earth won’t be around forever. Be it a nuclear war, be it an asteroid hit, be it major climate change, our rock in space has a finite lifetime. Even if we managed to keep going for another few million years, our own sun will eventually swallow the planet whole as it expands and dies.
If we choose to simply focus on space, we abandon what it is that makes us human. However, placing all resources into humanitarian efforts is a time game - eventually, time will run out. So striking a balance seems to be the logical thing to do. If we can continue efforts to explore space, developing new technologies and ultimately colonizing other worlds, we have mitigated against extinction. However, by also contributing and helping those who need it in the world, we keep the part of humanity that is least ugly - our ability to be selfless.
Overly simplistic? Of course it is. The amount of resources needed for both are, pardon the pun, astronomical. There is no amount of money in the world that we could spend on either that would be “enough”. We need to look at all the resources that can be used, and allocate for both. This gives us the best shot of surviving as a species, and surviving as a species that deserves to survive.
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