Manned space exploration: good investment, or not?

Great debate via the excellent Freakonomics blog.

While I'm very firmly an advocate of human space flight (I'd say the lame pursuit of human space exploration is one of the biggest failings in my lifetime), I was stunned by how thin the arguments are for human space flight.

The arguments for human space flight basically summed to:

1) it's a good investment, as development of the space program has generated inventions from velcro to GPS, etc.
2) we should do it because we're explorers, or because we need another planet to balance the fact that the Earth as we know it could vanish thru human activity (war, environmental crises) or external threats (asteroids, etc.)
3) it doesn't cost TOO much (with variations on the theme of "it's a tiny amount when compared to.....")

These aren't exactly overwhelming arguments.

Personally, I think the quest for Helium-3 energy is a compelling argument for human space exploration (or microwave-transmitted solar power). Beyond that, I can't contribute any other compelling argument either, though I KNOW we should be doing more of it.

The counter-arguments are classic: there's a better use for the $$$ curing social ills here on Earth. I can't argue with that, as there's clearly a need, though the libertarian arguments of "how about we just not have the government spend the money at all," and "if space exploration is so worthwhile, why not let the private sector do it?" have resonance with me.

These, and other arguments are coherently put forth in reader comments, which is something that I also found interesting - I got as much out of my reading of the reader comments as I did out of the editorial. In fact, the reader comments collectively were a stronger counter argument.

Moon mission motivation

Completely under-reported is the renewed and heavy interest by the US, China, Russia, and India in visiting, exploring, and eventually populating the Moon. All 4 of these countries have stated their intention to visit the moon and establish a presence by 2025 or earlier. (Russia says by 2015, the US a base by 2024.)

So why the interest in the Moon, besides nostalgia? As detailed in the link above, the interest is based on the Moon's abundant supply of helium-3, which could power fusion reactors.

(Never mind that today's fusion reactors consume 1000X more energy than they produce, or that the cost of production - when including the expense of the space exploration and transportation might be exorbitant.)

It's great that there's such broad and deep interest in exploring any remotely viable alternative energy source, as the lunar interest is validation that fusion could be such a source.

It would also be great if this generation of lunar efforts also drives interest in space exploration beyond what little we've done. (Mars, anyone?) On this point, it's very sad that neither the US, nor the world has accomplished much of note in space since the last lunar expedition 35 years ago.


Of course, this whole lunar fascination could just be a case of escalating competitive press releases, or better yet, a goofy competition for national pride, which in the past has begotten wacky things like the great jet train race.

Space photography

Space is cool and photography is fun. Most other combinations of two things that you like in life are brutally bad (chocolate + steak, anyone?), but space photography is better than each separately.


Check out the fantastic imagery recorded on the "Top 10 Spacewalks" page, and the "Gateway to Astronaut Photography" page.

One great time waster found on the Astronaut Photography page is the "Weekly Top 10," off of the 'Find Photos' menu, where I found this view of the Pacific, and a view of London at night (top).

Whoa - very cool reading

Moon-mined Helium-3 to provide abundant energy? This is an unheralded goal (purpose?) for a NASA moon base.

Wired magazine often writes about neat-0sounding far-off technology, but 2 quotes from competitors stood out:

From a Russian scientist, a Helium-3-focused US moonbase would "enable the U.S. to establish its control of the global energy market 20 years from now and put the rest of the world on its knees as hydrocarbons run out."


A leading scientist from the Chinese space program said about moon-mined Helium-3: "Whoever first conquers the moon will benefit first."

So this possible energy solution relies on a moonbase and economical fusion, which makes it speculative, at best, but I'm guessing that 20 years from now we'd be very happy to not rely on Oil from the Middle East of Venezuela.

Also cool and worth a visit:

1-Online, streaming versions of Milton Friedman's Free to Choose TV series. I wonder if I can strip this out into a podcast video version.....

2-See where you stack up financially version others in your age group.

3-22 Ways to overclock your brain. Use it, but also take a few specific steps.