mcgeer%ucbchip%Berkeley@sri-unix.UUCP (07/31/84)
From: Rick McGeer (on an aaa-60-s) <mcgeer%ucbchip@Berkeley> Here are two good reasons: (1) In direct benefits alone (weather forecasting, mineral discoveries, communications), the space program has more than paid for itself (all in, Mercury to the Shuttle, the cost of the program has been about $50 billion. Better weather prediction has been worth conservatively ten times that, just counting better crop yields, less damage from hurricanes, and so forth. Mining discoveries are worth easily $500 billion as well). When spinoff benefits - chips, doppler ultrasound, velcro, all manner of materials, and so forth - are counted, the program has paid off a hundredfold over our investment. (2) Is it merely our lot to trudge this earth between birth and the grave, wondering where our next meal is coming from, keeping our mind and our eyes firmly upon the mud that we tread? Or should we, in these niggling few years that a cruel nature allots us, strive, seek, find and never yield? The space program is man's answer to the ultimate challenge of the universe, and to our highest calling. It seems to me that $25 for each of us is not too large a price to pay to wander among the stars, instead of trudging in the muck. Rick.