Since 1957, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics launched Sputnik, the first human-made object to orbit Earth, governments have been venturing into space to advance scientific knowledge, demonstrate technological prowess, and even assert military superiority.
But there’s also a sense of exploration for its own sake — that it’s important to travel beyond the immediate vicinity of Earth to see what is out there. That’s why there have been recurrent calls to return to the Moon and even to Mars, and to visit other locations in our solar system and beyond.
While many people assume that space exploration is costly, in reality it only accounts for a small fraction of most national budgets. Public opinion research shows that Americans believe NASA takes up as much as a quarter of the U.S. federal budget, when in fact its share is less than 0.5%. Providing accurate information on this matter can help to reassure the public that space exploration is not consuming resources they might be better directed toward solving the world’s real problems.
Space exploration also provides payoffs in the form of new technologies. Many of the tools we use to study our universe are developed by space programs, including satellites for navigation and communications, the radio telescopes used by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the cameras in the Hubble Space Telescope. These tools provide the foundation of modern science and astronomy, and their development is part of what makes it possible for humans to survive in space.