There are valid arguments that going to the Moon and beyond, like to Mars or the Asteroid Belt, will cost a lot of money and set human lives at risk while robotic probes, especially with AI, could do the same research much better. I agree with but I think we shall do these manned missions anyway. Here is why.
Back to topHaving a look at the military budget of the USA of 916 billion USD in 2023 compared to the approximate 10 billion USD another manned Moon landing would cost, I need to say, money is not an argument. There are, let’s say, 800 billion per year while there are not 10 billion within several years. Sorry, no, I do not accept this. Fighting hunger in this world, fighting diseases like cancer, fighting our natural death, all this could be still enforced dramatically with these 800 billion budgets per year while manned Moon landing, building a base up there, would still be possible. I do not accept we do not engage in living together peacefully instead of spending our financial and economic effort on weapons and military to such an extent and then say manned spaceflight is too expensive, helping others in the hunger and starvation, still having people die because of terrible diseases and so on is therefore not possible.
Back to topAnother argument is sending humans to another celestial bodies risks their lives. That’s for sure true but nobody is forced to fly into space. People do other things on Earth as well with the risk of their lives, like car racing. What’s the use in going like 300 km/h without the need to travel from A to B in a minimum of time? A malfunction of the car, a failure of the driver and lives can come to a sudden end. These people do things like car racing because it is fascinating to them to feel a kind of thrill and fun in going fast and I think there is nothing bad in it if they do not peril the health and life of others with it. We are humans, we have not only rational strictly mathematical motivation, but we also have feelings, emotions, our likes and dislikes and we all need our individual fulfillment to be happy. From 1969 to 1972 it was proven that a journey to the Moon and back can be survived, one was a close call, but it was proven 9 times successfully. So why should car racing be okay but manned spaceflight be declared life threatening when it is the dream of those who want to become astronauts? – I see not any reason not to send humans into space to other celestial bodies just because they could die. Let me quite one of them, one who died for mankind’s dream to go the Moon. Gus Grissom, who died in the plug out test (so not in flight, it was ground test) of Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967, said after his Gemini 3 mission: “If we die, we want people to accept it. We're in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program.“ So, who are we to keep those people from realizing their dreams?
There is no short term return of investment (ROI) which would make business economists happy, right. But the computer technology that those economy guys sell today started with the Moon landing program of NASA, when the technics for the missions had to be developed first. In all honesty: I do not really like these short thinking of economists. If we let them be in charge everywhere we would never have any chance of stopping the climate change with its humans caused global warming. There is much more than money. Money, guys, is just an auxiliary quantity to make the value of things comparable. It has no physical, no psychological, not any natural relevance. I ask you to forget this never ever.
Back to topBut there was another priceless moment which lasts a bit up to today. It’s been a while but a young girl, barely in her 20s, once asked me: “Have we been on the Moon?” She asked “we”, not if the USA was on the Moon. She asked me this “we”-question with her being British and I being German. This “we” expressed a feeling of being one humanity, not separated by races, not separated by countries. By going far out to the Moon we found our feeling of togetherness and in consequence this can stop wars and lead to better help for those who are starving before they die. Spending effort and energy on science, for following our nature of curiosity is not a waste of anything, no, it also causes us to understand each other better and therewith living more peacefully together.
Why do you go on journeys in your holidays? You find fulfillment for yourself in there though your journey has not any economic use. But this fulfillment makes you go on, doing the next things to be done, keeps you moving. No AI, no robot you send can achieve this for you though it could film, photograph all the beauty where you want to go even better. Your story of your holidays will always mean more to me than just some pictures a robot took because you can transport the heart and soul of what this journey meant to you while for an AI it means nothing.
The positive impact on our togetherness of human spaceflight, going to other celestial bodies cannot be replaced by any robotic probes. We need to go on our own to feel it because we are curious. Nothing can replace this for us because we are curious humans.
"As I stand out here in the wonders of the unknown at Hadley, I sort of realize there's a fundamental truth to our nature: Man must explore. And this is exploration at its greatest."
David Scott, CDR Apollo 15 at start of EVA-1 on July 31, 1971