UNIT 10: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
My name‿ is Laura. I teach physics,│ an(d) my students‿ invariably advance the same‿ objection:│ why expen(d) billions‿ upon space│ while hospitals remain‿ underfunded?
The objection deserves‿ a betterbe-der‿ answer than‿ it customarily receives. Meteorological,│ navigational‿ an(d) communications satellites cost‿ a fraction‿ of‿ a crewed mission‿ and‿ are‿ employed daily by every person‿ in the room,│ an(d) spin-off technology from space programmes‿ is‿ embedded‿ in hospitals,│ in materials‿ and‿ in the instrumen(t) that measured my hear(t) rate this morning. That‿ is not‿ an‿ argumen(t) for‿ unlimited‿ expenditure,│ however;│ it‿ is‿ an‿ argumen(t) for distinguishing between‿ a probe‿ and‿ a vanity mission,│ a distinction politicians rarely draw│ because the latter photographs betterbe-der.
Commercialisation has‿ altered the arithmetic,│ private companies now carrying cargo an(d) having reduced the cos(t) per kilogram considerably. Whether people will‿ inhabit‿ another habitable world‿ is‿ a separate question,│ and‿ I am less‿ optimistic than my students,│ partly because the rhetoric‿ of colonisation has‿ advanced far beyon(d) the engineering. Were‿ a governmen(t) to seek my counsel,│ I should fun(d) research‿ an(d) robotic missions,│ protec(t) the orbital‿ infrastructure‿ upon│ which‿ everybody now depends,│ an(d) concede candidly that human settlement‿ elsewhere‿ is‿ a prospec(t) nobody is presently in‿ a position to deliver. Enthusiasm‿ is not the same‿ as‿ a plan,│ however conceivable the destination.