The Costs of Human Spaceflight Are High. History Shows the Benefits Are Too

Almost from the time the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) opened its doors for business 60 years ago on Oct. 1, 1958, it has had to be ready to provide an answer to one question: “Why send people into space, given the costs and risks associated with human spaceflight?” In its six decades, NASA launched just over 400 different people, many for more than one mission. Of that number, only 24 journeyed beyond Earth orbit to the Moon and back; three made that trip twice. The rest stayed close to their home planet. Although privately-funded space flights, both suborbital and into orbit and beyond, are planned for coming years, to date only NASA and its counterpart government agencies in Russia and China have developed the capabilities to carry out crewed missions. The experience of 60 years should be sufficient to demonstrate the payoffs from spending public funds to send humans into space. Or maybe not. Certainly there is lingering debate on the benefits of human spaceflight. For example, a perceptive 2014 assessment carried out by the prestigious National Academies of Science and Engineering observed “no defensible calculation of tangible, quantifiable benefits — spinoff technologies, attraction of talent to scientific careers, scientific knowledge, and so on — is likely ever to demonstrate a positive return on the massive investment required by human spaceflight.” The authors of this study suggested that only “intang...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Opinion space Source Type: news