If it became fact that there are no other living beings in the universe, would we still explore space?

Question

What would become of the space programs? Would we still have them to study physics in space, etc? Would people/government still support the space programs?

Answer 1

Yes.  SETI isn't the only space program going on right now.  

Answer 2

Probably not as much. But space is everything around us,so I think we would still explore its wonders.

Answer 3

Why not?

Although if there was someone out there amongst the stars already, they may be able to help us to come to an understanding about how to go out there properly....and quickly as well.

We may be in for a long time to wait without help, for any real progress from our world gov'ts to get us out there enjoying the cosmos. So much has and is being held back.

It won't happen with fuel rockets or ion drives either. It will take a greater understanding of the universe to make a great leap out there. Unless of course, you'd rather have the Mar's Rovers do it for you. There is no fun in that, as our world gets more and more populated and environmental crisis are around the corner....etc....etc.

NASA and others would either have to evolve to suit the public's needs for cosmic presence in the universe or they are disbanded.

In the end, I don't forsee any NASA or Gov't helping any of us to reach to the stars.

It would be up to us alone or together, outside of the reach of the established paradigms. Something totally brand new, and taken from our science fiction literature and made reality.

For example: "The Day the Earth Stood Still", a sufficiently advanced being comes to Earth to change Earth and then leaves. Minus the robots which police them of course, there is great freedom to be had when a race switches over to becoming space faring.

Answer 4

We might, just to learn about anything new of our universe. We're still trying to figure out how we got here, remember? :P But our care for it might not be as much. Some people will argue there's no point in exploring if we're not going to find any life.  

Answer 5

Absolutely... it means that all the raw materials & precious metals are **OURS**!

Answer 6

The space programs would probably now choose to explore other planets and see if we can live there and the kind of resources they have.

Yeah I think we would still study physics so that we try and fully understand what space and the universe are fully about.

Yeah probably because there is still a lot to explore and the things we find might actually make our lives better.

Answer 7

1. Life out there or no life out there doesn't matter because human nature makes we as humans curious about other places we have never been to or seen, this gives us a drive to explore other worlds, i mean here is a little poll you can do with you friends/family/co-workers/people on the street, whoever you see ask them if they have ever seen a planet before, even just a picture of a planet, then ask them why they looked at the picture, most of them will say because it looked interesting or peaked there curiosity, humans find things they have never seen to be interesting even if they tell themselves otherwise.

2. Yes

3. Yes

4. Yes

Answer 8

Yes, yes, and yes. Whether there is life or not, we are still searching for other necessary needs in the universe. Such as: new celestial bodies to live on, necessary components that will help us, the origins of the human being, etc. etc. Finding other life would be a huge impact and I must say a pretty cool phenomenon to know, but it's not everything. And if we ARE the only life in the universe, I'm sure we'd search the universe even harder as of to why we are.

Answer 9

Pointless question.  Without exploration we could never prove such a thing.  Exploration would require searching every world in the universe.  This is absurd.  Since interstellar travel is impossible we cannot even visit our closest neighbor, Alpha Centauri A, B and Proxima Centauri.  Therefore we will never know if other stars have planets with life.  With what we know of our solar system manned space exploration is pointless.  There is no where to go.  If you absolutely must collect more useless data on distant worlds, robotic probes are the way to go. I doubt if most people support the space program.  Without Russians to beat, Americans lost interest in the moon.  Congress barely supports it because there are jobs involved and large sums of money.  Corporations support congressmen who support their particular industry.  Our form of government runs on bribery.  

Answer 10

Other life or not, there's plenty of resources out there to greedily claim and then fight over. Of course we would - that's our nature.