Would space probe costs be better spent saving species on Earth?

Question

We know little about thousands of threatened species and still don't know all the species that exist

Answer 1

Knowledge is limitless.  We can expand our knowledge in space and here on Earth equally.

Because we expand our knowledge in space does not mean that we harm our knowledge here on Earth.

Answer 2

Right on! I agree full-heartedly. Too much money is spent on these large outworldly projects and not enough put into the issues at hand.

Answer 3

Yes. It is more important than going to Mars.

Answer 4

Right on man. Not only other species, but the human species as well. Just think of the cancer, AIDS and other disease research that could be done. But apparently finding moon dust and landing remote control cars are more important.

Answer 5

Compared to the pork barrel spending on stupid projects here on Earth, NASA's budget is actually quite small.  Some of the projects NASA does helps us develop new technologies here.  There will always be the threat of extinction as well as the poor.  Many programs simply don't work yet billions are still wasted because no one wants to take the time to overhaul or audit these programs.  It's no wonder we work almost six months out of the year just to pay our taxes.

Answer 6

I like watching gnats reproduce in a weightless environment.

Answer 7

Yes.  The current iss / moon / mars boondoggle is coming at the expense of hundreds of terrestrial science missions.

Answer 8

Well, of course the answer is yes.

However, more importantly, there is no reason that we cannot spend an adequate amount of time and money on both. Our society(ies), unfortunately squander money on things that are far more trivial than space exploration.

So, while I do feel that exploration money could be better spent on conservation and research for ecological solutions. There are many other monetary sinks from which we could draw money.

The better questions is how many people would be willing to pay 5% more taxes if that money was dedicated to species and habitat conservation?

Answer 9

yes all species on earth imagine all money spent on wars etc. and space went to truly looking for different harmless energy sources and those were allowed to be know by the public and used around this earth. i bet that alot of inventors and scientists past present and future would be in paradise and eventually so would we.