Mr. Steven
Weinberg has long been a vocal critic of NASA's manned spaceflight program,
recently questioning the scientific usefulness of the International Space
Station in particular, and asserting that the entire manned spaceflight program
has produced nothing of scientific value.
The
National Space Society, composed of members who promote mankind's future of
living and working in space, strongly supports NASA's manned spaceflight
program, and disagrees with both the spirit and substance of his
comments.
For a first
response, we turn to another renowned physicist, Dr. Stephen Hawking, who has
urged the human race to "spread out into space for the survival of the
species." Hawking states the increasing risk of being wiped out by a
disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, or some other unknown
danger as the primary reasons to diversify humanity's future beyond earth.
NASA has
numerous examples of "spinoffs" from the space program, such as kidney dialysis
machines, fetal heart monitors, programmable heart pacemakers, to name just a
few that help Americans every day. Additionally, the International Space
Station operations enable NASA to learn valuable scientific information about
the long term effect of spaceflight on the human body, and how best to help
humans adapt themselves for long trips, either in interplanetary space, or
enroute to planets such as Mars.
While these
are all important, they don't compare to the effect these achievements have on
the human spirit. Many of us still remember the first time we saw Earth from
the Moon's orbit, when the astronauts of Apollo 8 filmed it on Christmas
Eve, in 1968. Many argue this global awareness started the conservation
movement, which might turn out to be the space program's greatest spinoff, and
may save the earth's climate in the long run. Many of us were inspired when we
saw the astronauts walk on the Moon, and realized that if mankind could do
that, we could do almost anything. The achievements of NASA's unmanned
spacecraft are phenomenal, and deserving of acclaim, but they don't lift
people's spirits to these heights.
Weinberg
should understand that many citizens don't understand the benefits of
theoretical physics to their own lives, and question the utility of the
nation's investment in such work. That is an alternate explanation to why the
Superconducting Super Collider was de-funded: Congress was not convinced of
the utility of spending $12 billion on the project. Here is where we can
observe a certain parallel with spaceflight: Both spaceflight and particle physics
are basic investments in the future.
As the
President stated during his Vision for Space
Exploration speech, "The cause of exploration and discovery is not an
option we choose; it is a desire written in the human heart." The National
Space Society members support living and working in space, and the hundreds of
people who have already bought their own suborbital spaceflight tickets are
further proof that this is a vision that is spreading. For all the good NASA's
manned spaceflight program has brought us, at the meager budget levels they're
provided, we should be thanking and praising them for their dedicated
perseverance.
It is not
possible to predict all of the benefits that either the human space program or
particle physics research will do for our country, but that does not mean that
the searches are not worthy. It is important for us to pursue, and solve, the
deepest questions of the universe, just as it is important for us to explore
our solar system and eventually live beyond the confines of our home planet.
Our descendents will thank us for both pursuits.
George
Whitesides is the executive director of the National Space Society.
NOTE: The
views of this article are the author's and do not reflect the policies of the
National Space Society.
Visit SPACE.com/Ad Astra
Online for more news, views and scientific inquiry from the National Space
Society.
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