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nastratin OP t1_ixdpm9k wrote

European research ministers are meeting in Paris to try to agree contributions to the €18.5bn (£16.1bn) of funding needed for future space activity

On their agenda are missions to the Moon and Mars, and, closer to home, satellites to monitor the weather and encrypt global communications.

The proposed budget for the European Space Agency is a near-25% increase.

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ds2isthebestone t1_ixf4pt7 wrote

We arguably need more... Don't get me wrong, 18.5bn € is good, but we are limping behind the US and China.

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perrochon t1_ixdvmls wrote

"Ministers gathered at the Grand Palais Éphémère (GPE) in Paris are sure therefore to focus their investments in the programmes expected to generate the biggest economic returns."

And that's the problem. Everyone is trying to get funds for their own existing industries selling old technology and their toy projects.

Unless Europe wants to rely on SpaceX, they need to massively increase their launch capacity and get cost down. They will fall behind in space if they cannot launch cheaper and at a much larger scale.

Getting a single rover to Mars had been done years ago. It's not moving us forward. Not when the US is actively planning manned colonies on the Moon and Mars.

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FuturologyBot t1_ixdvc26 wrote

The following submission statement was provided by /u/nastratin:

European research ministers are meeting in Paris to try to agree contributions to the €18.5bn (£16.1bn) of funding needed for future space activity

On their agenda are missions to the Moon and Mars, and, closer to home, satellites to monitor the weather and encrypt global communications.

The proposed budget for the European Space Agency is a near-25% increase.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/z1zybo/europe_to_commit_billions_to_space_race/ixdpm9k/

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[deleted] t1_ixgn58b wrote

First we need a spacerace in order to proceed with any space-race.

This, or cryogenics are finally starting to deliver. Future is friggin slow! boohoo ;)

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tayt087x t1_ixftyvx wrote

Lol sorry but America is #1. We used all those tax dollars and a massive government agency and proved that communism is a folly. And while that logic is flawed, the space race is over

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Munchies4Crunchies t1_ixe102f wrote

I get this is amazing and important, is it not kind of goofy in light of issues already going on in the world? Its a major arguement people use all the time “who cares about fucking space rocks my freedoms are being infringed and kids are stupid as shit put money towards that”

but seriously, does it make sense to put billions towards space exploration when theres homeless, helpless, neglected, helicoptered, enviroment, mentally unhealthy, all different types of issues with people right here right now, that money could go toward?

Does the extreme differences in belief between governments, political parties, people in general that makes it hard for real change to be enacted kind of just cancel all that out and they figure the money might as well go somewhere important?

Is the entire arguement invalid in that money needs to go where it needs to go, some money for space shouldn’t necessarily be questioned as to why it didnt go to homelessness or some other major issue?

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HOLYxFAMINE t1_ixe8078 wrote

Setting up base stations and manufacturing in space are the first steps to a post scarcity world where energy and materials are so abundant that many of these major issues we see today will be solved outright, and that will allow time and resources to be diverted to those other issues that can't be solved just by throwing energy and money at them.

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20thcenturyboy_ t1_ixe6mjf wrote

Countries are perfectly capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time, and it would be a bit odd for Europe to just give up on the future of space because there's issues on earth. In 50 years, space industry will be massive, and I don't think European leaders want to just surrender that future to China and private American companies.

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deiangu t1_ixeh6ej wrote

Space exploration is becoming a question of geopolitics and economics: moon bases and space mining are on the horizon, the question is who will have the infrastructure in place to exploit space - USA and China are actively working on that in this very moment.

Think of it this way - do you want to keep using candles and gas lamps, while all others are moving to light bulbs?

Also - consider that most of this money will probably go for science and engineering - education, new manufacturing processes, sophisticated rocket engines, electronics, etc. This is an investment with very high return value. The overall effect on the EU economy should be massively positive.

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iNstein t1_ixf01qr wrote

Why do we have to get this same question every time there is talk of funding space activities? Do you question government funding of sports? Of funding the arts? Of funding public Transport?

Have you heard of climate change? Guess where most of the data comes from in that research... Without satellites, our science would be set back terribly, earthquakes, weather, geology, defence even keeping an eye on farming and deforestation all rely on satellites.

So this is normally the point you concede satellites but insist that that is all we should do. There is huge potential to do far more good by tapping the potential of space. We can mine in space, move heavy dirty industries to space and even move farming and forestry there. That means we will not have to do these things down here and we can return much of the natural environment. Isn't that worth a few tens of billion dollars out of an 80 000 billion global economy.

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ds2isthebestone t1_ixf45tz wrote

Damn i'm tired of hearing this. ESA is like 12 bilion USD a year, all the participants GDP combined is above 10 trillion USD...

Edit : Nothing against you pal, but it always reminds me of the film Interstellar where people just straight blame the problem of the world on the fact that they spent billions on the space programs.

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Munchies4Crunchies t1_ixfj3dy wrote

It seems stupid, but you dont really think of space as a place to find anything useful you could bring back to earth so much as just a deep black hole that’ll kill you in an infinite number of ways but it’ll probably look indescribably amazing while you burn up or condense into an atom or you’re vaporized

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ds2isthebestone t1_ixfkrp3 wrote

I think its rather the technologies that is developped and discoveries that are very helpful. Without space exploration :

- Solar pannels wouldn't be as powerful today.

- They gave a huge boost to the chip manifacturing

- Insulin pumps

- Improved water filters

- Small cameras that fits your phone

- No CAT Scans

- No LEDs

The list goes on. You can find more about that on the NASA website I believe.

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mr_bedbugs t1_ixha34m wrote

If we put off discovery until the world was perfect, we'd still be living in trees.

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Vegetable-Hat1465 t1_ixeatyr wrote

Take it out of foreign aid

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Munchies4Crunchies t1_ixelha9 wrote

Lots of places it could be taken out of, the point is, is it better to specifically allocate or use what money we have on things that are current major issues. But like others have said many parts of the world are able to handle both at the same time, meaning money can be allocated to research and whatnot of what some call unnecessary, while still dealing with current issues. Especially when that funding could be used to help with current issues in the future.

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