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My name is Neil Bobbie
from McMaster University
I'm going to be discussing today the benefits and consequences space
technology and exploration
as it impacts the lives of people here on Earth.
i intend to start a discussion of the priorities of world organizations
and whether the current approach is sustainable.
In 2012,
about twenty five billion CAD dollars was spent by space agencies around the
world
approximately seventeen billion of that was from NASA
five billion by the European Space Agency
and the rest split between china, japan
india, russia, iran, and israel.
Since NASA's conception in nineteen fifty-eight
u_s_a_ office of management and budget estimates that nasa spent about
8 hundred
billion dollars
(When accounting for inflation)
that's nearly a trillion dollars over fifty years
of course not all this money is directly related to space exploration
about twenty percent of this 800 billion dollars was used for
administration facility maintenance and education
among other things
still, over fifty years that averages about thirteen billion dollars per year that
nasa spent on space exploration
what has been done with that money?
quite a lot actually
nasa alone is responsible for many advancements
in health and medicine
transport
public safety
consumer goods
computer technology
and industrial productivity.
nasa was integral in establishing satellites
in various orbits around the earth.
This has had huge impacts in the field of communication
navigation
television
astronomy
reconnaissance
and weather monitoring.
we see improvements in our lives directly from these technologies.
what was the opportunity cost
what did we have to give up in order to get these things?
life on earth could be improved substantially
for the current cost of space exploration
lets look at the seventeen point seven billion twenty twelve budget of
nasa
let's take a look at what that would compare to in terms of improving human life.
the two thousand four copenhagen consensus estimated costs of large-scale projects
that would yield improvement to quality of life for human beings
they found that
thirteen billion dollars per year
for four years
would significantly reduce the effects of malaria worldwide
twelve billion dollars per year
would be enough to provide micronutrients to everyone on earth
thus eradicating malnutrition
and three point four billion dollars per year
for eight years
would be enough to prevent twenty-eight million new cases of AIDS worldwide.
these world problems
could be solved within the budget of just NASA.
the u_n_ estimates that for about seventy five billion dollars
we provide clean drinking water
basic sanitation
basic health care
and basic education
to every single person on the planet
significantly increasing in minimum quality of life on earth
but now you can't believe that just throwing money at problem
would be enough to eradicate it.
corruption in the large issue in many developing countries
but hopefully
these figures give you an idea
of the scale of the problems that we face
and how close we could be to solving them.
in closing,
i'd like you all to stop and think
if we could reduce the world wide space exploration budget budget
by fifty percent
for just ten years
we could easily be able to
significantly improve quality of life
for hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
should make a stop to pick hard look at our current priorities
regarding space exploration.