Why should we have a Space Program?

As we are going through austerity, with banks in Europe being bailed out, and there are so many unemployed people, can we afford an ESA space programme? Alternatively, why can't we afford to not have a space programme? 

There were two main arguments in favor of the ESA space programs:

1. Innovation

The ESA space program by nature is an investment in innovation. (It is true that visiting the space center, seeing the vulcain engines and satellites, is breathtaking).

The amount of technology which is generated through space programs is incredible. From everyday technologies such as GPS systems, global mapping systems, meteorology, remote sensing, earth science, lenses, communications, satellite television, telemetry (recording measurements through radio), baby foods and insulating clothing (the list goes on). To the 'out-of-this-world' ones like thrust at MACH 8, energy efficiency, heat shields, defense systems, asteroid mining, exploration deeper into the universe (the statistical chance of there not being extra terrestrial life is near 0), and who knows what will come up in the next 50 years of space exploration?

“Cutting space technology budgets is limiting your future.”

The ‘Cold War Space race’ might be over, but a quick look at the global spending on space ventures is interesting. From the US, which spends more than $17 bn a year on NASA (not counting the Department of Defense, which also has it’s own space programs). ESA spends about $5.4 bn a year. Russia spends about $4 bn annually. And finally China, which has increased it’s space budgets from 0 to $1.5 in 15 years.

2. Global perspectives

Space exploration is the only sector which naturally has a global, perhaps supra-global, vision of the earth. Not just literally, in that it is only through space that we can look down on our world, as the new Franco-Vietnamese satellite launched on the VEGA rocket will do with remarkable accuracy. But also figuratively, in that the challenges and technologies of space exploration are global. 

For example, faced with a challenge like asteroid induced Armageddon, we might hope that we can overcome our differences and do what’s necessary.

But also the only (reasonable) way we can overcome global warming (arguably the biggest challenge of the 21st century) is through technology. And there are strong chances that that technology will come from space exploration. Whether it’s with more fuel efficiency, alternative fuels, reversing desertification, better urban and agro-planning (really exciting and already extensively used on mass farms, also possibly the solution to world hunger), measuring the effects of our carbon emissions and the melting of the ice caps, carbon trapping, or fleeing our planet to set up colonies on mars.