Shoe print of Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin on the moon

On space missions is discussed, comes the inevitable argument that manned space travel is too expensive. For an average person, the cost of a major research project or a manned space mission enormous. Compared with the budget of large countries and organizations, and compared with what is spent for other things, the costs of space science and almost negligible. With the money, for instance, the NBC television for the broadcasting rights of the Olympic Games in 2008 has paid, if you had the complete Large Hadron Collider be able to finance. With the tax money that year, only in Germany is wasted; it could be a manned flight to Mars afford, which is about 30 billion euros. Germany could therefore actually a separate, manned mission to Mars, without a lot of money to have to rise - you should only use existing meaningful.

To some bankers to save that which the gambling verspekuliert were quickly loose huge amounts of money made. 700 billion U.S. dollars in the U.S. alone - so we would have complete seven Apollo programs can finance. "Too expensive" is not an argument against human spaceflight.

"This brings nothing!"

Besides "too expensive" is also "that brings nothing but" a favorite argument of opponents of science. "As long as children starve in Africa must be no money for useless research output may be" - or so it is often polemizes similar. Of course nobody wants that people starve - but is a research stop the right solution?

Science, research and education are the only ways of the world lasting positive effect. But you need also basic research. Many people do not recognize the importance of basic research as the basis for the whole of science.

Without research, no progress

Without basic research there can be no new applications and hence no progress. And you can not say where the one hand the basic research will lead. Many applications crystallize only after decades out. Had Max Planck with the 1900 is no complete theoretical and application-free issue of black body radiation employed, then today there would be no quantum physics, and hence not all the applications that it incurred, and which characterize our modern civilization.