Why Space?

It's easy to look at a program like NASA and wonder why it exists at all, given all of the other things that are happening in the world. Why spend money to explore outer space at all? A lot of conservatives ask this when talking about government spending. A lot of left-leaning liberals ask this while wondering if the funds wouldn't be better spent on social equality programs.

The answer's pretty simple in my mind.

At some point in the future, yes the distant future, but the future none the less, the sun will expand bigger and bigger. As it does, Earth will get hotter. First the oceans and rivers will burn up, which will pretty much end life on this planet for good.

Eventually, the sun will get big enough that it will consume Mercury, Venus, and Earth before eventually collapsing in on itself as a smaller, colder, shadow of what it once was.

After that point, there will no longer be an Earth. Everything we have built, everything we have done, the monuments men have created, the homes we've built, will all be burnt up, converted into fueling for a desperately starving star.

If we don't have the technology figured out to get us and every other living thing off of this rock by the time that all happens, it is the end of everything as we know it.

That's why space is important. That's why both public and private ventures into space travel are crucial. And they're crucial starting now. Because the sooner we start exploring the vast reaches of our galaxy, and beyond, the better for all of us.