Benefits of space exploration
At the end of the Cold War and the space race, a new rationale was made on the pragmatic use of space for improving life on Earth, with notable utilities such as satellite telecommunications, remote sensing, microgravity research and satellite navigation. Government, space programs began investing in practical outcomes for the public good. Therefore, the importance of measuring the socio-economic benefits of space activities steadily grew throughout the 1970s and 1980s, an era defined as "Mission to Planet Earth". These benefits continue into today's society as the privatization of space travel and space exploration continues to show scientific and socio-economic benefits to those around them.
Direct benefits
Space programs that have made their way into a myriad of applications. The benefits of these applications are directly to the original investments made by the space agencies and the private sector. Space exploration alone has provided a significant amount of knowledge that is important for the education of people about finally understanding of our planet and the universe. Some of the more direct benefits of space exploration include an increase in the knowledge that is out there about space and the discovery of distant planets and galaxies, it also gives us insight into the beginnings of our universe.Knowledge of space
Since Sputnik 1 entered orbit in 1957 to perform Ionospheric experiments, the human understanding of earth and space has increased. The list of missions to the moon begin as early as 1958 and continued into the current age. A few successful lunar missions, by the USSR, include missions such as, the Luna 1 spacecraft that completed the first flyby of the moon in 1959, the Luna 3 lunar probe that took the first pictures of the far side of the moon in 1959, the Luna 10 orbiter that was the first orbiter of the moon in 1966, and the Lunokhod 1 lunar rover in 1970, which was the first rover that explored the surface of a world beyond earth. The United States also added significant lunar first, such as Apollo 8 in 1968 is the first successful human mission to orbit the moon and the historic Apollo 11 when man first landed on the moon. Missions to the moon have collected samples of lunar materials and there are now multiple satellites such as ARTEMIS P1 that currently orbit the moon and collect data.Telescopic satellites have captured millions of images of the universe since the introduction of satellites, such as the Mariner Space Satellites. The Mariner 4 space satellite in 1965 was the first successful satellite to capture up-close images of the planet Mars. Mariner missions 6 and 7 additionally mapped the poles of the Red planet and relayed further images of the surface. By the end of the Mariner missions in 1972, Mariner 9 spent almost a year in the Martian orbit, collected images of nearly 100% of the surface of the moon, and observed notable discoveries including the humongous Olympus Mons volcano, more than 4000 km of Valles Marineris, and dust storms lasting over a month. Further missions since 1972, like the Viking project, Mars observer, Mars pathfinder, Mars climate orbiter, Deep Space 2, Mars Global surveyor, and Phoenix, have obtained understandings of the climate, flood plains, and rock samples on Mars.
The Hubble Space Telescope has contributed more than 2 million observations of the universe that have been influential in understanding the magnitude of the universe since its introduction into orbit. The intense focus of Hubble is for observation. The Hubble has been used to discover galaxies and planets across the universe. It was pointed at a speck of black space for ten consecutive days and the resultant image, the Hubble Deep Field, revealed at least 1,500 galaxies in that small location in the sky. Views like this allow the realization of the size and scope of the larger universal understanding of the types and variances of galaxies out in space. The Hubble Space Telescope has cost about $12 billion in the last 30 years including the cost of five shuttle servicing missions, the information received by the astronomers monitoring the Hubble provides a better understanding that would not be possible on from earth telescopes.
Indirect benefits
Culture and inspiration
exists as a social environment made up by traditions, norms, rules written or unwritten, and social practices. Cultures can be specific to groups of any size such as a family or group of friends but also as large as a state or nation. The range and diversity of human culture is markedly large. International collaboration in the space age brought together different cultures and as a result, the exchange and advancement of human culture. In over fifty years of space travel, the diversity of those working in space and in the field as a whole has dramatically increased from the beginnings of space exploration. This progression in diversity brought more cultures into close quarters and resulted in the enrichment of human culture globally.A testament to space exploration facilitating cross-cultural growth, the International Space Station exhibits an important collaboration between nations to construct and continually man the station. The ISS operates as a research facility that contributes cutting edge scientific work from a unique environment that is nearly impossible to recreate on earth.
The innovation and exploration of the space age has served as an inspiration to humankind. Breaking through into space travel, man leaving earth and defeating gravity, taking steps on the moon, and various other achievements were pivotal moments in human cultural development. In particular, the scientific and technological advancements stand as an inspiration to the scientific community of students, teachers, and researchers worldwide. Moreover, space exploration has also inspired innovative training programs aimed at preschoolers, such as the . It is evident that by drawing in the wonder of space together with the knowledge and skills developed through space exploration into classrooms, children can be strongly motivated and empowered from a young age.
Space exploration has nearly no limit to how far humankind can adventure as our technology advances. Space exploration will continue to foster international inspiration and collaboration, and pose revolutionary philosophical, political, and scientific questions and debates.
Global partnerships
The International Space Station is a space station assembled in low earth orbit largely by the United States and Russia, with assistance and components from a multinational consortium. In 1993, the United States and Russia agreed to merge their separate space station plans into a single facility integrating their respective modules and incorporating contributions from the European Space Agency and Japan. Collaborations among the international community have provided the ability to test things in space and see how objects and people react to space for extended periods of time. Work on the sustainability of long term space flights and the possibilities of interplanetary spaceflights have been major objectives of the ISS.These partnerships benefit all nations, even those outside the industrialized world. Some African countries, including Nigeria and South Africa, have successfully employed space technology—specifically satellite-based disaster management, climate monitoring, and green systems—to tackle workforce development issues and launch new space activities.
Space is a place where different religions can come together. Evangelical Christians are the least knowledgeable and supportive of space travel, while Eastern religions are the most knowledgeable and supportive. Studies show that Evangelical Christians and Eastern Religions are both equally as optimistic about space. Even though these two religions are different, they both come together in their optimism about space.
Spinoffs
reports that 444,000 lives have been saved, 14,000 jobs have been created, 5 billion dollars in revenue has been generated, and there has been 6.2 billion dollars in cost reduction due to spin-off programs from NASA research in collaboration with various companies. Of the many beneficial NASA spinoff technologies there has been advancements in the fields of health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, energy and environment, information technology, and industrial productivity. Multiple products and innovations used in the daily life are results of space generated research. Solar panels, water-purification systems, dietary formulas and supplements, space suit materials in clothing, and global search and rescue systems are but a few examples of the beneficiary spinoffs that have been produced.International Space Station
The unifying efforts to create the International Space Station took form in December of 1998 as the space shuttle Endeavor launched from the Kennedy Space Center. Collectively, 18 nations took some part in the development and construction of space station and the five notable agencies that encompassed these 18 nations were NASA, Roscosmos, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space agency and the National Space Development Agency of Japan. The International Space Station serves as a depot of collaboration across the world for innovative research, human health research, global education and earth observation. The International Space Station itself contains complex sensors including light detection and ranging systems which help in our understanding of sea surface winds and atmospheric transportation patterns. Additional astronaut observation from the station with powerful cameras provides detailed images of the earth and panoramic views of the atmosphere of the earth.Data collected from the space station complex orbital sensor system have been a valuable tool in evaluating the extent of damage resulting from natural disaster. Real-time mapping coupled with a human crew allows for space to ground collaboration.