Finding another Earth that we'll never visit.

Friday NASA will launch a new telescope whose sole purpose is to search for exoplanets. Here, I discussed that Earth-like exoplanets may be far more numerous than previously believed. I also discussed that the statistical chances of finding those planets is relatively good, but the prospects of finding intelligent life there is virtually nil.

So I appreciate NASA's push to find another Earth, but unless they have an end-strategy to move humans there in the form of colonists, I see no reason to spend $600 million dollars on the new Kepler space telescope to find those planets. Especially in the current economic climate. $600 million could be better spent elsewhere, if you ask me. Commenter "B-I-L" remarked to yesterday's post that rather than more stimulus, the government should consider more effectively rebudgeting and moving money around at the current budget. Here is a shining example of where that could effectively work.

Because really, what good will it do us to know that there are "earth-like" exoplanets? We won't know if they contain a single drop of water. We won't be able to know if they contain basic life, or intelligent species (the latter especially would be rare, since these are all planets around stars we have already tested for radio transmission). Some of the "earth-like" exoplanets will be so far away that it would take thousands upon thousands of years for our probes to reach them. None of them will be close enough to visit in less than ten lifetimes.

To me, the entire exploration of deep space is a philosophical depression. It's as if NASA has this mission to look away from Earth, ignore Earth, and try to keep us excited about the possibilites beyond Earth. NASA, it would seem, exists to spend money off Earth. Frankly, $600 million could pay for future AIDS vaccines for most of Africa, or for clean water facilities for much of that entire continent. Or for free college tuition for every middle and lower class college student for a year. Or for upgrades to public schools across the country. Or for shoring up the health care system. Or for paying for med school for new doctors and nursing school for new nurses.

No, we'll be using that $600 million to lob an 8 ton colossus of copper and mirrors into space, hope that it functions correctly, and spend millions upon millions later to service it and keep it in orbit as long as possible. And we'll pray the Russians don't ram it with one of their satellites in the mean time.


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