For those of you who have been following my blog till now, I think it is understood that I love space exploration and look forward to concentrated efforts towards setting up a base on the Moon, colonise Mars, mining of asteroids and more.

Since childhood, I have looked up at the night sky and wondered about the infinite worlds that are out there and what it must be like there and if we will ever be able to explore the cosmos meaningfully. The enigmatic beauty of the universe is just so alluring.

I have written and talked about this regularly and more often than not, people respond saying that space exploration is just a giant waste of time and resources and that we should rather focus on solving the problems here on Earth.

Although I do get what they are trying to say, I think we shouldn't be so narrow in our approach. Human endeavours span many areas and not all are trying to solve the biggest problems of the planet and so, we shouldn't see space exploration as a waste but try to understand why it is important instead.

It's About The Human Curiosity

We humans are a curious species and that is the reason we are living the life that we are and not living inside a cave, hunting animals for living. We discover, we invent, we learn and we explore.

We use our acquired to build better lives for ourselves and expand. Imagine if people in the ancient times had said, "Why do we need to go in search for other continents, we have enough problems here already." We wouldn't even have mapped our planet if everyone had thought that way.

But instead, we explored and we found and we expanded. It sure took a lot of time, effort and money but now we are all over the planet and the natural next step seems to be beyond our own planet, i.e. Moon, Mars and the others.

It's About Survival

This shouldn't be the fundamental for space exploration and colonisation but is still a valid reason that we should. Right now, our presence is on one planet only and if an extinction level event were to happen, the human race (along with all other living beings) would disappear.

As far as we've looked in the cosmos, we are the only living beings and for the light of life to be extinguished would be such a shame. In essence, we are a way for the universe to know itself, as we are literally made of star dust.

If we were to colonise other planets, and if something were to happen to one of the planets, the human race could go on surviving and expanding. It wouldn't be the end of our story.

We Benefit From The Technologies Developed

Most people are not aware of the fact that the technologies that we have developed over the years due to our exploration efforts into space, have helped us in many different areas here on Earth.

Some of these inventions, like CAT scans, help immensely in the medical field as well. There are tons of other examples of this and that will form a whole other post.

The point is, space exploration is not a waste. It has already given back so much in terms of technology alone and rest assured that the inventions that will happen from here on, can change life here on Earth (and solve the biggest problems) like never before!