Why should YOU care about space?
Got enough problems down here, why look up?
That’s the most common question I get asked. It’s not even an unfair question to ask. Most of us aren’t spending our daily lives trying to keep up with the progress of various space programs. Many of us don’t have the time or the interest to do so.
Then there’s a group of people who could be interested, but they have a mental barrier that stops them from learning more. They think they need some educational background or special training to follow along — making it seem like an intimidating topic to delve into.
Another big reason is believing that investments in research are taking away time & resources from solving problems here on Earth. Like climate change, overpopulation, economic/political instability, etc.
These are the people I started writing for. But what I realized, after thoughtful feedback, was that my reasoning was mixed in with other details. That made it harder to appreciate the deeper insights. The approach here is that I am only tackling this one question, as clearly and as holistically as I can.
There are few things worth agreeing upon before moving forward
- No special or prior knowledge is needed to follow along. As you’ll see from my own writing, there’s plenty I am learning about along the way.
- Curiosity is an important ingredient. Even with clear and precise language some topics need further digging into. Your curiosity can help you understand things much better than my words can explain.
- We trust the scientific method. Not worth reading beyond this if we don’t agree that the Earth is not flat!
I also decided to divide my reasons for caring into three main buckets from more obvious to less. These are in separate articles for various reasons. For one, it makes for more consumable reading for everyone. Then different reasons resonate with different readers. I can’t tell you for what exact reason you should care about space, so this gives you the opportunity to figure out your personal “why?”.
So let’s again tackle this age old question — Why care about space!
