A little pet peeve of mine...

[FishInferno]

I really don't know if you call this a pet peeve, but anyway...

Whenever I tell someone that I want to be an astronaut (I'm in high school), I get mixed reactions. It's usually "Good luck, NASA doesn't exist anymore" or "Cool, how many planets do you want to visit?". People just don't seem to be informed or interested in the space program. Nobody really takes notice when there is a rocket launch (at least the general public). It doesn't make sense to me why people don't care, because space travel is the coolest and greatest thing we have ever done.

Please note that these are just based on my personal experiences.

[gmpd2000]

I once asked someone if he wanted to be an astronaut. He said: "Yes!, I want to land on Jupiter!"

In my mind I was like: "Look, if you want to kill yourself, there's a lot more ways to do it that are easier than that".

[PakledHostage]

If you really want to do something, you've just got to do it and don't care what other people think. To paraphrase Pink Floyd, there will always be myriad small creatures who will try to tie you to the ground. Just make sure you look at the credentials of some real life astronauts and work towards obtaining those types of credentials yourself.

[Slam_Jones]

Heck, man, major respect if you stick to it and really do your best to become an astronaut. It was one of my dreams as a kid, but I've since realized I'm a bit too dull for that type of studying.

Not to mention lazy.

But I say, forget the haters, do what makes you happy. Shoot for the stars, brother.

[InterCity]

To use an internet meme, Haters gonna Hate. You'll encounter stupid people all life, no matter what you do or how remote location you possibly get to. Ignore them. Go for it, NASA definitely exists and is hiring.

[EdFred]

I really don't know if you call this a pet peeve, but anyway...

Whenever I tell someone that I want to be an astronaut (I'm in high school), I get mixed reactions. It's usually "Good luck, NASA doesn't exist anymore" or "Cool, how many planets do you want to visit?". People just don't seem to be informed or interested in the space program. Nobody really takes notice when there is a rocket launch (at least the general public). It doesn't make sense to me why people don't care, because space travel is the coolest and greatest thing we have ever done.

Please note that these are just based on my personal experiences.

Why should they? What actual real life benefit is there to space travel for the average person on this planet? There isn't. Yeah, it's cool that we've got the Hubble Deep Field, but how does that put extra food on my table, or make sure my bills get paid, or make my neighborhood safer? GPS might be one benefit, but from what I've seen it's just made people more dependent and eroded their thinking skills. In all honesty there are thousands of more beneficial things to spend my taxes on. As far as it being the coolest and greatest, that's your opinion, which is fine, but it doesn't mean everyone, or even anyone has to agree with it or share your sentiment.

My pet peeve is when when someone is interested in something, and thinks everyone else should be just because they are.

[pxi]

Why should they? What actual real life benefit is there to space travel for the average person on this planet? There isn't. Yeah, it's cool that we've got the Hubble Deep Field, but how does that put extra food on my table, or make sure my bills get paid, or make my neighborhood safer? GPS might be one benefit, but from what I've seen it's just made people more dependent and eroded their thinking skills. In all honesty there are thousands of more beneficial things to spend my taxes on. As far as it being the coolest and greatest, that's your opinion, which is fine, but it doesn't mean everyone, or even anyone has to agree with it or share your sentiment.

My pet peeve is when when someone is interested in something, and thinks everyone else should be just because they are.

You might want to peruse this list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies

I'm sure the other national programs have their own list of accomplishments too, the NASA one was just the quickest I could find.

People talk about spending money on space as if people were just firing money into orbit. Every penny is spent on the ground, employing real people, putting real food on their tables.

[EdFred]

Most of those have 0 to do with space travel. In fact, I don't see any on that list that have anything to do with space travel. Could have just as easily been developed by the DoD instead of NASA.

[Weegee]

Most of those have 0 to do with space travel. In fact, I don't see any on that list that have anything to do with space travel. Could have just as easily been developed by the DoD instead of NASA.

Correct, but they weren't... That's not the point. The things created as a byproduct of going to space certainly could have been invented by other means, but they weren't, and who knows when they would have been invented under other circumstances.

[RogueMason]

Fair enough, not everyone is interested in everything. Sure, I'd like to talk about space with the folks I know, but I hold my tongue unless I can work it into a conversation. I don't personally find it to be a pet peeve, though. My pet peeves are few and far between. I actually can't think of any at the moment...

Most of those have 0 to do with space travel. In fact, I don't see any on that list that have anything to do with space travel. Could have just as easily been developed by the DoD instead of NASA.

They may not have much to do with space travel because they are, as suggested by the name, spin-off technologies, though they have obviously had applications for space otherwise they wouldn't have been researched and developed by a space agency, if only partially in some cases. NASA has made a pretty significant contribution to modern society, and just because they may not have affected you or any member of the general public directly doesn't mean they haven't been useful elsewhere, though it's quite likely that a lot of the things on that list have seen some use somewhere in everyone's lives, even if they're unaware of it.

As for the apparent uselessness of space travel to the average person, well, we have Earth observation satellites, GPS (as you mentioned), communications, plus a whole host of scientific satellites that are improving our understanding of Earth and space. Along with other types, all of those are very useful to us (another list for you to peruse ). Of course, the ultimate goal, however long it takes, is to explore further into the Solar System and attempt to colonise the other planets and moons where possible, eventually ensuring the continued existence of humanity. That may seem whimsical, and given the current state of affairs, it is. Colonisation of other worlds sadly won't apply to our current society (unless all space agencies of the world suddenly gain a big boost in funding), but the research being conducted now will help in future endeavours; amongst other things, the ISS wasn't put into orbit as a publicity stunt. Colonisation is the long term goal, and it's important that we do this work now.

Whether or not people agree with it or are aware of it, space is extremely useful, and other applications like asteroid mining and orbiting solar farms will likely arise from their concepts to reality (eventually...), providing further and positive impacts for everyone. We simply wouldn't be at the point we are now without it. Besides, it creates jobs in a wide variety of scientific and engineering settings. Jobs equal money. Money equals food on your plate.

...

Good lord, I sound like a PR rep

[EdFred]

Hey, I'm not saying I haven't seen some benefit in my pocket. I'm saying the average person sees nothing from it. No apparent benefit, no interest.

[FishInferno]

What actual real life benefit is there to space travel for the average person on this planet?

Skip to 2:02 for relevant information.

To everyone else: Thanks for the encouraging words and this is really a great community:)

[EdFred]

Opinion, not fact. It's not even a correlation.

[Yukon0009]

Hey, I'm not saying I haven't seen some benefit in my pocket. I'm saying the average person sees nothing from it. No apparent benefit, no interest.

Exactly. Most people simply don't know enough about the space program.

[Bill Phil]

The benefit of space travel may be small, but the benefit of space colonization is huge. Not terraforming planets, but Bernal Spheres, O'Neill Cylinders and Stanford Toruses (Tori?).

With these you can have a greater standard of living, a huge population, and you no longer have all of your eggs in one basket. The average person would live in a spacecraft, and would thus affect them deeply.

But that's all in the far future...