How much and why?

 But where will the money come from? I need do no more than remind you of the enormous costs of all the wars of the world so far. Space exploration is likely to be an expensive business yes, but less so than war, surely? And if all the nations of the world put down their arms and worked together to fund the space projects, it would be less expensive and a lot quicker to get results. Just look how far NASA got with its own relatively limited funds and relatively small labour force.

Is interstellar tourism the only reason for space exploration? No, of course not. This planet will eventually run out of non-renewable assets. Metals, fuels, gases and even flora and fauna if we do not do something about it soon. We can either revert to a culture of stone-age activities or we can look for alternatives. And the planets are a possibility. I don't think anyone really expected the moon to be made of green cheese or to be strewn with diamonds. And anyway, diamond is not a particularly good fuel and is not very tasty when eaten. But there may be many other minerals and chemicals that would be of immense value to this world. We therefore need to colonise. We need to expand in the same way that the Europeans did hundreds of years ago and in the same way that the early settlers on the East coast of America spread westwards towards California.

Why should we colonise?

Well, it gives an outlet for the energies of the rebels among us. A vandal is just an explorer with nowhere to explore. An active mind in an active body with nowhere to use his energy. Send these brave young people to the outer worlds. We all then reap the benefits of their labour. They will eventually become the different cultures that our tourists will want to visit. You don't think so? But that is where all cultural differences spring from. As of course do differences in language, accent and dialect.

And so tourism then becomes the second reason to colonise.

Our planet is becoming overcrowded with people. Too many people chasing too few resources. Family planning? A possibility but not the real answer. Either compulsory or voluntary family planning only slows the problem and causes anger and dissatisfaction among the people who want children and it causes the world to stagnate. Open up the new worlds and the population has all the room it wants to expand into. And room enough too for any particular group of people who have a particular way of life which may be at odds with the rest of society. It might be that there could be a planet of vegetarians or a planet of American Football fans. Funny? Yes, but you see what I am driving at? Room for everyone without the need for conflict and war.

And finally the safety feature.

Scientists are sure that one day, many thousands of years from now, our Sun will go Nova. It will swell and grow so much that it will reach the orbit of our planet and destroy it. Long before that it will send out such massive radiation that all life will be killed on the planet. Later the Sun will explode and even the tiniest remnant of our world and our race will vanish forever from the Universe. If we live on a single planet, that will be the end of us for all time. But, if our descendants are spread across the Universe or at least across this Galaxy then we live on in them forever. And who among us does not want his children and their children to grow and to live? Who does not want to live forever in the memories of his descendants?

It all seems so very hard to grasp and the time scales involved are vast. Do we really care about what happens to descendants so remote from us? Well I don't know, but I do know that the first ancient man to cut down a tree to build a crude hut was not thinking of me and my house and city when he did cut it down. I also know that I would not be here if he had not cut it down but decided instead to simply climb the tree and live in its branches.

And so I think we need to put a total end to war.

Spend the money we save on space exploration.

Why?

For the following:-

Adventure for the Adventurous

Wealth for all Mankind

Room to Expand and Live

Travel and the Fulfilment of Life

Security of our Race and Descendants

And who knows, maybe there will be alien life forms out there and all that I have said makes even more sense. More excitement, radically different cultures and an even greater chance to become something other than the creature who fights in his own backyard.

Would that I could live for long enough to see it all come to pass!