Dear Friends of Space Exploration,

Before I continue my (admittedly delayed) mini-series on Alpha Centauri B b, I have to blog about a marine biology talk at the TED conference I came across this morning on the bicycle. I regularly use the 20-min. bike trip to work to listen to TED talks, which nicely fill that time span. Most of them are extremely inspiring. Just have a look/listen in at: “TED – Ideas Worth Spreading”.

This morning, however, I almost fell off the bike by an otherwise well-presented talk on the census of marine life by oceanographer Paul Snelgrove (here is the link).

First, he is bashing space exploration by saying: “This type of habitat covers more of the Earth’s surface than all other habitats combined. And yet, we know more about the surface of the Moon and about Mars than we do about this habitat, despite the fact that we have yet to extract a gram of food, a breath of oxygen or a drop of water from those bodies.”

That now sounds awfully like the often-repeated (but factually incorrect) prejudice “We know more about the Moon than …” as a typical case of ‘We should rather be exploring what’s around us, so give us the resources that you waste on space stuff’.

Interestingly, Dr Snelgrove later adds: “I want to talk about a bit of technology, because after all – this is a TED conference… Years ago I was to go to an exploration trip… but due to a scheduling conflict I couldn’t go. Through a satellite link I was able to sit in my study at home with my dog curled at my feet and a cup of hot tea in my hand and tell the pilot [of the ROV] exactly where he needed to go.” He even goes on to add: “And the oceans are hugely productive, as you can see by the satellite image of photosynthesis…” And more: “We can also use satellite tags to track animals as they move through the oceans.”

What’s going on here? Don’t even scientists recognize the fact that space exploration has brought us all this technology that we take for granted today? Do they even still claim that, ‘Yes, we need Earth observation, yes, we need GPS, and yes, we need telecommunication – but no, we don’t need exploration?’ I would seriously recommend my dear colleagues from the science community to reconsider the logic behind their argument.

I will say only so much: without the first wave of space exploration (Apollo et al) we would not have the launch capability to install all that nice infrastructure that Dr Snelgrove is using so enthusiastically. See also our ESA discussion on the use of space technology in everyday life. What do you think? Tell me on twitter: @MarkusLandgraf. As always your (Dr. rer. nat.) Markus