A few thoughts for a rainy day, as hurricane Irene bears down on us.
People often sneer at the Space Program here in the U.S. and, well-intentioned though they be, they point to the cost as wasteful extravagance. The needs of the poor are often cited as examples of how the money could be better spent.
True, and setting aside for a moment the wasteful spending of the U.S. Government in much of our foreign aid to terrorist states (which dwarfs NASA’s budget), I would like to propose that the poor have benefitted tremendously from our space program over the past half century.
First, The Apostles also opined that a certain woman’s perfumed oil used to anoint Jesus’ feet could have been sold and the money been better spent on the poor.
There were many who probably said the same of those who bankrolled Christopher Columbus’ voyage of exploration.
As I write this, the outer bands of hurricane Irene are upon us and pelting my windows with rain. Our satellites have revolutionized our ability to track storms and target evacuation zones often teeming with the poorest among us. Our satellites have revolutionized our telecommunications systems and brought images of natural disasters into our homes in real time, speeding international response efforts to the victims by orders of magnitude. And there is more.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed cool temperature microlasers to sense the ozone layer of our atmosphere from space. These lasers are now being used as surgical alternatives to balloon angioplasty in coronary artery disease.
The fields of occupational and physical therapy would be at a loss without velcro, which was developed for the space program.
LED (Light Emitting Diode) Technology not only lights computer screens, but is being used in cancer treatment to kill cancer cells.
There are so many more cool technologies, and they can be read here.
As is so often the case, development of technology in one area goes on to have multiple applications in many other areas never envisioned at the time of its development. When God created us, He gave us a command:
“Be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth.”
The development of technology helps us subdue the earth, and when it can’t in the case of hurricanes, it saves countless lives by forewarning those in the path of the storm.
Thank you NASA.
