I think that is true for our space industry in the 50's and 60's, but we've had a space station up there for years and what has come out of that? Im playing a bit of the devils advocate, but honestly all I hear is 'we are preparing for deeper space missions..."
And it is arguable that the science being done on the ISS doesnt have as massive of an impact on society when you compare it to what we gained with early space exploration. Just because it is called 'science' doesn't mean it's beneficial, there are plenty of useless scientific studies that are performed everyday around. For instance the 'Portable Glovebox (PGB)' that was on the ISS sounds like really amazing research being performed....
"The Portable Glovebox (PGB) was developed for the European Space Agency for use on the International Space Station (ISS); it can be transported around ISS and used in any laboratory module. The PGB confines accidental spillage of materials and helps prevent contamination of biological materials when the experiment containers are opened for observations, sampling, and fixations."
Yes. Figuring out design and use of lab equipment for microgravity conditions, as well as actually using it in further experiments, is definitely not beneficial for anything.
The specs on this thing are less than impressive and could easily have been developed on earth. (See my response to the other comment). Its a clean box with negative pressure.
Part of the experiment actually involves using this thing for microgravity experiments (also gaining knowledge about operations of space labs). Unless you have an antigrav generator handy or suggest science should be done in a vomit comet, I'd say it's important.
BTW. one of the important research done in orbit I recently learned about is figuring out how plants sense gravity. There were some cool results wrt. that, and this is the kind of research that is both important and hard to do on the surface.
My original argument was that the ROI is debatable in terms of how much we spend on space these days. Is it worth billions of dollars for the things we have talked about? Probably not in the grand scheme of things (Im not knocking space, or research just the fact that people bitch about how little we spend when it sort of makes sense to me).
Yes, but you have done the equivalent of walking into a lab and complaining that what they are doing isn't cutting edge enough, as you looked at an experiment and all it did was change a flame from yellow to blue, before it being pointed out that you were just looking at a bunsen burner.
Well, it was developed on earth. However, they have a 3d printer up there now, so you never know, the next one might not be.
Also, you seem to be confused as to the purpose of the glovebox. While there may be an experiment to test it, it is not an experiment, it is apparatus for experiments.
" The PGB provides two levels of containment; the first level being the enclosure itself (box, gloves, filter), the second level is realized through a negative pressure of 4 mbar inside the box." -- This is not ground breaking science.
The box isn't the science, it's a box for doing science in and a portable one was useful as their other glovebox is fixed to the wall. You might as well complain about research institutions for being made out of bricks.
