Prince William isn't a fan of space tourism

[Admin]

The heir to the British throne thinks the world's brightest minds should focus on Earth rather than colonizing the solar system.

Prince William isn't a fan of space tourism : Read more

 

[Mergatroid]

As a Canadian I can only say: Thank goodness we are no longer surfs and do not have to pay any attention to people born with titles.
I always thought, at least their educations should enhance any intelligence the royals might have, but apparently I was wrong.
Perhaps the "prince" doesn't realize that, at any moment we could be hit by an asteroid, a comet, a death beam from a far distant SMBH or any number of things, including wondering a black hole we would be fairly unlikely to detect, and couldn't do anything about even if we did detect one.
The ONLY way to ensure our survival under 99% of circumstances is to have part of our civilization on another planet.
This should be priority.
It's too bad this "prince" isn't smart enough to realize that.
What's the use of abandoning space travel and concentrating on the environment if the entire planet gets wiped out by some catastrophe?
I do agree we need serious work done to help the environment, but not at the expense of giving up the space programs that are out there.

 

[Ken Fabian]

Given colonising space is not really possible without a healthy prosperous Earth and a lot more technological development is required that will only happen with a healthy prosperous Earth - it is reasonable to make Earth the priority even when getting off Earth is considered worthwhile. Making space colonies a priority is like telling neolithic people they should build bigger bark canoes and aim to cross that ocean - way premature and won't get them across that ocean.

There are things we do in space that help us deal with Earth's problems - the value of satellite observation to better understanding and dealing with climate change for example, along with the economic benefits of global communications shouldn't be underestimated but mostly they don't involve or require astronauts.

Space tourism isn't going to make colonising space happen sooner or make it easier but failure to deal with Earthly problems will guarantee it never happens.

 

[SDelMonte]

As ever, people act as if it's either/or. It can be and should be both.

 

[sam85geo]

Finding another world which suits and fairly duplicates human habitation needs may be next to impossible, but if found, getting there and settling may be beyond our current and immediate future technological capability. So Earth is all we primates have at least for the next billion years, if we're lucky and manage not to "step thru the threshold of self extinction". Per SDelMonte's post #4 , doing both is logical and necessary.