5 Reasons Space Exploration Matters to You | What the Stuff?!

Space exploration is cool, but it’s also expensive. So why should we keep throwing all this money into orbit?

Shot on location at Midtown Bowl in Atlanta, GA!

Music Attribution:
"Venus" by Jahzzar

Original article:

Transcript:
Exploring space is cool, but it’s also expensive. So why should we keep throwing so much money into orbit? Why does space exploration matter?

Asteroids: According to NASA, about once every 10,000 years, an asteroid the size of a football field smashes into Earth, causing tidal waves big enough to flood the coast. But there are bigger asteroids out there, and that’s what we need to worry about. A large enough asteroid could unleash a firestorm, filling the atmosphere with dust, wiping out forests and farms, starving what it doesn’t kill. Keeping an eye out for these objects may save humanity from an untimely death.

Inventions: The US space program is responsible for tons of nifty inventions. We all know about freeze-dried food, but there are so many more. For example: In the 1960s, NASA developed a plastic coated with a metallic reflecting agent. When used in blankets, it reflects about 80 percent of a user's body heat back, helping accident victims stay warm. Then there’s nitinol, a flexible, resilient alloy that was developed for satellites. Today, it’s used in… braces. Weird, huh?

Raw Materials: There's gold out in them there cosmos -- and silver, platinum and other stuff, too. Private-sector ventures envision mining on asteroids, but space miners wouldn't have to go that far. The moon is a potential source of helium-3 (used in MRIs) and rare earth elements used in electronics & solar panels.

Aliens! About half of Americans believe that life exists somewhere else in the cosmos. But so far, we’ve searched for extraterrestrials in vain, possibly because the Earth's atmosphere interferes with our reception. That's why researchers are eager for more orbital observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope, which will search for the chemical signs of life in the atmospheres of distant planets. It's a start, but an even more aggressive effort might finally help us to answer one of the biggest questions in human history: Are we alone?

Survival: Satellites are helping us to monitor pressing problems on Earth, from forest fires to oil spills. But our population, rampant greed and pollution have severely damaged our planet. According to a 2012 survey, most scientists estimate that Earth has a carrying capacity of between 8 and 16 billion – and there’s already over 7 billion of us. This leads some futurists to argue that we should be preparing to colonize another planet, and soon. Our survival might depend upon it.

But, you know, no pressure. Thanks for watching! Give us a like before the asteroids hit, and let us know what you think of space exploration in the comments. Stay tuned for more What The Stuff.

[delwin]

Personally I agree with this guy a lot depends on space exploration and it's fascinating.

[avi]

Make a video on space exploration conspiracy

[MCPaddingtonMoFo]

That bowling alley is so bloody distracting

[MrRavenXavier]

What are you doing here Ben this isn't stuff they don't want me to know? This is Stuff They Let Us Know!!

[delwin]

Also it gives people a reason to look forward to an enormous, advanced future.

[genxlife]

But military spending is WAY MORE expensive than space exploration.

[LeoBlight]

Seems like we should figure out how to live on this planet together before we can go somewhere else and mess it up there!

[theultimatereductionist]

Cut the funny shtick. Cut the incessant hip music.
Also, state the downsides (cost, distractions) of space explorations, not just the positive side benefits.

[archaicsage]

This is complete lunacy! Nothing you said is how anything actually works!

[NEGATINofP]

In most cases I really like the content on this channel however I am shocked and infuriated that you would start this video by alleging "exploring space is pretty expensive" and "we are throwing so much money into orbit" (0:20) It is just embarrassing that a channel dedicated to science and explaining "how stuff works" would make such ignorant and potentially harmful statements. 

[PolakaFlaka]

or you know....depopulate the planet by few billion...

[NXGMR]

Tidal waves? Realy.... Google that first....