There are more and less important things, you seem to be lumping them together. The space exploration is probably the most important thing for the future of our civilization unlike exploring Antarctica. The latter is certainly a noble thing to do as well, but not of the same magnitude of importance. Every tragedy is sad, but plain tragic traffic accidents have much less impact on grander things than a tragedy of truly cosmic proportions such as the one that happened over Texas today. To me this a tragedy of our civilization that has been trying to conquer the space and now is paying a heavy toll for that once again. It is more than just an American tragedy. 9/11 could be considered an American tragedy to a greater extent than this one.
If the rest of humanity shared this inward thinking, we would still be living in the dark ages. Parasites like Phantom are enjoying the technological comforts and marvels that brave, forward-thinking pioneers have risked life and limb to develop. We will probably have interstellar travel in the next hundred or so years, thanks to the heroic work of astronauts and their kind. Thank God we have many open-minded scientists to offset skeptical morons like Phantom...
It might have something to do with them risking their lives as pioneers to advance technology that will benefit us all.
first of all, imo, prayers aren't really going to accomplish anything..but that's just my fundamental belief. i suppose if praying makes some people feel better, that's fine.. but imo they really are just a crutch. as far as a prayer actually having a real effect through some god is make believe. as for you, Phantom Trader, you're free to believe whatever you want, but i honestly don't know how you can feel that way. it is very sad what happened today. astronauts are truly great men and women. they devote and risk their lives for the advancement of mankind. the benefits they give us are immeasurable. they put the only life they have second to science. to them, exploring the universe and discovering more about why we're here is more important than their own life. they are the DEFINITION of heroes.
hmm, i'm not so sure that the benefits of space exploration have been 'immeasurable'... in fact, i tend to think that the world today wouldn't really be all that different at all... i think we'd really have to wait another 1000 or so years before we can determine just how valuable space exploration was... as for the motivation of astronauts, what you say could be true, but i don't see how you could possibly claim to know it. surely the thrill of flying around in space would have to form at least part of the motivation (and i tend to think MOST of it..)...
well, i would look at the knowledge that we gained from going on the space explorations and have a look at what kind of use we've been able to make of such information; in other words a 'measurement'. now, it could be well be that the kind of information we gained is so difficult to evaluate that we'd call it basically 'unmeasurable'. if that's what you meant by 'immeasurable', ok, fine. but if you were using 'immeasurable' in the sense that "look at all the good it's done...where would we be without it...", then i'd have to dispute that.
Nasa chiefs 'repeatedly ignored' safety warnings http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,887236,00.html