Immanuel Kant famously said that the only two things that never failed to fill his heart with wonder were the moral law within him, and the starry sky above him. Since the beginning of time, the outer space has engendered awe and fascination in us, the inhabitants of Planet Earth. Even today, however, we still know so little about the universe.
After the end of World War II, space exploration became a highly politicized endeavor in the contrapposition between the United States and the Soviet Union. Despite the economic hardships faced by both countries in the aftermath of the conflict, their governments decided to invest into the apparently “useless” development of new technologies aimed at discovering something more about moons, stars and planets. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, governmental spending in space exploration has not come to an end, just like the social and economic inequalities that plight most of the involved countries.
While it is true that all the distortions of the current capitalistic system should be tackled and hopefully resolved by our governments, removing resources from scientific research on the universe would not be the right choice. After all, it is exactly a capitalistic worldview that wants a clear divide between “profitable” and “useless” activities, considering only the former worthy of time and money. Space exploration means fostering our children-like sense of wonder to the mysteries of the starry sky, and prompts us to remind ourselves how, as humans, we are but a small, almost insignificant, part of an immense whole.
Money spent on space exploration will most likely not bring a profit, but it is not a waste. It is, on the contrary, almost a movement of resistance against the objectification of human life, and an anthropological statement on the vital importance of “useless” activities.