And Why the Government Should Pay for It

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Why exploration Matters— And Why the Government Should Pay For It Giant research efforts like the one that put a man on the moon Twentieth-century America owed much of its produce the kinds of technology that can lift an economy security and economic strength to national and protect citizens in times of war or disaster. It takes a support for science and technology. Some government-size budget to fund those efforts, but the payback of the most revolutionary (and marketable) can be enormous. technologies of the past decades have been spun off research done under the banner of US space exploration: kidney-dialysis ma- chines, implantable pacemakers, affordable and accurate LASIK surgery, global-position- ing satellites, corrosion-resistant coatings for bridges and monuments (including the Statue of Liberty), hydroponic systems for Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist with the growing plants, collision-avoidance systems American Museum of Natural History in New York City, on aircraft, digital imaging, infrared handheld where he is also the Frederick P. Rose director of the cameras, cordless power tools, athletic shoes, Hayden Planetarium. Tyson has authored ten books and scratch-resistant sunglasses, virtual reality. served on two presidential commissions on the future of space exploration. This essay is adapted from And that list doesn’t even include Tang. his most recent book, Space Chronicles: Facing the Although solutions to a problem are often Ultimate Frontier. the fruit of direct investment in targeted

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K eyesurgery. h b ers Times e eyon g alaxy t an d A ! pollo d t ing in to have been inspired by, or attracted to, extraordinary talent who might not happen of inspiring missions,youattract people you organize large-scale, extraordinary, truth: when correct, butit’s the politically be answer maynot My aim atachallenge? interior with nary a cut from a surgeon. discover light rays that could probe the body’s took a physicist, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, to not occur naturally in biological systems. It never have known of X-rays, since they do other disciplines. Medical investigators might tend to emerge from cross-pollination with most revolutionarysolutions research, the Why not ask investigators to take direct g ne d for N ew T imes

imagine if instead I said, “Become an aero- than the ones your parents flew on.” But airplane that’s 20 percent more fuel efficient aerospace engineer so that you can build an I suppose I could say to them, “Become an soul of our species. robots but also with the mind, body, and lective backyard—explored not only with day when the solar system becomes our col- kind of technologist. I look forward to the that that create visionary intospace steps who create that kind of future. And it is not the people you turn to. It is technologists sectors that didn’t exist yesterday—those are come—if you want to spawn entire economic and culture. But if you want tomorrow to countless others, create the breadth of society and even professional athletes. They, among scientists and engineers. before them; they were thrilled to become force that responded to the dream unfurled and developed by a technically trained work- artist or professional athlete. It was invented PC did not arise from the mind of a banker or Steve Jobs, cofounder of Apple, was 14. The States landed an astronaut on the moon; Microsoft, was 13 years old when the United personal computer. Bill Gates, cofounder of generation of technologists who invented the tion, and the one that followed, was the same citizenry to aid in the effort. That genera- a man on the moon, Kennedy welcomed the Kennedy. Proclaiming the intention to land vision posed in 1961 by President John F. ment bankers, responded to a challenging who, instead of becoming lawyers or invest- from a generation of scientists and engineers projects. America has profited immensely ample funding for ambitious long-term and society comes about when you have hunger or pestilence. the goal of saving the world from cancer or When I stand in front of eighth graders, Yes, the world needs bankers and artists Today, cross-pollination between science

Top: © NASA—digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis Bottom: © CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/AP/Corbis space engineer so that you can design the T oday, cross-pollination between airfoil that will be the first piloted craft in the rarefied atmosphere of Mars.” “Become a science and society comes about biologist because we need people to look for when you have ample funding for life, not only on Mars but also on Europa and elsewhere in the galaxy.” “Become a chemist ambitious long-term projects. because we want to understand more about the elements on the moon and the molecules in space.” When you put that kind of vision out there, my job as science educator becomes Let’s not just talk about inspiration. Let’s easy, because I just have to point them to it talk about true innovation. People often and the ambition rises up in the students. ask, “If you like spinoff products, why not just The flame gets lit, and they’re self-guided on invest in those technologies straightaway, the path. instead of waiting for them to happen as NASA’s current budget sits just below a secondary or tertiary benefit?” The answer: $20 billion—sounds large. But the National it just doesn’t work that way. Let’s say you’re Institutes of Health has a $30 billion budget. a thermodynamicist, the world’s expert That’s fine. They ought to have a big budget, on heat, and you’re asked to build a better because health matters and everyone wants oven. You might invent a convection oven to live a long and healthy life. But most high- or an oven that’s better insulated or one tech medical equipment and procedures— that permits easier access to its contents. EEGs, EKGs, MRIs, PET scans, ultrasound, But no matter how much money I give you, X-rays—work on principles discovered by you will not invent a microwave oven, because physicists and are based on designs developed that came from another place. It came from by engineers. So you can’t just fund medicine; investments in communications, in radar. you have to fund the rest of what’s going The microwave oven is traceable to the war on. Cross-pollination is fundamental to effort, not to a thermodynamicist. the enterprise. That’s the kind of cross-pollination that What happens if you double NASA’s goes on all the time, and yes, it’s wacky. budget? The vision becomes big—it becomes It’s surprising. There’s no reason it should real. You attract an entire generation, and happen. But it does. And that’s why futurists generations to follow, to science and engi- get it wrong more often than not—they neering. Nowadays, everyone who spends observe current trends and just extrapolate. even a minute thinking about the next few They don’t see surprises. So they get the decades knows that all emergent markets in picture right for about five years into the the 21st century will be driven by science and future, and they’re hopeless after ten. technology. The foundations of every future If you double NASA’s budget, whole legions economy will require this. And what happens of students will fill the pipeline. Even when you stop innovating? Everyone else if they don’t become aerospace engineers, catches up, your jobs go overseas, and then scientifically literate people will rise up you cry foul: they’re paying them less over through the ranks—people who might invent there, and they’re giving huge subsidies to stuff and create the foundations of tomor- new industries, and the playing field is row’s economy. But that’s not all. Suppose not level. Well, it’s time to stop whining and the next terrorist attack is in the form of start innovating. biological warfare. Who are we going to call?

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Not the Marines. We want the best biologists lawyers or investment bankers, which is what in the world. If there’s chemical warfare, happened in the 1980s and 1990s. we want the best chemists. And we would So this $40 billion starts looking pretty have them, because they’d be working on cheap. It becomes not only an investment in problems relating to Mars, problems relating tomorrow’s economy but also an investment to Jupiter’s ice moon, Europa. We would in our security and in our dreams. Our most have attracted those people because the vision precious asset is our enthusiasm for what we was in place. They wouldn’t have become do as a nation. Marshal it. Cherish it. n

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