Fix Humankind's Problems v. Space Exploration

I read an article by Lee Vinson where he said, “I agree that exploration is a human drive—saying it is a “need” might require more evidence. Our question is where that drive falls in the hierarchy of moral priorities. Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” is a decent analogy: why spend money going to Mars to feed our “need to explore” when so many people on this planet don’t have basic needs met?” 

My response is as follows:

1.    We can do both, it’s not a binary choice.

2.    At no point in our history have all basic needs been met.

3.    On this planet, extinction is the rule – not the exception. Over 90% of the species that ever existed here are gone. Humans are not exempt from the rule. It is likely that something will happen to humans on Earth that extinguishes all our basic needs (you pick the causal event). If our ancestors never explored out of Africa until their basic needs were met, I doubt Homo Sapiens would be around to have this discussion today.

Space exploration (and NASA, in particular) is a Research and Development engine. The amazing discoveries and technologies that they invent for a particular mission are available to be applied or re-purposed to solve other problems. NASA is the only US Federal agency with technology available on its website (technology.NASA.gov).  They are now licensing patents out to the public at the rate of 150- 170 patents each year. The software is free. I have incorporated some of these discoveries in my book.