Mastodawn

I'm as fascinated by the Artemis II mission as many other people, but as scientist I'm frustrated that experts interviewed about it in the media are rarely asked to justify the truly astronomical cost. So far the program is reported to have cost $93Bn, with the direct costs of this mission alone amounting to more than $4Bn. I'm perhaps particularly sensitive to this because I'm frequently asked to justify funding three orders of magnitude smaller that we have used to improve knowledge of how the Antarctic ice sheet will respond to climate change and contribute to future sea-level rise.

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Ewen Bell 📸

@PoLaRobs

This comes across like a zero-sum equation. I think back to the likes of Carl Sagan and the arguments for space missions, and many many other scientific endeavours. I like to think the question isn't so much "why spend this much money on space exploration" and more "why don't we spend more on health and education at home" instead of weapons of war or corporate welfare.

I also feel too much of science careers are spent justifying money and efficiency and relevance, instead of encouraging innovation. Universities have been forced into justifying their capacity to serve industry, instead of serving society. Same goes for Arts funding. We need humanities skills as much as knowledge itself.

I just listened to a fascinating talk by the late Stephen Garton on this topic:
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/bigideas/stephen-garton-universities-humanities-academy-lecture/106341138

Can an arts degree change the world? A defence of the study humanities at Australian universities - ABC listen

Universities are under pressure — particularly the study of subjects like languages, history, social sciences and the creative arts. This lecture looks back to a time, post war, when governments turned to universities to transform Australia's economy and society, and backed it up with significant investment and oversight. In the face of contemporary challenges, is it time once again to rethink the purpose of universities — and particularly the study of the humanities — to equip Australia with the skills it needs to survive and thrive in the 21st century? Stephen Garton's Australian Academy of the Humanities Annual Lecture "When Universities Mattered" was recorded on 12 November 2025. An edited version of this lecture is published in the March issue of the Australian Book Review. Speakers Stephen Garton Professor of history, President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, former Vice-Chancellor, University of Sydney, former Dean of the Faculty of Arts From the archives: Is our university system broken? With Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner and Dr Ben Eltham, Big Ideas, 4 September 2025 Further information: Vale Graeme Turner Australian Academy of the Humanities obituary, November 2025

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Rob Larter 1d ago

@ewen
I agree with most of that, but resources are finite and when spending on a particular endeavour runs into billions of dollars I think it is right to ask what the benefits are. When numbers get that large many people lose all sense of proportion. I agree that there is value to space exploration in general, but I question whether it is necessary for missions to be crewed.
I absolutely agree we spend too much time justifying research. If the proportion of their working hours academics spend writing research proposals that are never funded (in the UK at least) was widely known it would be a national scadal.