However, it pumped a lot of money into the American economy and generated countless useful inventions such as computers, microchips, electric vehicles, various components of everyday machines and appliances, and, of course, satellite technology, which gave us affordable and practical telecommunications and, therefore, the Information Age itself. Today it is extremely difficult for us to imagine our daily lives without personal computers, the internet and mobile phones.

In addition, when the Apollo astronauts photographed the earth (from the Moon) as a tiny dot of life in a mostly dead universe, we began to realise how precious and limited it is and this is what gave rise to the current and vital environmental movement that still continues to this day. Therefore, if more were able to have this unique experience, even if remotely, they would also be encouraged to take better care of our planet.

Some may still argue that the US $20 billion (think about how much that will be today when adjusted for inflation) could have been put to better use if pumped into solving a major world problem, such as poverty in the Third World. If it only costs a mere NZ $600 (according to World Vision NZ) to feed a starving child for a year, why should we invest countless billions into a dead rock up in the sky??? This is a very good point and a no-brainer to anyone who is truly human but, in practice, the story is a little different. The money put into the US Space Program brought about a whole new era of technology and a lot of economic growth whereas money sent to poor regions that desperately need it usually gets gobbled up by corrupt government officials and corporates who think they are gods. What’s left for those who are actually suffering can be very little indeed, if anything. We have all heard about charities who put more of their donations into operating expenses as opposed to the actual causes they operate for. What we need to do instead is teach those in need (whether here or abroad) how to survive and thrive on their own local resources and opportunities so they can do just that and become both independent and self-sufficient – or they will always be depending on someone else. As the old saying goes: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. There is nothing more valuable than education whether it is for a tiny village in a developing country or a lucky child growing up in a wealthy family in NZ. Perfect examples of countries that are doing this are China and India. Such countries were labelled as Third World – as recent as the 1990s for India and the 1980s for China – and now we are labelling them as upcoming superpowers that can compete with the US and Europe! Remember, nothing is impossible.

Some may still protest that there are many more important problems to solve and focus on than flying off into space. The reality is that we need to have a hand in all fields to truly progress in life. Taking the attitude that ‘we will get to it when all our other problems are solved’ will get us nowhere because there will never be a time when all our problems are solved. In fact, even if we went through all our current problems and solved them, another set of problems would immediately emerge. For example, we once tried to solve the problem of the scarcity of food in the Western world with easily available and much cheaper food. While it solved one problem it eventually led to another: obesity. We once strived to give everyone a car when they were rare and only the rich could afford them – and now we face constant traffic, car crashes, dwindling oil reserves and climate change on a global scale. It is a bit like the father who says he will take his family on that dream vacation to the Gold Coast when all his problems are solved. As you have probably already guessed, the vacation never happens. Put simply, we need to pay attention to and focus on all fields that require improvement, including space travel.

Coming back to the Moon, colonising it will provide us with a ‘backup’ of all life on earth so if a huge disaster ruins one of these planetary bodies the other is there to continue existing. On this note, many will argue that we have no right to spoil another planetary body in the same way we have done with earth. However, the Moon, and Mars for that matter, are seriously different in the sense that by colonising them we would giving them life, not taking it away. They are already dead and I (Hursh Saha) truly believe that if there is anything we can do to make up for all the destruction we have caused to life on this planet it is by spreading it to other planets to make it less endangered and longer lasting. It is Carl Sagan who once said, All civilisations become either spacefaring or extinct. The only alternative is to stick to earth and dramatically curb both population growth and consumption with the simultaneous replacing of every little morsel we consume from the environment so we don’t kill the planet – all the while waiting for an eventual (probably inevitable) global disaster to completely wipe us out. When put this way the answer really is obvious.