The reason you can post your comment IS the result of the 'space race'.
No argument from me on the technological advancements made from the space program. My complaint is about the ”necessity” for humans to ride in long journeys beyond earth orbit. The huge expenditure to life-support humans that are mostly mere occupants and television gags is a huge and dangerous waste.
Example: The reason stated for this latest mission was to “test” the life-support systems and to repetitiously exercise onboard systems.
Without humans… the majority of that mission was unnecessary….and the money could have been better spent developing the technology to accomplish the mission without humans. THOSE technology advancements would better benefit us here on earth than watch joy-riders on TV keep a microphone “floating” in front of the camera.
IMO
(Landing, collecting samples, conducting experiments using robotics has already been well-done by NASA on Mars and by the Chinese agency on the So. Pole of the moon. Adding living human passengers doesn’t make the “juice worth the squeeze”.)
It is NOT a “lot easier” to go to Mars than to the bottom of the ocean.
WE’VE ALREADY BEEN to the bottom of the ocean Hundreds of Times…and so have the Russians.
That activity also does not require Huge Amounts of Energy to get Back! …the energy folks seem to believe is a simple mater of sticking electrodes in a glass of water.
As for the Titan-loss and the complexity of deep-diving the oceans: It was old knowledge how to get down to the Titanic without imploding: Don’t use fragile composites and gaming-controllers to do real work down there. How do you think the Many-other dives down there to film the wreck was so successful..? Ans: Don’t use paper-mache’ vehicles. Doh.
