Good question. I think that sending people into space is a big waste of cash, when almost all the things they do can be done by machines these days. You have to multiply the cost of spaceflight many times to make sure you have a good chance of getting the astronauts back (they used to be called ‘spam in a can’ by folks in NASA in teh sixties). It seems like the only reason to send people into space is for ‘inspiration’ which is important, but all the evidence from teh Shuttle and Apollo missions is that after the first couple, the US public got bored, until something went horribly wrong. My money would go on the sort of stuff Bill Gates is spending his cash on, basic healthcare for the third world.

I suppose if I had to choose (an e.g., Barrack Obama does – there’s not much money for science), I would choose medical research. However, I really think space exploration is important; the ability to overcome the constraints of our own bodies and colonize hostile and alien environments is one of the few things that sets our species apart from others and which may have genuine survival value. I don’t think we should deny the urge to explore which, it seems to me, is deeply ingrained in us all. However, I don’t have much evidence to support this feeling, while the benefits of medical research are clear for everyone to see. That said, it would be better if medical advances focussed on improving the lives people live, rather than extending lifespan and directly or indirectly increasing human population. I think current human populations are probably unsustainable, and we would be better off in the long term if we could gradually reduce our numbers, by choosing to have fewer children. That doesn’t mean I think anyone alive today is less important and should be wiped out, of course – I’m not crazy!

If I was forced to choose, I would have to say developing new cures.

But I would like to think that we’d be able to do both. It is important to help to keep people alive and healthy but life isn’t so much fun if you don’t have dreams and can’t sometimes make those dreams a reality. I think that our adventures into space are among the most exciting things that humans have ever done. I really enjoyed the 40th anniversary celebrations of the moon landings last year – what an incredible achievement that was!

But I am probably influenced by my childhood passion for space & space rockets – in the late 1970s I got the chance (along with other schoolchildren) to meet the astronaut, Jim Irwin, who walked (and drove!) on the moon as part of Apollo 15. That was a fantastic experience!

That is a really good question. Obviously it is vitally important that we try to cure diseases here on Earth but I do still think there is a place for space travel. I don’t think the space budget takes anything away from the medical budget (although I have not got any numbers), but I think we need something like space travel to encourage us to learn more about the universe and even to create new technologies. Some space technology finds its way into hospitals in the form of imaging equipment.

Although I worked as an astronomer I would say that sending people into space is not really that important as most of the things people do can be done by machines. One example are the Mars rovers which are really smart robots that have revealed many new things about Mars and cost a fraction of the amount it would have cost to send people.
So lets continue to spend money on the relatively cheap robot space research but also keep working on Earth based things too.