I appreciated Professor Loeb’s belief in transparency in scientific research because, as he argues, transparency increases credibility. The public is capable of understanding how something may or may not be true whenever someone says something, as we know because of the vast amount of information, both true and false, we see on our phones every day. Allowing people into the process of debate allows people to see how consensus is formed which ends up strengthening scientific arguments. However, especially since the landing of the rover on Mars, I have been thinking about the general public’s relative lack of interest in space exploration compared to the days of the moon landing. I believe that one of the driving forces behind this decreased interest in the science of space is the lack of connection that it has to the many problems we face as a society. My question for Professor Loeb is how can we balance a very big picture, “humans are irrelevant because we are less than a grain of sand on all of the beaches in the world” view of space exploration with a view of the cosmos that remains relevant to the world around us? Do you think we have a need to balance these views in studying the space outside of our planet?
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