How Much Is an Astronaut's Life Worth?
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How Much Is an Astronaut's Life Worth?
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Re: How Much Is an Astronaut's Life Worth?
#2This article ended up being more interesting than I expected. Particularly noteworthy is the point that if a program sets an unusually high value on human life, it diverts resources from other programs also intended to protect human life, and thus brings about LESSENED protection of human life through that drain on resources. This provides thoughtful perspective on policy trade-offs. As Thomas Sowell has written, "The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics."
Re: How Much Is an Astronaut's Life Worth?
#3This article ended up being more interesting than I expected. Particularly noteworthy is the point that if a program sets an unusually high value on human life, it diverts resources from other programs also intended to protect human life, and thus brings about LESSENED protection of human life through that drain on resources. This provides thoughtful perspective on policy trade-offs. As Thomas Sowell has written, "Th…
I did find the policy of rejecting proposals with costs higher than $3MM/life-saved very interesting. If saving lives made up the entire extent of the federal budget, that sort of thing would clearly be appropriate. But as it is, is the money saved by the rejection of such proposals always redirected back into other lifesaving efforts?
If not, that would also seem to imply that a life's value is significantly less than $3MM. The author does specify that that figure is an upper limit.
Re: How Much Is an Astronaut's Life Worth?
#4This article ended up being more interesting than I expected. Particularly noteworthy is the point that if a program sets an unusually high value on human life, it diverts resources from other programs also intended to protect human life, and thus brings about LESSENED protection of human life through that drain on resources. This provides thoughtful perspective on policy trade-offs. As Thomas Sowell has written, "Th…
I did find the policy of rejecting proposals with costs higher than $3MM/life-saved very interesting. If saving lives made up the entire extent of the federal budget, that sort of thing would clearly be appropriate. But as it is, is the money saved by the rejection of such proposals always redirected back into other lifesaving efforts? If not, that would also seem to imply that a life's value is significantly less th…
>But as it is, is the money saved by the rejection of such proposals always redirected back into other lifesaving efforts?
>If not, that would also seem to imply that a life's value is significantly less than $3MM. The author does specify that that figure is an upper limit.
No, it would just imply that we value other things. Also, it's crazy to think we can infer a consistent set of societal preferences from government actions. Individual humans aren't even consistent, much less when they get into groups.
Re: How Much Is an Astronaut's Life Worth?
#5Space is dangerous. We should stop pretending it can be made "safe". It just gives politicians something to wag their tongues at when something inevitably goes wrong.
If you go to space you might not come back. That's why explorers rock and everyone else watches TV.
The article also misses an important variable. How much is discovery worth? Once that's added to the plus column, all of the other costs seem insignificant.
Re: How Much Is an Astronaut's Life Worth?
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
I did find the policy of rejecting proposals with costs higher than $3MM/life-saved very interesting. If saving lives made up the entire extent of the federal budget, that sort of thing would clearly be appropriate. But as it is, is the money saved by the rejection of such proposals always redirected back into other lifesaving efforts? If not, that would also seem to imply that a life's value is significantly less th…
>But as it is, is the money saved by the rejection of such proposals always redirected back into other lifesaving efforts? >If not, that would also seem to imply that a life's value is significantly less than $3MM. The author does specify that that figure is an upper limit. No, it would just imply that we value other things. Also, it's crazy to think we can infer a consistent set of societal preferences from governme…
Of course I was referring to the apparent value based on the metric used in the article, and not any socially normative value.
Re: How Much Is an Astronaut's Life Worth?
#7maybe in bad taste, but made me think of this 'art' http://www.astronautsuicides.com/
Re: How Much Is an Astronaut's Life Worth?
#8Space is dangerous. We should stop pretending it can be made "safe". It just gives politicians something to wag their tongues at when something inevitably goes wrong. If you go to space you might not come back. That's why explorers rock and everyone else watches TV. The article also misses an important variable. How much is discovery worth? Once that's added to the plus column, all of the other costs seem insignifica…
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Re: How Much Is an Astronaut's Life Worth?
#9"We are going to have failures. There are going to be sacrifices made in the program; we've been lucky so far. If we die, we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life." — Virgil 'Gus' Grissom.
It seems like most of the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo era astronauts felt like their lives came second to mission success. I'm sure there are plenty of astronauts that feel the same way today.
With a pool of astronauts willing to take reasonable risks to advance space exploration, it's the NASA management that has been responsible for disallowing the more dangerous missions. On the one hand that's tragic, but on the other it makes sense from a PR perspective. With each spaceflight tragedy there has been a backlash from taxpayers and Congress. Politicians will use spaceflight accidents to push agendas that cut funding, etc.
NASA has to walk a fine line between keeping the program safe enough to maintain funding and adventurous enough to make gains in space exploration. I think in early NASA it was easier to justify the human cost of accidents because of Cold War pressure, but now there is a harder time with this justification and thus the huge emphasis on safety.
Re: How Much Is an Astronaut's Life Worth?
#10This article answered for me one of those things I'd always wondered but never took time to figure out: why no one has been back to the moon even though our technology has advanced exponentially in the last 40 years. An irrational emphasis on risk makes perfect sense.
Still doesn't explain why no other country has done it, though. Well, except for the boring explanations about high costs and no immediate benefits besides bragging rights...