Space Station Gets Potty, Cold OJ: What Do World's Poor Get?

Really important newsflash today. The international space station is getting a remodel, including an additional half-bath, and for the first time, a refrigerator for keeping drinks and food cold (up until now the fridges have been exclusively for scientific use, and all beverages have been warm or hot). "It seems kind of trivial," one astronaut said, "but six months of lukewarm orange juice can kind of bum you out."

Yeah, you know what? It does seem kind of trivial. As much as 40% of the world's population lives without adequate sewage at all, and how many citizens of sub-Saharan Africa do you suppose have even seen a glass of orange juice in person, at any temperature?

Sorry, but I've never understood the American investment in the space program. Whatever benefits it may bring, most of them are invisible to the average person. And we have much bigger problems down here where that money could be better applied. But wait a minute, how much does it cost anyway? Is it really all that much?

Space authority Keith Cowing has pointed out our space spending compared to other costs: “Right now, all of America’s human space flight programs cost around $7 billion a year. That’s pennies per person per day. In 2006, according to the USDA, Americans spent more than $154 billion on alcohol. We spend around $10 billion a month in Iraq. And so on.”

Okay, so relatively, not much, which is fine if the United States is all alone on this planet, but we're not. And if the world's spending, resources, pollution, warfare, poverty, energy consumption, and everything else weren't interconnected, but they are. Those $7 billion dollars a year would do a lot more good somewhere else. Hell, they'd do a lot more good almost anywhere else.