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I am often asked this question by members of the general public, and, since I am known to most people who meet me as an enthusiast for space exploration and colonization as well, the question is put to me even more forcefully. Let us face this question head on. Firstly, there are several lessons to be learned from astronomy and space science for our life on Earth. In science, learning from extreme cases usually gives …

…into space, just as the amphibians crawled onto a hostile and virgin land, out of necessity. There are many reasons for astronomy and astronautics - adventure, science, biomedicine, new materials, tourism and new sources of energy - to name a few. A trillion tons of rock travelling towards us at 60 kilometres per second is, however, unanswerable. As Arthur C. Clarke has said - "The dinosaurs became extinct because they did not have a space programme".