Why spend money exploring space when you can feed the hungry? Fil-Am NASA engineer answers

Gregory Villar III discusses space exploration. Aya Tantiangco

The success of science fiction movies like "The Martian" and the continuing love for the "Star Trek" franchise doesn't always translate into automatic support for going where no man has gone before. 

The Philippines' DIWATA-1 project, for example, was far from unanimously celebrated. Its launch was a historic moment, but some asked: "Why spend money on this microsatellite? Why not use the money to help the poor?"

The same question is thrown at space exploration agencies from relatively more prosperous countries like the United States.

During a talk about the Mars Rover on Thursday, Filipino-American NASA engineer Gregory Villar III from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shared his thoughts on the matter.

Villar spoke before an audience of high school and college students at the National Institute of Physics at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, putting spending on science and technology in perspective.

"I'm going to use the US budget... but actually, everything NASA does is less than 1% of the overall American budget," Villar said. "If there's a hundred dollars, we're using just one cent to build not just Curiosity, but everything NASA does.

"It's beyond me to understand where that money is going to go to alleviate poverty — the only thing I can say is that NASA is operating on a very, very, very small amount of money."

He noted that the NASA mandate goes far beyond space exploration.

"NASA is also not just building space crafts and satellites, we're also developing technology, which help third world countries or cure patients," he said.

"Every time we built a technology, it helps the earth, too." 

Villar did not forgot to stress that exploration itself is a reward. We're just widening the scope from mountain peaks to neighboring planets. —JST, GMA News