The last letter I ever received from that great scientist processor J.B.S Haldane was written when he was dying of cancer and in considerable pain from his operations.

In it, he said what a boon the weightless environment of a space hospital would be to patients like himself, not to mention burn victims, suffers from heart complaints, and those afflicted with muscle diseases.

I am convinced that research in space will open up unguessed regions of medical knowledge and give us a vast range of new therapies.

So I get pretty mad when I hear ignorant but well-intentioned people ask, Why not spend the space budget on something useful, like cancer research?

When we do find a cancer cure, part of the basic knowledge will come from space. And ultimately we will find even more important secrets there, perhaps some day, a cure for death itself.