Is Space Exploration A Waste Of Money?

For many years humans have been exploring space to discover the unknown and fuel their curious and adventurous nature, but the decision of whether space exploration is worth the cost is strongly debated. Due to various arguments and evidence space exploration is strongly supported is proven to be worth the cost. Some of these reasons include space exploration being able to expand our knowledge and it being able to generate wealth. With these reasons the argument of whether space exploration is worth the risk can be easily decided.

In the past 50 years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has sent out many planned space exploration missions which have lead to numerous advantages in society and culture. NASA’s technologies benefit American lives with the innumerable important breakthroughs by creating new markets that have spurred the economy and changed countless lives in many ways. NASA is a federal agency and receives its fundings from the annual federal budget passed by the United States Congress. However, there are conflicting opinions that consider whether or not funding for NASA is a waste of government spending.

Funding manned spaceflight is a great way to advance technology, not just for NASA but us too. Around 2,000 inventions we use today were created by NASA. These inventions are known as space spinoffs. Things you use every day may not have been invented if it wasn’t for space travel. For example, something you probably carry around with you every day, and middle schoolers like us especially love, is the smart phone. Think of your life without a phone. Our communication would be completely different. Another example is memory foam. Memory foam was created by NASA to absorb impact inside spacecrafts, and spacesuits. Today memory foam is in many of our mattresses, pillows, and shoes. NASA also developed scratch resistant glasses that are very cheap, and many people have it in their glasses. More examples of spin-offs are baby food, braces, and thermometers. Without funding NASA, we wouldn't have thousands of inventions that we use on a daily

For centuries, people have been gazing at the night sky, and asking the same question; what is out there? While we may never get a concise answer, we are learning more and more information everyday thanks to public organizations like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA is the go to organization when talking about space research, however there are numerous other groups who focus on the same thing that NASA does. There are also private entities that are consistently making breakthrough discoveries as well, with the most widely known one being SpaceX. Since there are so many organizations doing exactly what NASA does, is NASA worth our tax dollars? In order to set up a solid foundation to answer this question, we

Through innovation in technology, the space exploration programs of the United States have achieved several benefits for today’s society. Many studies have shown that space programs have encouraged innovation of various

Although space exploration is now being emphasized on and invested in, what does this do to benefit earth or even every individual who lives on Earth? Many writers, engineers, mathematicians, and chemists can agree that space exploration is going to provide more research for medicine and environmental factors. Others may also argue that the risks of exploring another planet will be too damaging because the life or atmosphere as it is will not be the same after humans have made their print on it.

Space exploration funding has been drastically reduced since the conclusion of the Space Race. Even though the Space Race is no longer relevant, it has positively affected human civilization, and we should continue to invest in space exploration to continue this trend. The first and primary reason we should continue to work with space is to aid industries on earth. Most notable is the use of satellites for purposes such as commercial communications, the GPS system, and meteorology. The second reason is because humans have an inherent hunger for knowledge, and space funding helps us develop technology for seeing what’s beyond earth. Space probes such as New Horizons and telescopes such as the James Webb Telescope have expanded our knowledge

Furthermore, NASA is discovering other planets that we could eventually inhabit once the population is too large for Earth or conditions are no longer suitable for life. NASA has sent a telescope into space to follow through on their mission to find another planet like Earth: “The Kepler Mission is specifically designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover dozens of Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets,” (Kepler:). Huge progress has been made with this mission, as there have been almost 4,000 planets found that can possibly suit life as we know it (Kepler:). The Kepler Mission is not the only project of NASA’s that is looking for habitable planets, however. One project much nearer to Earth is the Mars Exploration Program. NASA have collected a large amount of data and are by far the most successful program in the world as far as Mars exploration is concerned (Historical).

“Your world is as big as you make it”. Georgia Douglas Johnson once said in her poem “Your World”. Space exploration allows America to generate a great amount of money. If America continues space exploration, new discoveries can be made. Greater wealth and new discoveries could and will better America. This is why space exploration is worth the cost.

The government needs to continue their space programs because the Earth is running low on natural resources. If through space programs we could find a “new Earth”  we could possible save our earth

2,271 satellites in space right now according to The Goddard Space Flight Center's lists. Satellites are helping astronauts discover new things and uncover mysteries. The first satellite that was put into orbit was about sixty years ago. Space exploration is a big debate right now. About half of the U.S population wants the money to go to another organization, rather than space, and the other half thinks the money that is being spent in space, is where it needs to be going. Space exploration is beneficial because NASA missions are not using as much of the U.S budget Americans think they are, and medical and health fields are becoming even more advanced through the NASA missions.

You hear a lot of people saying that space research is cool but it is typically a waste of money and valuable resources that could be used to benefit our own planet and the many problems that we have all over earth today. But I completely, one hundred percent agree on the further exploration of space for different reasons such as: we are living in a virtual age where everything is done with smart phones and computers and physical exploration is much needed. Second it can actually help the economy in multiple ways not just waste money. Lastly It also guarantees the development of good technology, not only with companies, but among the younger people who need to be inspired through the educational systems we have in America.

The mysterious vastness beyond Earth has allured many scientists to explore and contribute much of their effort to the understanding of space. Although humans have been looking up at space for thousands of years, the physical exploration of this frontier has been only going on for the past few decades. Our current understanding of space is unparalleled to any time before in our history, but we still only know a small fraction of what there is to learn. Governments around the world spend about $40 billion dollars a year (Rockefeller, 2010) hoping to undertake tasks such as “human exploration of the solar system” to discovering the origins of life itself (Tatarewicz, 2009, p. 531). Recently, the private sector has also shown interest in space exploration in order to engage in profitable activities such as harnessing minerals from asteroids. Although it is easy to debate about the benefits and negatives of space exploration in its entirety, it is simpler focus on one aspect of it - the direct effect it has to those down on Earth. Rather than trying to decide whether or not going to other planets is worth it, this paper will argue about the value of the terrestrial benefits of space exploration. It is an important topic to think about as programs such as space exploration change lives and help acquire knowledge. Despite the large costs associated with space exploration, the multitude of discoveries in the past few decades has greatly improved daily life on Earth, the jobs the

This article is useful to my research because of the analysis of the relationship between each step in space exploration and the possible benefits in the science field. Although this article is shorter than most of other resources, it clearly explains the whole processes of space exploration as a benign cycle, space resources produce economy, economy provides technologies, technologies creates opportunities to future exploration, future exploration leads to more discoveries and resources, and then back to increase in economy. It is a unique perspective of explaining the reason why we need to explore outer space and mining resources, each step produces considerable benefits.

Humans have always been interested in space and the wonder in which it may hold. In the past, humans worshiped the stars as if they were gods while also studying their position to give them guidance for their lives. Their interested in space has fathered the desire to know more. Today, space has been seen by many as the new frontier or the home beyond earth. Society have even taken a step forward through the creation of stories in books and movies based of the idea of humans living in space and the present of alliances. Yet there is still controversy on the need to continue space exploration when our own planet has so many detrimental problems. There is an ongoing debate on whether not the money used for space travel could be better beneficially use for other causes. It is true that space exploration costs billions of dollars a year alone according to NASA current budget, which is constantly increasing. However, what many refuses to understand is that without space exploration many of the innovations that we have today would not have existed. While there have been, many failed attempts involving space exploration that has caused a tremendous amount of money to go down the drain. However, many people fail to realize the benefits of space exploration and the possible future it may