The Pros And Cons Of Colonizing The Moon

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is perhaps the most well known space agency in the world. Since its formation in 19581, it has pioneered in space science, yet is also renowned for its large budget. NASA has the highest budget of any space agency, $18.6 billion2 in 2015, the equivalent of every American paying $54 towards the agency3, meaning 0.14% of total GDP is spent on NASA3 . This money is spent on the ISS, sending astronauts, probes and satellites into space, astrophysics and planetary science research, maintaining and developing NASA’s space telescopes (the Wide Field Infrared Survey telescope searching for dark energy and exoplanets, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope) and developing spacecraft2. Space exploration is an incredibly expensive process with one shuttle launch costing $450 million4 however NASA’s colossal budget benefits the USA greatly; the agency employs 18,000 people5 as astronauts, engineers, scientists and teachers and G. Scott Hubbard, former director of the NASA Ames Research Center estimates that every dollar spent on NASA returns $8 to the economy6.While this figure is an estimate, it demonstrates NASA’s worth and capacity for money making. NASA works on pioneering research and as its patents and licenses return to the US treasury, it

As for the people that think that going to the moon is a waste of resources. Helium-3 is an abundant resource on the moon- a rare molecule on earth. This can be used for future fusion energy and can virtually pay for the moon mission one-hundred times over. The amount of meteors that hit the moon is very high. Because of this, these meteorites can have materials in them that can help fuel the colony on the moon. But even if it isn’t profitable: Why would you not want to see a settlement on a place other than

To conclude my argument I can definitely say that space exploration is worth the cost. It generates wealth for America and can broaden the knowledge of many people across the country. As Kennedy said in his speech, “...we shall climb this wall with safety and speed and we shall explore the wonders on the other side.” With all the progress that has been made, humans can decide that space is indeed a

Some people’s counterarguments saying that it’s pointless and it provides no benefits to us shows that there is a lack of knowledge about space exploration among most people .The ‘Space Race’ i.e. the competition to travel to the moon, was the first political issue that actually became a rivalry between countries. Everybody seems to forget that if we weren’t able to go to space, we wouldn’t have discovered traces of water on other planets such as mars- On the 9th of December 2013; NASA reported that there was once a freshwater lake on the surface of Mars, and there are still traces of water in its atmosphere. This ultimately means that there could possibly be habitable planets in our universe, in our solar system! This could provide a place to go if there in any supernatural disaster, like an earthquake, tsunami or even an asteroid as

I am sure many questions were asked including, how will we do this, do we have the resources, and is there enough time. Interestingly enough, there was actually much debate as to whether it really was a good idea for the US to put such emphasis on sending a man to the moon. Many scientists questioned the decision, and

In a span of 20-50 years, I believe that it is possible colonizing planets excluding Earth. With the Moon being colonized first in my opinion, it will come with many challenges. One of the challenges of colonizing Moon

This 30 billion dollars equates to mere 300 billion dollars in 2016, enough to theoretically buy the moon and still have 120 billion dollars left. Most of this 30 billion dollars was spent trying to get a man on the moon. Kennedy launched this race to the moon in 1962, when he chose to go to the moon, “not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills” (Wikipedia). This proves that the US’s goal in reaching the moon was not to bring anything back, but to show that their “energies and skills” were the best. In this speech, Kennedy also asked congress to do something very risky. He asked congress to, “above and beyond the increases I have earlier requested for space activities, to provide the funds which are needed to meet the following national goal” (Science). Since congress had already exhausted most of its budget, this indirectly indicated a raise in taxes and loans from allying countries. This raise in taxation caused a number of varied feelings to surface, but nothing could stop Kennedy and his economically flawed

The concept of space exploration was first introduced to the American public in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy famously stood before congress and vowed that America would put a man on the moon “within the decade.” With hopes of defeating the Soviet Union in the “Space Race” and gaining a leg-up in the Cold War, NASA funding reached its all-time high in 1965-1966 when about four percent of the federal budget was devoted to exploring space. Since then however, funding dedicated to exploring space has nose-dived to about one-half of a percent of the federal budget (Tyson), with plans to cut that figure by an additional $260 million in 2017 (cite NASA funding cuts). Experts in the space-sciences field argue that increased funding in space exploration would re-ignite the American economy and return America to the scientific prominence it was once known for, while, on the other end of the spectrum, naysayers suggest that exploring space is an economic sink-hole that the United States can no longer afford to deposit to given its own earth-bound troubles.

Colonizing Mars would not only be a scientific breakthrough, but it would be extremely beneficial to the human race and their future. Mars would help humans in many ways by providing a planet for humans to fall back on if any bad event were to happen to Earth. Colonizing Mars would prove to be very helpful and rewarding. Also, many engineers and scientists like Elon Musk, founder of Space x and Tesla, are on board are on board with this futuristic idea.

When thinking about America being the first to go to the moon one should also address the program that was formed to make that dream possible. In 1958 the NASA program was organized in America to work on winning the “space race”. America was the first country to reach the moon and now is determined to be the first country to reach another planet. The U.S. is currently working on projects to be able to reach Mars, which means that they are making NASA focus on Mars, causing a decrease in funds for other projects. While going to space is not going to solve Earth's issues, the NASA program deserves more funding because the program explores other planets for medical purposes, receives less than other budgets, and provides protection for the planet.

Ideas such as colonizing another planet is not unheard of and if humans do not consider the possible impacts in a new environment, this can be detrimental. The article “A NASA-Funded engineer's plan to colonize Mars” from CNN was written by Kate Springer in 2017. One statement that made was, “I believe building in space is going to become commonplace in less than 50 years. There's an abundance of energy and materials (in space) -- all we have to do is design self-replicating factories and build a lot of objects. In a short time, our capability to manufacture in space will be many

Therefore, in order to fund a comparable program to Apollo, which put men on the moon, NASA would have to spend over half of its annual budget or over twice its current exploration budget on manned space flight for at least a decade, drastically narrowing their focus, and potentially inhibiting discoveries they will make. Figure 1 below shows that spending on manned space flight today is much lower than it was in the early days of NASA, confirming that there would need to be a major budget overhaul to achieve a comparable program

Ever since humanity has been able to look up and view the stars, forever gaining a better view, mankind has desired to go to space. Slowly gaining the ability of mobility, mankind has invented the wheel, then the automobile, and then aircraft. However, what lies in our recent past is the greatest achievement in reaching new frontiers so far - that is, reaching the moon. The Apollo 11 is responsible for accomplishing the basic mission of the Apollo Program; that is, to land two men on the lunar surface and return them safely to earth.

On July 21, 1969, the United States rocket Apollo 11 landed on the moon, marking a monumental and unprecedented feat of mankind. Culminated as the product of breakthrough innovations in engineering and physics and overwhelming government support (which granted NASA over 4% of the federal budget), the moon landing was the crowning moment of NASA’s accomplishments. At that time, a new era of space exploration seemed to be on the verge of occurrence. However, fifty years later, NASA has seemed to have fallen from its old glory, with the United States Federal government spending only 0.5% of the nation’s federal budget on its space endeavors. With increased concerns of NASA’s

The selling of hydrogen fuel would also offset the cost of future missions to the moon. Part of the profits that come in will go to funding future expeditions. Also, future expeditions will likely use the hydrogen fuel mined from the moon to continue colonizing the moon. After base operations are set up, researchers have predicted that sending a single crew to the moon would only cost $4.6 billion.