The Pros and Cons of Human Spaceflight

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As humans our desire to visit space has never ceased, but our scientific advances have so far only allowed manned visits to the moon. There are many political factors that influence the ongoing attempts to engineer space tourism and future missions to Mars. High costs and risks involved in spaceflight due to the longevity in space and the effects of cosmic rays have been many of the setbacks in making it a reality. The United States is currently unable to conduct human spaceflight after losing its capability to launch upon the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011. China National Space Administration and Russia Federal Space Agency are the only two government facilities that continue sending humans to space. Should spaceflight agencies continue manned missions to outer space? Global issues among many other problems have been improved due to necessary collaborations made in the name of science and exploration of foreign territory; revolutionary innovations have been engineered in order to secure the safety of astronauts, and our environment has been harmed in the process as gases that break ozone molecules apart are released into the stratosphere.
I wondered: Is it wise to continue the funding of NASA for future space travels? To answer my question I decided to research the monetary costs of traveling to space. I found that the costs for visiting alien planets are extremely high. I decided to look up a rough estimate of how much a trip to the moon would cost for tourists and was astounded to find out that it is around $100 million (Gilman). I also came across a news article about President Barack Obama signing a 17.6 billion dollar NASA budget that will be used to focus on missions beyond Earth's orbit (Clark). Since articles t...

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Lali, Mehdi. "Analysis and Design of a Human Spaceflight to Mars, Europa, and Titan." AIP Conference Proceedings 1208.1 (2010): 557-565. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 February 2014.
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “FY 2014 President’s Budget Request Summary.” nasa.gov (2014): astro-7. Web. 6 February 2014. .
Rosenthal, Elisabeth. “Doctors Trying Coral for Skeletal Repairs.” The New York Times 2 July 1991. Print.
< http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/02/health/doctors-trying-coral-for-skeletal-repairs.html>.
"Spaceman in a Crater." Bones. Dir. Jeannot Szwarc. Fox. California. 9 May 2007. Television.

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