When talking about the current space program, Neil Degrasse Tyson once said, “I got angry with America, because advancing is not just something you do incrementally. You need innovation as well, so that your advances are revolutionary, not merely evolutionary” (Tyson 3). America used to have the top space program in the world. Being first to the moon excited the country and gave everyone a sense of pride and fulfillment. Lately, though, we have been falling behind in space exploration. A successful space program is needed in America, and here’s why: we are losing our grip on the title as the world superpower and a new age of economics and politics is coming faster than we are prepared for. To be prepared for this new age we need the funds, The most deadly of those threats: asteroids. Don Yeoman, an employee at the Jet Propulsion Lab, a NASA facility, tracks over 600,000 asteroids every day. He figures out which ones are coming our way, and whether or not they are a threat (Kluger 1). Astronomers estimate that one in a thousand asteroids that pass our Earth will hit us (Booth 98). This may not seem like very many, until you consider that we are hit with at least one basketball sized asteroid every day (Kluger 6). So what happens when our one sizeable asteroid a day ends up to be the size of a mountain? Well if it happened today, we would surely be dead. Wiped out just like the dinosaurs. There is currently no way to deflect a deadly asteroid. It is estimated that we would have to know the asteroid was coming for us ten years in advance so that we would have enough time to design a spacecraft capable of saving our planet (Kluger 4). Ten years may sound like a long time, but space is unpredictable. An asteroid could be knocked off its regular path and come straight towards us. In 2013, the asteroid Chelyabinsk exploded over Russia injuring 1,600 people and damaging 7,300 buildings; thankfully the budget for asteroid tracking went from $20 million to $40 million after this catastrophe (3). Situations like these are why we need to make an asteroid-redirect spacecraft a top priority. Capitol Hill, however, did not like the More cost effective modes of space transportation are completely necessary to make further exploration possible. One new, cost effective design is the aerospaceplane. These spacecrafts are totally reusable and can take off and land like a normal plane (Booth 80). Anything reusable cuts costs. Many commercial spaceflight companies are interested in this design because so much money can be saved. There are also military uses for aerospaceplanes, just a few of these extremely fast and efficient vehicles could replace fleets of regular bombers (80). Another cost effective option for space travel is the solar sail. Solar sails work because solar photons have pressure that pushes the sail away from the sun (100). A spacecraft with a solar sail could reach Mars in the same amount of time it would take a rocket, so it is a cheap, renewable method of travel (100). This is exactly what we need to make it to Mars. It is cost-effective and works as well as any other propulsion system. There is still much farther to go in space. So much more to discover. At the speed of a current spacecraf it would take 80,000 years to reach the nearest star to Earth (108). How are we supposed to learn about other places when it would take about 2,000 generations of scientists before we could finally reach a star? Faster space travel is needed to make any new deep-space discoveries. There really are cost-effective options for space travel. Once we have
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was booming in the late 1960 's because the U.S. invested over 4.5 percent of the Federal Budget (Bolden). Unfortunately, in the recent years the Government has slashed funding for many of NASA’s projects in an attempt to cut back on the deficit and boost the economy. Despite the plummet in NASA 's budget, the program has proved that it 's prominence in the U.S., space programs like NASA continue to face difficulty in increasing its funds. Although, NASA leads Evidently, the government doesn 't think NASA is worth more than 0.47 percent of the federal budget. NASA is being underfunded and its funding should be substantially increased to make ends meet. This trend needs
For some reason, NASA is just perfectly fine with watching men and women die right in front of them on their own computer screens. The man has been stuck up on Mars for 687 sols. That is 708 days in earth terms. Yes, he is the first person on to not only live, but survive on Mars for 708 days. That gives his hometown some huge publicity and major fame. All of this could have been avoided though. Mark could not gotten severely hurt during the mission. Mark could not have died multiple times while living on Mars. He could have not had to travel with one rover and all the way to the MAV. He could have not lived on limited water, while almost killing himself trying to create more water, while trying to maintain
(Marshall, 2017) This is a prime example of competition at its finest. All America wants is to be able to say that they accomplished something first. This once happened during the space race era and will continue to happen with increased funding for NASA. The program will continue creating new inventions.
These are the reasons why I believe there should be more investment in space research and technology. It would be a time consuming and financially draining quest, but the pay off in new technology, applications, resources, and expansion opportunities make it a goal to strive for. As our rate of consumption of Earth’s natural resources continues to increase, it is imperative that we invest in the research of outer space as a possible solution to sustaining the human race.
Space exploration needs advancing scientific research, more machineries and equipments which means that it would cost us a lot of
It is within man’s blood and nature to explore, and space is our next New World. Man’s first achievement in space travel was the launch of the Sputnik on October 4, 1957. For the next decades, space travel was roaring like a rocket, fueled by man’s desire to explore, man’s desire for knowledge, and man’s desire to beat his enemies. However, these impulses have died out as the well of government funding has been diverted to wars and debts, and the interest of the American people has been diverted to wars and debts. Amidst all these issues it is debated as to whether or not space travel is worth the money and the attention of scientists, particularly since humanity faces so many issues on earth currently. However, because of the past inventions, current services, and future benefits, space travel is indeed worth the money and attention of governments and people. It is within our hands to control man’s advancement, and space travel is the next venue to do so.
The National Space Policy has undergone changes throughout its new creation on August 31, 2006, under both the Obama administration and the Bush administration. The act originally was established for overarching national policies that governed the conduct of U.S space activities. President Dwight Eisenhower said “More than by any other imaginative concept, the mind of man is aroused by the thought of exploring the mysteries of outer space. Through such exploration, man hopes to broaden his horizons, add to his knowledge, improve his way of living on Earth.” With that statement, is where our time in space begins.
[Transition: Let’s start by examining the cost benefits of exploring the ocean instead of outer space]
What’s so important about asteroid studies? This is not a typical question asked, but still it is very important. I think NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) should fund asteroid studies because we need safety for Earth, more resources, and the U.S. is very competitive with everything involving space and traveling, in order to learn. When we have the studies for asteroids it can help us learn both commonly and safety. Let's explore some of the reasons why NASA should fund asteroid studies.
Carl Sagan once said “every planetary civilization will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring—not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive. If our long-term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds.” The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, is executing Sagan’s words every day. President Dwight D. Eisenhower created NASA in 1958 with the purpose of peaceful rather than military space exploration and research to contribute to society. Just 11 years after the creation, NASA put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon, the first humans to accomplish this feat.
When it comes to space travel, the humans have come along way from where they started, and there are many possibilities for more advanced space travel. Space programs have very high tech technology that raises lots of possibilities for future space travel. The article says, “ …..a range of potential missions. We are investing in technologies that provide large returns, and maximizing flexibility and adaptability through commonality, modularity, and reusability. ”(Schierholz)
The two main technologies that are working towards cutting down the costs of space exploration are reusable rockets and the space elevator. Both of these ideas will cut down on the cost of getting payloads to orbit. The idea of reusable rockets means that space programs wouldn’t have to make new rockets for each launch. The idea of the space elevator would allow better payload efficiency and easier access to space, because it wouldn’t have to deal with fuel or the obstacle of gravity. Even though the space elevator may take more time than the more well known reusable rockets it is still the best way to cut down on costs of space exploration in the future.
Not only that, but our population has been growing at an extremely alarming rate. At our current rate, our species may not be able to survive for much longer. This is where space exploration comes in. With the recent discovery of water on Mars, and the finding of Kepler-78b, it is possible that mankind can prolong our existence. The possibility of interstellar travel seems to be an option, or even a necessity, if we wish to continue living.
Most people think that the costly downside to funding space exploration is a reason to avoid spending money on sciences and instead spend it on problems here on earth, but such funding for space exploration actually promotes economical as well as scientific benefits. Space exploration is an important expenditure for the high cost because of the potential for numerous benefits such as the possibility to find useful resources to cultivate, space exploration and satellites produce many thousands of jobs in our economy, and it creates and discovers newer and better technologies through research and development.
Space exploration is very beneficial to humankind because it creates new technologies, it brings different countries together, and gives people a better understanding of our Earth.