To give up on space exploration due to financial restraints is like giving up on science in general. Just like the world is much bigger than our neighborhood, city, state and even country, so is science bigger than our planet. We must continue to reach out to other planets to find knowledge that may make our life on this planet more meaningful and better. The science fiction of yesterday always seems to become the science of today. Television shows like Star Trek and Star Wars have elements that are just now being developed within our lifetime.
Currently, a market forming is around the larger companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, the real world implications of the companies have began to progress from prototyping their designs to fulfilling their first goals in almost half the time that it took NASA to put a man on the moon. The competition with private companies controlling the space industry will lead to strong and quicker advances in space exploration and travel. Every revolutionary idea passes through three stages of reaction: 1. It’s impossible. 2.
Is it wise to continue the funding of NASA for future space travels? The health risks involved in visiting alien planets are extremely high as well as the cost for the roundtrip, which has been estimated to be between 6 to 500 billion dollars for various crewed programs. President Barack Obama has recently signed a 17.6 billion dollar NASA budget that will be used to focus on missions beyond Earth's orbit (Clark). I have found this to be wonderful news that our nation is still supporting such projects as they are the future and the hope of our existence. With modern day technology and the pace in which it advances, it is fool... ... middle of paper ... ...umans by nature will have to relocate as it has been throughout the entire existence of the species in the planet.
NASA is like a college fund, we are the future” (Massimino 1). NASA not only does space research, b... ... middle of paper ... ... are not ready to do so. These companies need to work with NASA to begin the knowledge transfer and get the ball rolling. Also, unlike NASA, these private companies explore space primarily for financial gain, not to learn and improve the lives of mankind. NASA explores for information to be shared, to be taught in schools, and to uncover the mysteries of space.
Slashing the Budget Over the past few years, NASA has been the victim of larger and larger budget cuts. The United States government thinks that money that should be being used for funding NASA is more useful elsewhere. This is a real shame, space travel is the future. One day we will run out of resources,or become over crowded on Earth, and mankind will have to expand to the stars for another place to live. Space travel is our future and needs exploration.
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... ... middle of paper ... ...9/benefits-of-space-exploration/>.
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.
And for immense gain: According to industry experts, the contents of a single asteroid could be worth trillions of dollars” (Shaer). The thought of wiping out the entire United States debt with one or two successful excavations of an asteroids should be enough to gain public support of privately funded space programs. Although private, these companies will need immense public support. In order to gain billionaire investors and find people willing to risk their life to pioneer space, people want a plan. Private companies such as Blue Origin and SpaceX have provided the world with numerous plans on how we can commercialize space on our journey to discover more of the vast
b. The NASA petition already has over 10,000,000 supporters and has recently forced the government to re-assign some funds back to NASA. 2. Although showing support on such platforms goes a long way, it is important to be passionate about the cause itself. Only when you realize the importance of the space program will you be able to truly value this proposal.
The “Space Race” of the 1960’s between the US and Russia was very expensive but it yielded a tremendous number of technological advances. It has long been said that the exploration of the cosmos should be secondary to more important things like resolutions to problems on Earth. However, as scientists and engineers reach further and further out into the outer limits of the stars, they gain equally substantial insight on how to solve problems on Earth. The first moon landing brought Unity to America but it also led to conspiracy. Even though it happened in 1969, the first moon landing had a lasting effect on the world.