The history of American space exploration is characterized by numerous bold technological and scientific experiments, political competition, ambitious goals, and international cooperation. Since the dawn of space exploration, America has pushed the boundaries of human achievement by landing on the moon and flying past the solar system’s planets. The history of space exploration by the United States spans from the first test flights of suborbital rockets to the crewed Moon landings to the Space Shuttle program and beyond. Whether the United States should continue funding space exploration is an ambiguous question that lacks a direct answer. The space program is impertinent to technology because it focuses on the hard sciences. There are many economic issues in the debate between continuing and ending space exploration. The space program employs thousands of people and supports many other businesses. Mudgal et al 2018 agree that the United States possesses a robust scientific community, and by some measures, it’s the strongest in the world. By maintaining its lead in this area of research, the country can remain globally competitive and continue to attract foreign investment and talent. However, to accomplish this task, it must first demonstrate that it can effectively manage long-term projects.
Space exploration is a powerful engine for driving technological development, inspiring tomorrow’s engineers and scientists, and helping to facilitate international cooperation. An investment in space exploration has far-reaching implications in scientific and technological developments and political, economic, environmental, and social dimensions. With the expanding Universe and so many unanswered questions, space exploration is a crucial aspect of the world. Space exploration has given humanity telescopes that enable people to see celestial objects from far away and satellites that help see what is happening here on Earth. Space exploration has also provided answers to some of the most perplexing questions humanity has ever wondered about the Universe. As Crucian et al. (2018) indicate that Space exploration is essential for all of the worlds due to the following advantages: It benefits society on Earth by providing people a better life. This is because it allows for environmental protection and stimulates the economy. Secondly, it helps people understand and become more involved in the Universe. This is because it can benefit society’s continuing push to acquire knowledge. Additionally, space exploration provides the possibility of future economic settlement and development of the solar system, earth defense, and finding extraterrestrial life in the system.
America should continue space exploration because it is beneficial to everyone. Space exploration helps environmental protection by monitoring the ozone layer, protecting Earth from the Sun’s ultraviolet rays. Space exploration also stimulates the economy by creating jobs, developing new technologies, and expanding international cooperation. NASA has been making a significant contribution to environment protection by reducing the effect of hazardous pollutants, providing drinking water to remote areas, and tracking Earth’s wildfires (Pritchard, 2017). In addition, the importance of the commercial space industry has been more recognized by the government. For example, the newest satellite systems can monitor and predict climate change by measuring environmental variables like carbon in plants and ocean nutrients, and phytoplankton. Space exploration has made many contributions to technology, including communications satellites. They allow citizens to make telephone calls, watch television broadcasts without cable or satellite dishes, and see live weather reports worldwide. The idea of space exploration also inspired many people to pursue careers in science and engineering, allowing America as a country to become a world leader in these fields. This is reason enough to encourage America to continue space exploration.
Space has always fascinated man. Scientists have such a deep-seated desire to understand humanity’s place in the Universe that they have spent the last 50 years trying to explore the space surrounding Earth. America should continue space exploration because it will help the nation understand and become more involved in the Universe. This is because it can benefit society’s continuing push to acquire knowledge. Some people would argue that America should not fund the Space Program because they think it is way too expensive, but they do not understand that the benefits of sending astronauts into space are worth every penny. Government should fund the Space Program because it will help the people understand and become more involved in matters of the Universe (Mazzucato,2018). This is because it can benefit the continuing push to acquire knowledge. Space exploration is an essential key to the furtherance of society and the advancement of knowledge within the human experience. By increasing the understanding of the Universe beyond Earth, humanity increases its capacity as a species to explain, trust, and ideally acquire technology that can help us better understand life itself.
America should continue to explore space because it is in her best interests as a country and for the world as a planet. On the domestic front, space exploration provides the possibility of future economic settlement and development of the solar system, earth defense, and the chance of finding extraterrestrial life in the solar system. Mudgal et al. (2018) also advocates that this provides a massive incentive economically in need to continue space exploration while also presenting an engaging topic that can inspire the youth to begin thinking of the possibilities afforded by scientific thinking and engineering skills. Not only that, but people need to be informed about the solar system and galaxy so that America can maintain its position as a world leader in science and technology. Taking the bold step of setting humanity on a path to the solar system may very well be the most crucial step made as a species. There is a possibility of future economic settlement and development of the solar system, powerful defense against asteroids, or other threats. And even the possibility of discovering extraterrestrial life are all genuine possibilities only a few decades away if America challenges herself to accomplish this goal now. The Universe is a vast space, and some questions need to be answered. Even though astronauts have already been to the moon, they learned more about the red planet Mars and found water on Jupiter’s moons. There is still have more to be discovered, and America should be very encouraged to continue the space exploration program.
Even though space exploration seems an excellent prospect for America to encourage this sector’s investment, there is a downside to it. Space exploration is a waste of money and resources. The United States Government plans to spend $100 billion on the International Space Station over the next ten years, which is unnecessary and can be used for important things and people who need help. Earth is a prosperous planet, and there are enough resources here. So many things need attention here: pollution, food shortage, education, jobs, and much more. Weinzierl, (2018) states that addition, America will not receive anything in return for the investment in the space program. It’s like buying a vacation home without ever going there. Space exploration is one of the most expensive endeavors, and America should continue to discourage it. The costs of sending people into space and exploring other planets far outweigh the benefits. There are many uncertainties, risks, and dangers that can occur in the process. Astronauts run the risk of dying in space. Space programs are laboratories for the development of new technologies. They also cost a lot given that they never provide financial benefit to anyone else but those who are directly employed by them.
There are multiple potential benefits to space exploration for all humans. Space can be viewed as a new frontier for Earth development. Humans can learn about the origins of the Universe and their place in it, explore and inhabit other planets, expand Earth’s nonrenewable resources, and develop new renewable energy sources. There are also potential dangers to space exploration and the major downside of the industry’s expensive without any financial returns. Despite the expense, America should continue exploring space due to the history of space exploration, and the benefits gained from such explorations. Firstly, it is a national tradition worth continuing. In addition, space explorers have produced lucrative commercial products. Exploring space through programs like NASA may seem risky and expensive, but once accounting for all the scientific discoveries and technological advancements from the space race, it is clear that it was more than worth the investment. Most importantly, space exploration has opened an entirely new world for humanity.
References
Crucian, B. E., Choukèr, A., Simpson, R. J., Mehta, S., Marshall, G., Smith, S. M., … & Sams, C. (2018). Immune system dysregulation during spaceflight: potential countermeasures for deep space exploration missions. Frontiers in immunology, 9, 1437.
Mazzucato, M. (2018). Mission-oriented innovation policies: challenges and opportunities. Industrial and Corporate Change, 27(5), 803-815.
Mudgal, S., Li, H., Rekatsinas, T., Doan, A., Park, Y., Krishnan, G., … & Raghavendra, V. (2018, May). Deep learning for entity matching: A design space exploration. In Proceedings of the 2018 International Conference on Management of Data (pp. 19-34).
Pritchard, S. B. (2017). The trouble with darkness: NASA’s Suomi satellite images of earth at night. Environmental History, 22(2), 312-330.
Weinzierl, M. (2018). Space, the final economic frontier. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 32(2), 173-92.
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