Despite being a final frontier, space is an expensive endeavor to explore. According to Hegedüs, Horváth, & Varró (2015), there are numerous problems facing humanity on earth. The challenges leads some individuals to question if space exploration is important and worth pursuing. Due to overpopulation, people are increasingly burning the natural resources of the earth at a fast rate. On the contrary, there is virtually unlimited resources, which can considerably replenish the earth’s limited resources. While pessimistic views contend that space exploration is irrelevant in the modern world, exploring space remains critical to humanity as it can replenish the earth’s resources, supports technological development, and can save lives.
Space exploration is still vital today since space mining can save the world. With the development of new technologies on earth, human beings increasingly exploit the natural resources. According to Hills et al. (2015), the extraction of precious minerals has caused a host of problems such as human exploitation and environmental damage. However, there still exists a wealth of valuable minerals and materials in space (Hegedüs, Horváth, & Varró, 2015). For instance, startups such as planetary resources desire to mine asteroids rather than earth, implying an effectively unrestrained supply of raw materials that are scarce on earth.
Importantly, the development of a wide range of technologies and research make space exploration relevant and important today. According to Salas et al. (2015), contemporary technological advances have led to improvement in the economy on earth. Without space exploration and programs, humanity would not have solar cells, GPS, ultraviolet filters in camera and sunglasses, and accurate weather prediction. Furthermore, medical research is presently happening in space, which could cure various illnesses, prolonging human lives, and such experiments cannot be conducted on earth. Furthermore, while the solar system has cooled down since the early years, there are still numerous huge comets and asteroids in space, which can smack into the earth and cause damage and mass extinction (Hegedüs, Horváth, & Varró, 2015). Robust space exploration has enabled humanity deflect such objects, saving people’s lives. Given that space exploration can save lives, it remains critical to the modern world.
Furthermore, space exploration is still relevant and significant in the modern world, given that colonization is the ultimate backup. According to Hills et al. (2015), there are currently over seven billion people on earth. Nonetheless, this population is all crammed together on the single planet, earth. Consequently, if something were to happen to the planet, for instance, asteroid impact, human species would be wiped out. Importantly, humanity has the natural desire to explore the unknown, learn more, and to figure out things they don’t understand (Hills et al., 2015). The implication is that colonizing other bodies present in the solar system can effectively serve as a backup of humanity, leading to human survival, amid any unfortunate occurrence.
There are numerous valuable reasons why space exploration still remains relevant and vital in the modern world. Space exploration is not only an opportunity to build advanced technologies and discover new worlds, but also an avenue to work together toward a greater goal, regardless of race, nationality, and gender. Moreover, space exploration has made it possible for humanity to develop technologically, giving rise to useful technologies such as solar cells. The implication is that if humanity stop exploring space, they will stop being human.
References
Hegedüs, Á., Horváth, Á., & Varró, D. (2015). A model-driven framework for guided design space exploration. Automated Software Engineering, 22(3), 399-436.
Hills, T. T., Todd, P. M., Lazer, D., Redish, A. D., Couzin, I. D., & Cognitive Search Research Group. (2015). Exploration versus exploitation in space, mind, and society. Trends in cognitive sciences, 19(1), 46-54.
Salas, E., Tannenbaum, S. I., Kozlowski, S. W., Miller, C. A., Mathieu, J. E., & Vessey, W. B. (2015). Teams in space exploration: A new frontier for the science of team effectiveness. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(3), 200-207.
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