Franci's Cool Lab: Space Exploration Essay

Space is a very interesting topic that everyone wants to know more about; in fact I believe that curiosity led to such topics. Though did you ever think how much money is used for space exploration? According to examiner.com (check bibliography), in 2009 NASA’s budget was 17.2 billion dollars. Couldn’t the money be used for providing education in poor countries or giving them money for research on medicine? Honestly that is too much, part of it can be used to cure cancer and other diseases. Space exploration is very expensive and it pollutes so I think that we should stop exploring for a while and use what we already have and know in different ways.

International Space Station
ISS

So the question is: Is the big amount of money worth it? You may be wondering, what is the money used for? The money is used for various things like: Building spaceships and space probes; providing safety for astronauts; material for testing and doing experiments; money for the gas and the training for the astronauts. However, other than sending humans into space there are two more options: doing exploration from Earth (through telescopes) and using satellites.

One of the goals of scientists in exploring space is finding another life, when it will be found; it will mean that human will be able to live on that planet.

Three benefits of sending humans are that the astronauts can see what is going on, on Earth. Also humans can do things whereas machines can’t. Lastly human are more effective than using satellites, which kind of relates to the previous advantage.

Contrary to that there are 3 drawbacks. During the launch of the spaceship with five humans inside, they can all die because of a problem that caused an explosion. It is not enough – scientists can think that there is another planet, but after a long time we still didn’t found it. If you think of the rocket launching, how much gas is emitted from the rockets, what about the birds on the trees or the fish in the ponds?

National Aeronautics and Space Administration-
NASA logo

If I were the head-master of a country, the top five things I would spend money on are:

Very good quality and efficient telescopes for exploring space on Earth.
Getting rid of space junk.
Animal-saving associations.
Planting trees and plants to reduce the CO
Finding another planet to live on.

The first thing is using good telescopes to make accurate research from Earth so that there won’t be any life in jeopardy. The second thing is getting rid of space junk; we are already polluting Earth- no need to also pollute space! Thirdly I would give money to animal-saving associations (WWF), animals need help. Second-last I want to plant trees, so that we can reduce CO₂, it is very important. Lastly, as some people think, in the case the sun will explode we will need to search and live on another planet.