Americans have been worried about spending now that our national debt has gone $20 trillion deep and anything they don’t see as necessary they think we should cut. One of the most attacked topics because of this is space exploration. Is it completely unnecessary though? Are there other areas of spending that should be worried about more? One thing we need to do to change this is educate the public more on our total spending and where it all goes. If people checked the statistics I can tell you there would be a very large change in opinion. The amount of money NASA receives alone may seem very large but compared to total spending and other fields, it is nothing. I can tell you now space exploration is something we need to keep and preserve for the future and generations to come.
Some argue that we are in an economic depression and spending money on space exploration is a waste but we can use the Great Depression as a good example. In the 1930’s we pumped money into infrastructure and technology (Roosevelt’s New Deal) and by the end of that decade we were the most powerful country in the world. Funding this kind of research boosts people’s moods and drives to work.
In the poll I conducted I asked 25 people the question: “Should we continue to fund space exploration?” The results I got were mixed. 15 of the 25 said yes, we should continue to fund it but 10 said no. I asked the ones who said no why and 7 of them said that it is an unnecessary spending in one way or another. A poll made in 2015 showed that 58% of Americans think that the U.S. needs to be the leader in space exploration. What Americans are not keen on is the cost. I think if they knew the real cost compared to other spending their mindset would change.
Much of the youth of today believe the only great change they can make will happen through online means or via the internet but the funding of space exploration can give these youth a different way to change and benefit the world. It keeps an option for kids to work and dream for. The unlimited unknown that is space provides unlimited dreams and aspiration for the younger population. Space also provides a way for people to do something great and leave their name in history forever.
SpaceX have emerged recently thanks to CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk. With his $20 billion fortune he has worked with space exploration and has pushed new limits. He is the first person to send a car into space and it is planned to pass Mars. While this seems useless the way that he accomplished this is revolutionary. He made the first “commercially reusable rocket”. This means that the rocket can go into space, do its mission, come back to Earth, land safely, refuel, and go back into orbit. This eliminates the huge cost of using a rocket once and having it plumet back to Earth and being trashed. It is also much safer if there is ever a human passenger in the rocket. Musk’s biggest goal is to colonize Mars and he believes he will be able to by the year 2025. While this goal seems very unrealistic, at the pace SpaceX is moving it may be possible.
Space exploration will always be a debated topic but the endless options of space leave an endless area for research and exploration. That is the beauty of space; the more we develop, the more we can find and grow. The outer area of space is untouched and unknown which means it could have things that Earth will run out of eventually. It could help future generations and change the human race forever.
