Space Exploration Persuasive Essay

Curiosity has driven human exploration for thousands of years. With huge advancements in technology and science over the last 75 years meant that humans have been able to feed their curiosity of the unknown with space exploration. Space exploration has created jobs, provided education, helped with commercial advancements (memory foam, smoke detection and even the household cordless drill) as well as providing information that we now take for granted. With the action of space exploration with it came an opposite reaction, this reaction was of negativity towards NASA and money spent on space programs. A lot of this negativity was a result of the public reacting to the amount spent on space exploration with funding last year alone over 17.5 billion

dollars. Are we getting out as much as we put in? Is our space programs really worth this much? Why are we venturing out and exploring space when we haven’t even explored 95% of our Oceans?
Money that is funded to the numerous space programs around the world is well above the 30 Billion dollar mark. This huge sum of money is leaving many asking can we really afford that amount to be invested in something that may not immediately lead anywhere. Some say we are in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930’s, can we simply spare 1.6bn dollars to fuel NASA’s ambitions to get all its astronauts to the international space station? Many people believe that the money would be better of being spent on social issues (poverty) and political issues (corruption and war). It is hard for people to believe in a program that does not show physical results. Although we are not seeing many people physically up in space, the work that space programs and in particular NASA does on developing things using space science is something that isn’t really talked about. Since the late 1950’s space programs have helped develop and create environments that help produce new materials, improvements to medicines, new and advanced methods to provide clean water as well as better ways to grow food to feed the ever growing population. Because of long missions in harsh conditions, keeping food fresh whilst was an extremely difficult task. NASA froze food and then removed the moisture from the frozen food, keeping the food fresher for longer. This development is now used in many cases around the world today. The Army, Police Force and even fisherman use this technique that NASA created. MRI technology is also something that has been developed by NASA. NASA didn’t invent the MRI itself, but developed the digital image processing which would allow better views of the Moon pictures. This was integrated into MRI imaging for general use.
The Apollo missions nearly 50 years ago now, inspired an entire generation to pursue maths and science careers.

As we continue to develop technology here on earth, we need scientific minds to pursue our ideas. These minds are driven to succeed, whether this success comes in the form of exploration, being the first astronaut on Mars or being able to invent and extend already available items. People are excited about the unknown, it drives people. Space exploration lets people pursue ambitions and help others by providing information about the unknown. How would you feel if NASA were to shut down tomorrow? Many would be anxious about the unknown as it is human instinct, the same as feeling uncomfortable in the dark. Many are asking about space exploration, what they are actually looking for? Many believe that we are looking for physical results and accomplishments such as landing on Mars and maybe sending a colony to inhabit the deserted planet. Space exploration is helping humans deal with problems on earth. Scientists have gathered a better understanding about pollution in our oceans and the issue of deforestation through space exploration. Although these are great resources to create change in what we do on earth, they are only Earthly benefits. Wouldn’t it be better to invest in these particular issues rather than benefit from them as somewhat of a bi-catch? These benefits are only short term. If we want to achieve exploration is space it would take decades to see any physical

progress.
Satellites were developed in the launch of Sputnik. Since then they have developed into a device that is used by nearly every field of science around the world. Communication, weather, ocean currents and navigation are all fields that satellites are involved in. there are 4 basic types of satellites all of which have been modified and developed by space programs round the world. The Geostationary orbit, Low Earth orbit, Polar orbit and the GPS are all different types of satellites. The Geostationary orbit is probably the satellite we use the most as it is used for telecommunication, navigation and television transmissions. The observations of weather patterns, oceans, the atmosphere, clouds, weather, rain forests, deserts, cities, farmland and ice sheets is extremely valuable information that is provided by satellites to us. It is important to future life on Earth that this information is available. The cost of a satellite is around the $290m mark, this does not include maintenance and people receiving and processing the available information. Satellites has enabled humans to practically predict possible environmental difficulties we may face in the future.
Space exploration has opened up a world of opportunity to the human interactions with each other and our planet Earth. With new theory’s and developments coming from leading scientists across numerous space programs around the world almost weekly, it is definitely something that many people are excited about. I believe that space programs do have a place in humanity’s future. It is a priority of ours to continue endeavouring with our ambitions.