What Is Worth The Cost Of Space

Space and the stars have captured the collective imagination of humanity since our origins. The cosmos has always been unreachable until about 50 years ago with NASA’s lunar missions. Humans are born explorers and since the exploration of all the land on Earth, we have begun to look at the stars as our final frontier. Space exploration is worth the cost, but before we boldly go we must consider how we will treat extraterrestrial resources and the new environments we encounter. Space exploration is most definitely worth its cost. “Space and technology” is one of the many things listed as “miscellaneous” in a chart of federal spending, and that whole “miscellaneous” category takes up a mere 6% of the federal budget (Chamberlain). Such an insignificant portion of the budget is spent on space and technology that it’s part of the miscellaneous section of this chart; it’s hardly straining the budget to fund NASA. Besides, as David Livingston writes, “The money spent on manned space exploration is spent right here on Earth,” and this money spent stimulates the economy in the same way all

We must think about the impact we want to have on the solar system and be careful not to inadvertently harm the home to our planet. Margaret McLean writes on a website dedicated to ethics, “despite the depths of space, it is not so limitless as to be able to weather mistreatment or suffer every demand we may place on it.” As we explore, we must have the intention to do no harm at the forefront of our minds. As we explore the cosmos, we should remember that this universe is the only one we definitely know exists and we should treat it accordingly. Humans do not have a “good track record in protecting our planet home” (McLean), but we are an adaptable species who can learn from our mistakes when exploring new worlds. We just have to keep in mind that we may not be able to afford to make those mistakes