Space Exploration: Is it worth the cost?

              Moon, Earth, Venus,Mars and many other planets have been discovered along with galaxies, black holes, stars and many other interesting facts about space have been seen by astronauts, scientists either from Earth or space. Every year NASA spends a huge amount oh money on telescopes, spacesuits, crew, building etc. but is it really worth the cost?  
                 Space exploration can be really risky and very expensive, is it really worth it? When we are sending people to space, there are certain reasons we do it. It is maybe because they want to place satellites, do scientific experiments or to see if we can survive on another planet because we are beginning to destroy Earth. The benefits in exploring space are that we get to know other planets and see if there are any other beings in the whole universe and scientists do experiments that improve our daily lives. One example of exploring the universe is when the Apollo 17 crew landed on the moon for the first time and it was a really important and remarkable moment for us humans. The space exploration cost is a really big amount of money that is spent every year on things that are not really necessary for our planet (except when people lose their lives) for example space crafts and shuttles, suits, training and crew salaries, supplies, building and telescopes. We could use this amount of money to educate the poor kids in Africa, provide medicine and clean water but also shelter to the people leaving in poor countries with deadly diseases and at last to be provided at environmental unions that will help to save our planet and then we can have better lives… The space exploration dangers are as many as the benefits but ‘cost’ much more. Some dangers are the risks the astronauts take to travel somewhere that is sometimes new to them and can often cause accidents, the safety of the spacecraft, for example the accident that happened in the first of February in 2003 that the crew died while they were in the atmosphere and it was called the Columbia disaster, and at last the training of the astronauts. My opinion is that robots should be sent to space for certain purposes and astronauts also for certain reasons but Earth based research is much safer. First of all when we send humans into space, we can say more accurately whether we can survive or not to other planets, we can place satellites and generally can do certain things and experiments that robots or from Earth based research can't for example to sense or even enjoy. When sending robots, it is much safer because they can’t actually lose their lives but can only be destroyed that it is not that bad (people have families, friends and lives but robots are just things) and it is sometimes more accurate plus they don’t have needs. In my opinion it is worth the cost because if we hadn’t traveled at space we wouldn’t have equipment for firefighters, easier ways to package frozen food and effective heart monitors that help us every day and make our lives much easier than they were before space exploration started and when Neil Armstrong and other astronauts landed on the moon.When we do Earth based research we are only basing it on satellites and telescopes but we can't explore as much as we are able to plus we can't say it that accurately. But on the other hand it is much safer.  If I was a member of the government in my country and I had the right to change the budget or at least vote for a new one, I would make a list with several things that are more important in my country than space exploration so the money will hopefully go to the other options that come first before the space exploration. First I would donate money to the organizations of my country that clean areas, protect forests and animals, the second area I would donate money is health, hospitals, new systems and machines and third I would give money to education for poor children. After space exploration would be on the list and at last but not least provide help to the children and people that are homeless and with no family that their only home is the road and the food is the garbage…
            To review my point, I said that space exploration has its benefits, costs and danger. We learn a lot of things threw doing Earth based work, traveling to space and by sending robots to explore it even better than us can. In my opinion space exploration is really worth the costs but it is not one of the first areas on my personal list that I would spend money on for community service.


Here is a nice but long video with the plans and budgets of NASA for next year. Hope you enjoy it:http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=132377741

bibliography: 

• Jessa, Tega. "Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster." Universe Today. N.p., 22 Mar.
       2010. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. <http://www.universetoday.com/60400/
       space-shuttle-columbia-disaster/>.  
• Padilla, Michael J., Ioannis Miaoulis, and Martha Cyr. "Space Exploration- Is it
       worth the cost?" Prentice Hall Science Exlporer: Astronomy. Boston,
       Massachusetts: n.p., 2009. 92-92. Print.