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On the 20th of July 1969, the human race achieved one of its greatest achievements to date. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the surface of the moon for the first time in human history. A truly remarkable feat that captivated the hearts and minds of some 600 million people who watched as 2 humans did what was once unthinkable. Now over 53 years later plans are in action to go once again to where no one has gone before. As NASA sets its sites on Mars and explores beyond our solar system, however, many would argue that the exploration of space is a futile endeavor that wastes money and valuable resources that could potentially be put to better use. I could not disagree more, I believe that the exploration and colonization of space is a vital step in human history that must be taken.
One of the arguments against the exploration of space that is repeatedly brought up is the suggestion that it is a waste of money. However, this could not be untrue, and in a lot of ways, the truth is the opposite of that because the space industry has an overall incredibly positive effect on the global economy. The biggest space program in the world with the most funding is NASA, who were provided with around 21.6 billion dollars of funding in 2019 which seems a lot more than it is. From some perspective that is 0.47% of the US federal budget, not only that but in that year, NASA generated more than 64.3 billion dollars in total economic output as well as supported more than 310,000 jobs in the US alone and as the industry expands the numbers will only increase.
The innovative technology we have gained as a byproduct of exploring space has improved the healthcare industry through innovations such as surgical robots and digital microscopes allowing for greater safety and efficiency in the operating room. There have also been benefits to our day-to-day lives due to inventions such as air purifiers, memory foam, and cordless vacuum cleaners according to the Canadian Space Agency space exploration has also helped us improve GPS technology and our ability to predict the weather, grow food, access clean water and our ability to predict natural disasters.
The new knowledge and scientific breakthroughs that go with exploring space are, yet another reason space exploration is extremely beneficial as they provide us with a better understanding of the universe, some recent breakthroughs include the confirmation of the existence of gravitational waves something hypothesized by Albert Einstein one of the greatest minds in human history over 100 years ago, as well as information collected by telescopes and space probes confirming that the number of planets in the universe is even greater than we thought, meaning that
there is still so much that we donât know, which further insensitivities us to go where none have gone.
A further benefit of exploring space is the positive cultural impact it has on the population, by this I means the fact that it inspires young people to study in areas such as engineering the sciences, and other STEM subjects which leads to more growth not only in the space industry but in other areas such as medicine, technology and construction as well. âA 2009 survey found that 50% of the internationally renowned scientists who published in the prestigious journal Nature during the previous three years had been inspired by Apollo to become scientists 89% of the respondents also agreed that human spaceflight inspires younger generations to study science- published by Nasa in a paper looking at benefits of space exploration Most of the jobs in the industry are extremely well paying and due to the high public profile of government agencies like NASA, more and more people are becoming interested in the future of space exploration and what it might hold, meaning that the industry will continue to expand and progress.
Another benefit of space exploration that is often overlooked is the prospect of colonization, the reason being that most people see it as an unrealistic idea that we will only ever see in sci-fi movies. However, the colonization of other planets is a far more reasonable idea than you might think, in fact on the 16th of October 2015, the BBC reported on NASA's plan to have humans living on Mars in the 2030s meaning that this might happen within the next decade if everything goes as they expect. Now that we know colonization is a plausible and real possibility you are probably thinking about what we could gain from such an endeavor, well the potential new information and technology that could be unlocked through exploring the universe is unparalleled and extremely exciting to think about.
A common argument against the idea of colonization and space exploration is that instead of trying to expand, we should be focusing on fixing the many issues on our planet, such as climate change, pollution, and world hunger. The counterargument to this is quite simple, in the current state of the world all these problems are only getting worse, this is down to several factors, but I would argue that the main contributor is the ever-increasing human population and lack of means to support such exponential growth. Most studies estimate that the number of humans the earth can support is less than 8 billion people. The current world population is around 7.9 billion people, essentially in the next few decades we will need to massively increase the amount of food, houses, drinkable water, and other essential products that we produce to accommodate such growth. Therefore, I think that expanding elsewhere as well as gaining new knowledge is a great idea and not a waste of time.
To summarize, the exploration of space is a process that yields many benefits to human society such as economic and cultural benefits as well as increasing our knowledge and our ability to positively affect the safety, health, and daily lives of everyone on the planet, and hopefully in the future on the multiple planets inhabited by the human race. For all these reasons I believe that the exploration and colonization of space is a vital step in human history that must be taken, and the exploration of space should be looked at by all as a vital conquest that is of absolute importance in the advancement of all human society.
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