Space Exploration And The Space Race
1287 Words
6 Pages
Leaders of all major nations worldwide are aware that space exploration is indispensable in establishing a super power of a country. The Space Race between the United States and Russia is an illustration of this belief of superiority; each country during this period tried one-upping each other to establish dominance. NASA during the span of this race spent 23 billion dollars (Dickinson). Because of these high priced missions, leaders must question whether space exploration is a beneficial trade-off for the price. As a direct result of these high prices, the government has cut the budget of NASA, taking away jobs and hurting the economy even more. However as former president Andrew Jackson once said, “you must pay the price if you wish to secure
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NASA specifically is constantly working on unbelievable missions, including protecting the planet, and colonizing other worlds. NEO’s are considered flying asteroids that pass by Earth every day. NEO’s may seem insignificant; however there are easily more than 100,000 NEO’s flying around space, capable of killing billions of people. (Curtis 4). These NEO’s can prove to have a catastrophic effect on the world by killing all plant life, destroying the atmosphere, and even taking out continents (Curtis 8). Every day hundreds of asteroids fly by Earth, some posing threats to large amounts of human life. Luckily, NASA has already developed a plan of re-routing these asteroids planned to collide with Earth, however they still are only plans. Because the government refuses to fund companies more like NASA, the entire planet always lays vulnerable, without any defense. This project isn’t the only short-funded mission that has tremendous potential; the Orion spacecraft is also in the same position. This is NASA’s next space vehicle capable of transporting astronauts to destinations including the moon, distant asteroids, and the planet Mars. The first flight has already proved to be extremely successful, and had originally planned to launch in 2018 (Carlisle). Recent news however tells that this project will most likely have to wait another 2 years because lack of funding from congress (Long Journey). As it stands, all of humanity’s eggs are in one small basket called “Earth”. It is only a matter of time before something happens to the planet, that would be so devastating it changed the course of life forever. Whether the disaster is natural, like a rogue asteroid, or self-inflicted, like nuclear war, it is possible that everyone’s home will no longer be habitable. The probability of the world no longer being habitable is
NASA specifically is constantly working on unbelievable missions, including protecting the planet, and colonizing other worlds. NEO’s are considered flying asteroids that pass by Earth every day. NEO’s may seem insignificant; however there are easily more than 100,000 NEO’s flying around space, capable of killing billions of people. (Curtis 4). These NEO’s can prove to have a catastrophic effect on the world by killing all plant life, destroying the atmosphere, and even taking out continents (Curtis 8). Every day hundreds of asteroids fly by Earth, some posing threats to large amounts of human life. Luckily, NASA has already developed a plan of re-routing these asteroids planned to collide with Earth, however they still are only plans. Because the government refuses to fund companies more like NASA, the entire planet always lays vulnerable, without any defense. This project isn’t the only short-funded mission that has tremendous potential; the Orion spacecraft is also in the same position. This is NASA’s next space vehicle capable of transporting astronauts to destinations including the moon, distant asteroids, and the planet Mars. The first flight has already proved to be extremely successful, and had originally planned to launch in 2018 (Carlisle). Recent news however tells that this project will most likely have to wait another 2 years because lack of funding from congress (Long Journey). As it stands, all of humanity’s eggs are in one small basket called “Earth”. It is only a matter of time before something happens to the planet, that would be so devastating it changed the course of life forever. Whether the disaster is natural, like a rogue asteroid, or self-inflicted, like nuclear war, it is possible that everyone’s home will no longer be habitable. The probability of the world no longer being habitable is