The USFG should increase its exploration/development of space

----Constructive Case---- -Earth becoming invisible to extraterrestrials now- Dr Drake, who founded the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) organisation said the digital age was effectively gagging the Earth by cutting the transmission of TV and radio signals into space. But although the signals had spread far enough to reach many nearby star systems, they were rapidly vanishing before the march of digital technology. 'Now the actual amount of radiation escaping into space is about two watts, not much more than you get from a cell phone,' said Dr Drake. If this continues into the future very soon our world will become undetectable. -Space exploration & development risks contact- Scientists may be pinning down the best places to look for alien life. Scientists there said they are still eager to find life elsewhere in the universe. Hawking, who suggested that perhaps humans shouldn't be so eager to find aliens since there's a chance they would want to colonize Earth. "We're interested and prepared to discover any form of life." NASA scientists were currently considering a list of 28 future science missions that could help discover signs of extraterrestrial life." In particular, the Saturnian moons Titan – with its lakes of methane and ethane – and Enceladus, with its plumes of water vapor, seem like possibly habitable sites. This mission "might reveal a great deal about whether Mars once harbored life," I think we're going to need to study the samples here on Earth rather than robotically," said Bill Schopf, a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. Although the scientists studied samples of sulfate from Earth, this material is also present in large quantities on Mars. Thus, collecting samples of sulfate on Mars would be a good place to look for Martian life, Researchers announced for the first time Wednesday that they'd found direct proof of frozen water and organic compounds – which could include the ingredients for. "We should go where the data lead us." -Contact with extra terrestrials leads to destruction of humanity- THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, according to Stephen Hawking. Instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact. Alien life, is almost certain to exist in many other parts of the universe. Hawking’s logic on aliens is, simple. The universe has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet where life has evolved. “The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.” A few life forms could be intelligent and pose a threat. Hawking believes that contact with such a species could be devastating for humanity. Aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.” He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky” “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.” -PERCHLORATE DA- -Rocket fuel emits perchlorate – pollutes water, and puts babies at risk of developmental issues- The main ingredient in solid rocket fuel— perchlorate—pollutes drinking water sources in 20 states. Tests reveal perchlorate in food and breast breastfed babies ingest levels of perchlorate that exceed the ‘safe dose’ putting children at risk for development damage. California discovered perchlorate in more than 400 water sources. -Perchlorate causes massive water shortages – contamination- Several of the nation's fastest-growing areas could face debilitating water shortages because of groundwater contamination by perchlorate,. The chemical, seeped into water supplies in 22 states perchlorate-tainted wells have been shuttered, casting a pall on growth plans in parched areas. Perchlorate is turning up in unexpected places, where solid propellants -- aren't believed to have been used. ----Aff Answers---- - Cooperation fails – space programs overwhelmingly protectionist - Hopes for cooperation can soon be overwhelmed by competing interests and priorities, and also by reduced or constrained budgets. These anti-collaborative behaviors are demonstrated in the recent rash of lunar flights, which have seen five different spacecraft sent to the moon by the USA, ESA, China, Japan and India; each mission essentially performing the same basic science missions. scientific data from several of the missions have not been shared. the international launch market is well over capacity for launching the current and foreseeable demand for communications, remote sensing and navigation satellites. Eight different countries continue to subsidize their own launch capability and other nations are developing their own launchers. The USA prohibits US civil and commercial spacecraft from launching on Chinese vehicles. ESA demands that European satellites be launched on Ariane. there maybe no easy way to foster improved international cooperation if such protectionist behaviors stand in the way. -No benefit to space colonization.- Many people have argued that as long as humans live only on Earth, we have "all our eggs in one basket". They suggest we need space colonies to insure the future of the species. Considering the human source of many of the threats and the timescales involved, I'm not sure that space colonization should be the top priority in preempting those threats. If, after disaster strikes Earth, Earth is still able to supplement the needs of space colonies, then those space colonies aren't necessarily essential to continuing the human race. We have to ask when spaces colonies would be functioning without need of any assistance from Earth. Truly independent space colonies must not simply provide bare nutrition, air, heat, and habitat repair for 100 years. They should have a non-traumatizing environment with enough people to protect against dangerous levels of inbreeding – able to last and progress indefinitely. We also have to consider threats to the global economy, since an economic collapse would presumably at least interrupt efforts towards establishing space colonies. Economic crises also increase risks of war. Also, the Moon has no atmosphere. Venus is extremely hot, Mars has too little atmosphere and accessible water is questionable, etc. Outer planet's moons are very cold, and get limited solar energy. A colony would need an industrial base capable of extracting and refining raw materials, and making useful things from them. Interstellar colonies and terraforming of planets in our solar system are longer range goals. It will be a long time before an independent space colony could grow to the point some of its people could survive after a major disaster. Identifying and resolving all the issues is likely to take many years. Currently, our society is not inclined to invest that much in either stopping global warming (and other threats) or space habitats. My impression is the best chance for human survival is focusing as much as possible on one or the other of the two paths, and that space colonization will not solve the problem within the limited time-frame. The known threats to human survival in the next century or so are not vast earthquakes and volcanoes, asteroid impacts, supernovas or other natural disasters. Most of them are at least partly man-made. If the same problems are not to threaten survival of humans on space colonies, we either have to make humans on Earth act more responsibly to ensure survival before we colonize, or we need to know how to insure that those people who colonize are not so prone to make the same mistakes their Earthly brothers do.