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My opponent starts by saying that the exploration of space connects with our desire to explore etc. Space exploration was triggered not by a desire to explore but to prove which ideologies were better, capitalism and communism. Advancements in space were due to the cold war between Russia and U.S.A because who ever could control outer space was more stronger (this is a form of an arms race). Rebuttal #1 My opponent said: “Contention 1. Space exploration will allow man to eventually set up human civilization in another world. As most people know all too well, it was natural catastrophe that caused the demise of our predecessors, the dinosaurs. If man stopped exploring outer space it would be irresponsible. The same natural disaster on earth, killing the dinosaurs, could happen once and again, and over billions of years it is highly probable an event like it will happen again. “ My opponent says that space exploration is necessary to set up human civilization elsewhere because cataclysmic events couldoccur. Just because an event happens in the past doesn't mean it is highly probable it could happen in the future. That same logic could apply to anything that ever happened since earth began to exist. If you believe a cataclysmic event is going to happen, provide some evidence for it. It would be a very long time (millions if not implausible) before we could even travel to Venus or the other planets in our solar system comfortably let alone a hospitable planet for life which is many light years away. Any hospitable planet for life is at least hundreds of light years away. Light is the fastest thing known to man today, if it takes light lifetimes to travel there then what about a spacecraft?? People would die before even reaching the destination and that is assuming unlimited fuel and resources. It is actually implausible that we will set up human civilization in another planet. It is extremely difficult just reaching the moon. Rebuttal #2 My opponent said: “Contention 2. Space exploration can help improve economies” My opponent says that space exploration improves the economy while actually quite the opposite is true. After the cold war began to dwindle down, investments in space exploration were severly cut back due to the huge costs. The costs of space travel are enormous. From the time the NASA space program began and today the total costs have been around 400 billion dollars. This is nearly half a trillion dollars!! No matter what money NASA makes it could never outweigh this amount of money. http://en.wikipedia.org... Rebuttals #3 and #4 While I agree with my opponent that exploration is good and we should seek to acquire knowledge about the universe we live in, it is simply a luxury we cannot afford. There are too many issues going on in the world today to be talking about space travel. It is like someone trying to run before they walk and I will address this more in my arguments... Argument #1 (too many issues in our world today to consider space travel) We have a world today scarred by war, famine and poverty. How does it make any kind of moral sense to send rovers costing costing hundreds of thousands to analyze dirt on Mars (useless information) where as on the other hand there are millions suffering from poverty in the very same country (U.S)? We can only consider space travel once all (or near all) the issues on earth have been addressed. To address the problems of over-population and limited resources on out planet we must find solutions using all our resources, intellect and political power not on chasing a dream which will not happen any time in the near future. However the issues on our earth today can be solved much more nearer in the future than space travel. Space travel is only hindering it. Argument # 2 (waste of money, better spent on the people of our planet) Space exploration is actually a waste of money. The near half a trillion dollars spent on NASA (not even including Russian space program) could have been invested in a number of things which would have drastically improved the situations on earth. While landing on the Moon is noteworthy, what did it actually accomplish? Did it provide any sort of benefit to us except draining our resources? A world free from hunger and most despairs would be truly a wonderful achievement. Michio Kaku, a popular physicist says in his article in Forbes . “After all is said and done about what went wrong, the bottom line is simple: money. It's about $10,000 to put a pound of anything into a near-earth orbit. (Imagine John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, made of solid gold, and you can appreciate the enormous cost of space travel.) It costs $500 to $700 million every time the shuttle flies. Billionaire space tourists have flown to the space station at a reputed price of $20 million per head. And to put a pound of anything on the moon costs about 10 times as much. (To reach Mars, imagine your body made of diamonds.) We are 50 years into the space age, and yet space travel is just as expensive as it always was.” http://www.forbes.com...