Space Exploration is a waste of time and money

My opponent mentioned that we could be using this money for feeding people however we are helping people since it has benifitted the world. Also my opponent has claimed that there is a lot of money wasted however 500 billion was spent on the miliatary speaking of losing lives. Space exploration has also led to many indirect benefits. The challenge and difficulty of the space programme, and its ability to draw on some of the finest minds, has brought about great leaps in technology. The need to reduce weight on rockets led to shrinking, and so to the micro-chip and the modern computer. The need to produce safe but efficient power-sources for the Apollo missions led to the development of practical fuel-cells, which are now being explored as a possible future power-source for cleaner cars. The effects of zero-gravity on astronauts have substantially added to our knowledge of the workings of the human body, and the ageing process. We can never know exactly which benefits will emerge from the space programme in future, but we do know that we will constantly meet new obstacles in pursuit of our goals, and in overcoming they will find new solutions to old problems. We understand - just maybe - .1% about space and space-time. We must proceed with future missions and create more. People argue that we could spend the money feeding children in need. However, space exploration has benefitted the whole world in many ways as mentioned previously so it is not only benefitting only one sector of people. Space exploration is an investment in the future. Our world is rapidly running out of resources. Overpopulation could become a serious worldwide threat. In this position, it would be foolish to ignore the vast potential of our own solar system – mining resources on asteroids or other planets, or even the possibility of colonising other worlds. If we fail to continue to develop the ability to take advantage of these possibilities, we may in the future find it is too late. One of the hardest questions that are often asked of us rocket scientists is "why is space exploration important?" Even JFK tried to answer this question many years ago. He said, "But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why should we climb to the peak of the many tall mountains?" Why? Because we want challenge, that is the flat out truth, man wants challenge, yet sometimes we skip a bit too many questions. What kind of space program should we promote and what to do next, with it remains a chronic question. One could argue that this is because we in the aerospace community have yet to rational a satisfying answer. We talk about the survival of our species, about being made of the stuff of stars. And we talk about spin-offs. It is a fact that the general public overwhelmingly supports the space program. Excitement was initially generated by bold accomplishments of heroism undertaken by the astronauts. We have since added to that support with the overwhelming pictures returned by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars. Everyone believes that space exploration is a good thing, even if we can't fully explain why. Americans, Canadians, Russians, and many other countries are incredibly forward leaning when it comes to funding journeys of discovery and we are mostly happy with the results. Traditionally, it has been the role of the federal government, when confronted with capable frontier territory, to take a leading role in the development of the infrastructure easing expansion into that territory. Of course, much of those communications also helped to establish the mechanisms for stimulating local economies. Without modern transportation systems, authority and economic opportunities would have expanded much more slowly across our great land. Clearly, some kind of transportation will also be required to expand into the space frontier and to accumulate any benefits it may have to offer. Where exactly are the suspected profits to be had from space? Sure, we have profitable communication satellites pushing television signals to cell phones in some parts of the world. While commercial and market-driven, space tourism is more management than commerce, in the general sense of the word. The answer to the profits question is that we just don't know yet. Following the development of a communication to access the frontier, discoveries will be made. Trade comes after discovery. And then what will happen after we make those inevitable discoveries? Analogy may help us here. What has become of those early frontiers opened by theorizers? An idea is generated through a theory. Look around! Most of our country's over-the-horizon frontiers are people and structures. So after we have the transportation to reliably get off the planet, we will make those inevitable discoveries on the moon. And those discoveries will be closely followed by opportunities for commerce. In the old west, the hub of activity in frontier towns really was the saloon. Tomorrow, the lowly pub may once again help foster a burgeoning economy in some faraway places. We can begin to tie together the existence of infrastructure to discovery, to commerce, to tourism, and maybe even to national security, all with one big bow. Look up. We recently celebrated five years of continuous presence in low earth orbit on the International Space Station. Our former enemies are now our friends and, indeed, roommates on ISS. We continue to plan a build-out of the international components of the space station in order to meet our international partner commitments. We have already dismantled some of the missiles pointed at each other. Rival has become comrade. Now look east. Have the Chinese learned from their history of looking inward, wrapping their borders with the Great Wall? Are they now looking outward to reproduce the successes we have enjoyed over the past 200 years? In the 1400's, they owned the resources to explore globally but chose to use their fleets to protect their borders, not sail past them. Are we now going to turn our backs and let them take the mantle we have carried proudly for the past 40 years? Our first exploratory steps into the New World, the West, and indeed 62 miles up were motivated by security concerns, an expression of national pride, and a yearning to profit from developing markets. Exploration and discovery almost always lead the transformation of seemingly dilapidated places into engines of enterprise, commerce, and sustainable growth. When the President gave the US and Canada the Vision for Space Exploration, his stated fundamental goal was to advance U.S. scientific, security, and economic interests through a healthy space exploration program. When we go to the moon we are required to tackle the pressing issues back home. We have discovered new resources in space, and resources in space means economic wealth. In space the resources are pretty much infinite in amount. For example, light and heat from the sun and minerals from the asteroid belt. The travel costs for space flight could be lowered if there are fuel sources in space, so if we can gather them, we are set for life in space. Scientists were actually able to find hydrogen and oxygen in moon rock; we can make water and then life will be sustainable on different planets. The hydrogen could also be used for fuel stations on different planets as a refuelling station.