THBT space exploration should be pursued by private companies rather than governments.

Thank you warren42 and TN05 for your points. There will be no rebuttals in this round as per the rules of this debate. We will now go straight in with our opening arguments. Italicised: quoting our opponents Underlined: directly quoting a named source Italicised and underlined: directly quoting our opponents' source ___ Main arguments: More suitable for space explorations Government-funded space agencies such as NASA are more effective for improvement and development in comparison to private agencies who are not suited to for example, bigger long term ventures. Let's take a look at an example. I'm sure you are all somewhat familiar with the 'James Webb Space Telescope' (JWST), a space observatory initiated in the 1990s and "scheduled to launch in October 2018." [1] Led by NASA, the JWST will be the first observatory, used by thousands of astronomers internationally with the ability "to study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System." [2] Unfortunately, it was only after years and years of delay due to the immense research as well as cost overruns, that this phenomenal project was finalised and now almost finished [3]. If this had initially been funded by a private company rather than NASA, the project would have terminated much longer ago [4]. This is because private companies tend to pursue profit rather than to benefit the entire society, unlike government space agencies- "NASA continues to pursue this project not because they hope for a return on their investment, but because they see the social utility in such a project." [4] Therefore, government funded explorations are more beneficial because despite their occasional lack of funding, their main and most important focus is still on how to improve our society and expand our knowledge about space. Privacy NASA's past and present research has caused vital discoveries in numerous technologies [5] including military, such as nuclear missiles [6]. Modern military developments will be directly linked to space technologies in the future and many countries such as China [7] are now competing in this area. If NASA is changed to private funding, many companies will as a result break their contract with NASA and could potentially leak valuable information in military technology to other countries and companies. For the best interests of a country's privacy, NASA should continue to be government-funded. Space agencies need government funds Whether it is a public organisation such as NASA or a private one such as SpaceX or Boeing, every agency has needed and gotten government funds at some stage, whether it was for a project or other [10] [11]. Therefore, it's not that space exploration should be funded by the government but that it needs to be in order to ensure that better research can be produced as a result of the investment. Feasibility for large organisations This is our final point in this round. Some government-funded space agencies such as NASA are huge organisations. NASA alone employs over 18,000 people [8] compared to SpaceX, one of the biggest private space agencies who employ only 4,000 people [9]. NASA needs to be funded by the government due to not only its size but their bigger ambitions as a result of the size. Of course there may be things that need to be improved regarding funds etc but considering the feasibility of shifting NASA from public funding to private funding, we can only conclude that it would be much better for it to stay government-funded. Conclusion Space exploration should clearly be pursued by governments rather than private companies because government-funded agencies are more suitable for extensive research and long-term projects, it would protect potential leaks that could be damaging to the country and it is really not feasible for large organisations such as NASA. Thank you for reading. Vote Con! Citations: [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org... [2] http://jwst.nasa.gov... [3] http://www.digitaltrends.com... [4] https://mic.com... [5] http://www.nasa.gov... [6] https://spinoff.nasa.gov... [7] http://www.cnbc.com... [8] http://www.nasa.gov... [9] http://www.spacex.com... [10] http://www.boeing.com... [11] http://www.latimes.com...