Space Exploration is a waste of time and money

A lot of people may say that space exploration should be abolished because it is a waste of money, but think of how much we have advanced in our knowledge of space. This has to be known because some of the planets and moons we have discovered are suitable for us to live on when we move from Earth, so it is essential that man knows about space and we constantly have to keep updating and developing our knowledge. "I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars." Stephen Hawking. This is very important because our human race is vulnerable to the effects of space and if we do not move, according to Stephen Hawking, man will not survive. "The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in." Robert Heinlein. It is a fact that the world is continuously growing and we must move; resources are abating, but the population is still growing. The world population is the total number of living humans on Earth at a given time. As of 21 January 2010, the Earth's population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 6 797 700 000. The world population has been growing continuously since the end of the Black Death around 1400. The fastest rates of world population growth were seen quickly during the 1950s then for a longer period during the 1960s and 1970s (see graph). World births have levelled off at about 134 million per year, since their peak at 163 million in the late 1990s, and are expected to remain constant. However, deaths are only around 57 million per year. Because births outnumber deaths, the world's population is expected to reach 9 billion in 2040. Space exploration benefits are various and they have contributed substantially to expand the human frontiers of science. The most important of all the benefits of space exploration is that it provided mankind with a challenge. Next, the knowledge that man gained out of his efforts that he made to explore the space. With the help of his spacecrafts and satellites, he realized that his theories regarding the universe are true. The first thought is basically important that creates a yardstick for further accomplishments. The space exploration started when man tried to judge whether the stars that rise in the sky after the Sun sets. This curiosity about the stars was realized in the space exploration benefits in the form of astronomy and navigating the oceans. While doing this the stars acted as the beacons, the torch bearer for us. Next, were the theories about the planets, the sun and universe; which you could count as the benefits of space exploration. What and who makes them work? Using these wisps of thoughts to overcome the limits of the gravity of the Earth, man tried to explain, with the help of binoculars and telescopes, the existence of universe, planets, the Sun, the moon and ultimately, his own. The study of the Sun, a star, made man realizes that nuclear energy can be a resource too. Hence forth, mankind reaped another benefit of the space exploration in the form of a new energy source, that no one has used before. In 1945, Sir Arthur C. Clarke broadcasted the idea of satellite communication and then we found the long awaited reason to leave the Earth. The space-exploration moved out of the margins of the brain. Space shuttle launch realized the chance for a common man to go on a space travel. NASA and the rest of the agencies involved in space exploration launched many spacecrafts to explore our solar system. We realize now what a big difference space exploration has made in our lives and will develop man's knowledge Mankind must always struggle to expand its horizons. The desire to know what lies beyond current knowledge, the curiosity that constantly pushes at the boundaries of our understanding, is one of our noblest characteristics. The exploration of the universe is a high ideal – I believe space truly is the final frontier. The instinct to explore is vitally human; already some of our most amazing achievements have taken place in space. Nobody can deny the sense of wonder, world-wide, when for the first time a new man-made star rose in the sky, or when Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the moon. Space exploration converses to that part of us which rises beyond the everyday. The utilization of space has directly changed our world. Satellites orbiting the Earth allow us to converse immediately with people on dissimilar continents, and to broadcast to people all over the world. The Global Positioning System allows us to pinpoint our location anywhere in the world. Without discovering space we would not have Global Positioning Systems. Weather satellites save lives by giving advance warning of adverse conditions, and together with other scientific instruments in orbit they have helped us understand our own world better. We could not make forecasts of weather which a lot of people depend on. Research into climate change, for example, would be almost impossible without the data provided by satellites. Satellites hold information that the majority of people do not even know about. People depend on space exploration, yet they do not even know. 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.