Outer space exploration should be pursued.

I'm going to make a nice set of logical points. ======= Observation 1: My opponent has already agreed with my case. A. My opponent stated, "Most of the exploring can be done by telescopes on earth... exploration is completely useless." B. The definitions of exploration are: 1.an act or instance of exploring or investigating; examination. 2.the investigation of unknown regions. C. Therefor the exploring mentioned by my opponent through telescopes is indeed exploration. ======== Observation 2: Telescope exploration however is simply not enough. A. A telescope can only see so much in the same way that our eyes can only see so much. There are many planets and moons in our own solar system even that we are unsure of. For instance the moon Europa is thought to have possibly 50 km of liquid water under its surface. Sadly we cannot verify for sure with just a telescope. B. A telescope does not have the capabilities to take samples. Samples have the potential to show us where precious resources lie that may be exploitable in the future. ======== Observation 3: A telescope can only see so far. It can give us predictions, but to know for sure we will need to see for ourselves. My first point is actually a policy card. A. THERE ARE OVER 17,000 POSSIBLE NEARBY HABITABLE STELLAR SYSTEMS- Turnbull & Tarter '03 [Margaret C. Turnbull, Jim C.Tarter, University of Arizona, SETI institute, "Target Selection for SETI. I. A Catalog of Nearby Habitable Stellar Systems", 2003, http://adsabs.harvard.edu......] The primary topics of this dissertation are (1) target selection for searches for extrasolar life, especially for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) and (2) remote detection of biosignatures, especially with regard to TPF. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to the field of astrobiology, and to the search for life on other planets. Chapters 2 and 3 ask, "What are the best places in the Universe to search for Earth-like life?" A class of stars, "habstars," is defined as stellar systems that are potentially habitable to Earth-like complex life. The physical properties of habstars are derived from the biological requirement of habitable zone stability, and these properties are translated into observable characteristics. In Chapter 2, the Catalog of Nearby Habitable Stellar Systems (HabCat), containing ~17,000 "habstars" within 300 parsecs, is presented for use as a new target list for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence with the Allen Telescope Array. In Chapter 3, HabCat is augmented with other targets of interest, including a list of ~250,000 stars within 1000 parsecs from the Tycho-2 Catalog that are likely to be main-sequence (based on their proper motions) F, G, K and M stars (based on their B-V colors), old open clusters, and the nearest 100 stars. B. However to actually know for sure we need to examine these stellar bodies. This will require furthering technologies. ============ Observation 4: Discovering other habitable systems is essential to our long term survival. A. While our earth is very nice it is in many ways a limited resource. We only have so much oil, we only have so much water etc etc.... B. There is a chance at some point that we will destroy our planet. This could be through Nuclear War or various other disasters. C. There is a chance that our planet may collide with another stellar object at some point. D. The only way to gaurantee our long term survival is to habitat other stellar bodies. =========== Observation 5: The road to advanced space travel is the same road as alternative energy. A. Many of the technologies considered for efficient space travel at this point yield massive amounts of energy. Technologies such as matter-antimatter annihilation and nuclear fusion. B. Such technologies if developed for such a purpose would have the benefit of also steering us away from our dependence on oil and would serve as a very viable alternative energy resource. ============= Observation 6: Anti-matter A. At the start of this universe it is thought that nearly equal portions of matter and anti-matter existed. B. If there is a universe of anti-matter out there it would be the greatest natural resource that we could locate. Matter vs. Anti-matter reactions yield the greatest amount of energy of any reactions known to physics. ============= Observation 7: Intelligence. A. To think that we are the only lifeforms that exist in this universe is fallacious at best. There are over 17,000 possibly habitable stellar bodies. B. As water is the main prerequisite for life, even looking to our own solar system, there are over 40 different planets and moons thought to have amounts of either water or ice on them. C. Considering this is only our own solar system and there are over 17,000 possibly habitable ones out there, there is a good chance at least a few have intelligent life. D. Intelligent life would be beneficial for technology swapping.