July 20th, 2009 was the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s historic flight to the moon, where astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first human beings to walk on the moon. 40 years ago, space flight inspired such awe that astronauts were hailed as heroes and celebrities by men, women, and children alike. 40 years later none of us, besides the most avid space fanatic, would likely to be able to name one astronaut in service today.
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Despite the tragedies of Space Shuttle Challenger, and later Columbia, where the world is shocked into being reminded of the inherit dangers of sitting on 1 million gallons of rocket fuel, or re-entering the earth’s atmosphere at 1,870 miles per hour. We all see space flight as mundane because the vast majority of space flights since Apollo 11, have been mostly conducting seemingly routine scientific experiments. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe in the importance of science in space, but these experiments don’t exactly inspire awe in the general population like, oh say, a manned mission to Mars would. We also don’t have the fever of beating those damned Ruskies because they might go to space and blow us all up, which we had during the height of the cold war when Apollo 11 touched down on the lunar Sea of Tranquility.
Watching some fantastic documentaries (such as Discovery’s When We Left Earth
In my humble opinion, space exploration is important not only to humanity’s curiosity of the great beyond, but it is also important for the future of the earth and all of us living on it. So here I will count down “Houston style,” my top 5 reasons why space exploration is important for the world.
5. Promote Science Education – The Apollo missions inspired a whole generation of kids who wanted to grow up to be astronauts, rocket scientists, and engineers. We all know that science education has been slightly lacking in the United States as of late. Don’t you think that NASA’s return to the moon, or more importantly the much anticipated manned mission to Mars will again inspire a whole new generation to reach for the stars so to speak? I do.
4. NASA’s Environmental Research – You would think that the guys who burn a million pounds of rocket fuel wouldn’t be the most environmentally minded people in the world, or out of the world as it may be. However, most people don’t know that NASA does a lot of good environmental research while they are up there looking down at all of us. NASA has done a lot of work in studying air quality, climate change, alternative energy, and near earth objects; which as we all know from the movies can destroy the earth any day now without warning, unless we have a group of oil drillers, a nuke, and Bruce Willis.
3. Eliminate Earth Over Population – The current earth population is almost 6.8 BILLION people. Arguably beyond the carrying capacity of the earth already. The big dream is space colonization. We need somewhere to put all these people, or we all might end up living in skyscrapers, see all animal’s habitats destroyed, and smog up the air beyond what is breathable (see: China).
2. Natural Resources – Related to over population, we are burning through the earth’s natural resources pretty quickly. Out in space there is virtually unlimited resources. It is all just a matter of collecting it and bringing it back, which granted will not be an easy task. Still… it is virtually unlimited natural resources! There will be no more excuses for hiking up prices on barrels of oil. (Although hopefully we will have moved far beyond oil by then).
1. Put Ourselves into Perspective – From space earth is really small. From space earth is really fragile. Sometimes I think it would be a good thing to put our place in the universe into perspective. I don’t go into your house light up a stogy, start pulling up your carpet, kick down your door, and then kill your cat. Yet, we as the human species have been doing that to our own home the earth for quite a while now. If we start seeing how small and fragile we are out there floating in space, maybe, just maybe we will not be so prone to abusing our one true home.
Blast Off! Here’s to the men and women who gave their lives to explore the great unknown. We cannot ignore the importance of space exploration, nor be complacent in it’s meaning to all of us. I hope space exploration can continue to inspire, educate, and provide for us in the next 40 years as it has the last 40 years.
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This is called COMMENT why are you writeing an essay???
I this this is a good article , also funny.
This is so cool!!!
Just tripped over the article- enjoyed the thoughts. I have been recently seeing antispace exploration talks with some other folks and am dismayed at their lack of imagination and curiosity. The science behind it has born some good technical developments and someday some large breakthroughs.
I did notice one statement I think was a typo.
“re-entering the earth’s atmosphere at 1,870 miles per hour” I believe that 18700 miles per hour, a even more fantastic figure. That is the minimum speed require to maintain orbit.
Are you joking? Let me give you one good reason. The continuation of the species. We literally have all our eggs in one basket. If man stays in one place, here on earth, we will go the way of countless species before us. Extinct.
these comments helped me a lot in writing an essay on space exploration.. thanks everyone !!!
these comments helped me a lot in writing an essay on space exploration.. thanks everyone !!!
I don’t agree. Space exploration is very important indeed, space programs develop new technologies and to create highly qualified jobs. Spending money on space programs is far more useful than wasting money on unemployment benefits. Also the exploration of planets and other celestial bodies can give important scientific results as understanding the origin of life or of the Solar system. We can’t whine about the debt, the political problems and other stuff. The public debt will always be huge, even in 1000 years. Let’s move on.
Is understanding all of this REALLY relevant for today? And how many qualified jobs are you talking about? People have to fund what is relevant for today, and space is really not relevant to the public. Only a select few. Let’s focus on what’s really important to the people, instead of nebulous desires that are not feasible.
I agree.
Sadly, you are unaware of NASA spin-off technologies. Sadly, you are not interested in basic research.
Good for you, I can’t wait to see Rosetta and New Horizons at work…
of course, we have to consider that space programs take time to progress in, and therefore we must start preparing now, before it’s too late and we run out of resources.
I don’t agree. Space exploration is very important indeed, space programs develop new technologies and to create highly qualified jobs. Spending money on space programs is far more useful than wasting money on unemployment benefits. Also the exploration of planets and other celestial bodies can give important scientific results as understanding the origin of life or of the Solar system. We can’t whine about the debt, the political problems and other stuff. The public debt will always be huge, even in 1000 years. Let’s move on.
Is understanding all of this REALLY relevant for today? And how many qualified jobs are you talking about? People have to fund what is relevant for today, and space is really not relevant to the public. Only a select few. Let’s focus on what’s really important to the people, instead of nebulous desires that are not feasible.
I agree.
Sadly, you are unaware of NASA spin-off technologies. Sadly, you are not interested in basic research.
Good for you, I can’t wait to see Rosetta and New Horizons at work…
All of the 5 points related to how space exploration can be achieved HERE ON PLANET EARTH. Lets try ocean exploration for the biological reasons to benefit mankind. We know less about ocean exploration then we do space .
All of the 5 points related to how space exploration can be achieved HERE ON PLANET EARTH. Lets try ocean exploration for the biological reasons to benefit mankind. We know less about ocean exploration then we do space .
Manned space exploration must be one of the least productive publicity stunts we engage in. We burn 100,000 kg of fuel so that a rich guy can go weightless and say WOW.
Maybe, we should be exploring ways to live on this planet without destroying it, instead of looking to colonize the moon or mars. Both places make Antarctica appear outright hospitable. At least it has air and water, both of which are lacking in space.
The space race seems to be fueled by greedy scientists with misguided motives who want their pet projects funded by playing on people’s Star Trek inspired imagination. If scientists can’t do any better than fantasize about space, then maybe we don;t suffer from the lack of scientists, but from having too many already. It seems that most science graduates end up working in shady business areas like Defense, Pharma, Agro, Bio Tech, where they plot with their capitalist backers on how to invent something that will eventually threaten the world. For every scientist doing worthy work, there are probably 100 who do what greed asks them to.
How about we train more people in organic farming, or sustainable life style and shut down a few science departments.
I can’t say I disagree.
Manned space exploration must be one of the least productive publicity stunts we engage in. We burn 100,000 kg of fuel so that a rich guy can go weightless and say WOW.
Maybe, we should be exploring ways to live on this planet without destroying it, instead of looking to colonize the moon or mars. Both places make Antarctica appear outright hospitable. At least it has air and water, both of which are lacking in space.
The space race seems to be fueled by greedy scientists with misguided motives who want their pet projects funded by playing on people’s Star Trek inspired imagination. If scientists can’t do any better than fantasize about space, then maybe we don;t suffer from the lack of scientists, but from having too many already. It seems that most science graduates end up working in shady business areas like Defense, Pharma, Agro, Bio Tech, where they plot with their capitalist backers on how to invent something that will eventually threaten the world. For every scientist doing worthy work, there are probably 100 who do what greed asks them to.
How about we train more people in organic farming, or sustainable life style and shut down a few science departments.
I can’t say I disagree.
I was about to put Bruce Willis in my paper lol
i think you are so right rebecca!!!!!!!!!
yes .. rebecca is right
ok i have no idea who made this web site but what i do know thet it helped a crap load on my history notes, so thank you so much to the auther of the site!!!
No. American tax money goes to more “worthwhile” things like killing people in illegal wars…
NASA is painfully under-funded.
Maybe some people would be a little more satisfied with what they think is going nowhere if it were getting a little more slack on the budget.
o yeah ..
i see ..
The man obviously is smarter than to think people could magically be transported from the Earth to another planet. He means eventually, after a lot of research and advancement.
You have to be a bit more analytical than this.