Our solar system is full of mysteries that we may never solve. Recently, many people had the idea for the government to send for the moon again. This most likely means astronauts going in rockets and other equipment to explore the moon and to hopefully find some answers. However, many others disagreed with this proposal. This was because they worried that everything would go wrong, and this trip would have been for nothing. As a little background information, the funds for this trip would be over 10 billion, considering the astronauts’ food, health, equipment, and breathing bags. The debate over this is whether all this is worth it. Of course, considering that there are many good and bad aspects to this idea, there would be a disagreement. However, I believe if we are able to see which side outbalances the other, we will be able to find out whether the government should send for the moon again or not. Many people say that it is beneficial so that we can find out more about how the moon works and how it can benefit us, while many others say that it wouldn’t be worth the amount of money. When thinking about what side we stand on, we have to look at the benefits for the government, the community, and the astronauts. We should ask ourselves; would we agree to this trip if we were astronauts? What about if we were the government? Based on most perspectives, I believe that the government should not send to the moon again. Just imagine, would that trip owe up for the billions of dollars spent on it? It’s one trip, and surely we are unable to learn everything we need from just this trip.
There can only be so much money that the government can spare, which is definitely not enough to ensure a safe and unproblematic trip to the moon. It takes billions of dollars to just produce the equipment, but we also have to consider health, technology, nutrition, and other things that will eventually make it too expensive for a trip. A little less than 80% of the money that NASA is receiving from the government is used to make space equipment. We also have to consider the advanced technology that they need to make, resulting in a bit more than 14% of money going to the workers. Back then, NASA had a huge budget, yet they still managed to overpass that cost with their many safety precautions. This isn’t even as easy as to just say that e can increase the budget, because that would be too much of a loss towards the government. “We’ve now spent tens of billions of dollars and over a dozen years doing it again — just saying it is sustainable doesn’t make it so,” quoted a former NASA deputy administrator. This proves the point that all the cost that we are given for the equipment night not even make it half good enough, or safe enough as human transportation. It’s not as simple as travelling from one’s house to a grocery store, it’s as complicated as travelling thousands of kilometers, more specifically around 400 thousand kilometers. It is unsafe to make equipment that should insure the safety of days of travelling outside the earth with all the money that our government is able to give. If we were to have a safe trip to space, the government would go broke, and one measly trip doesn’t make up for the money that we would have to put in.
As I have mentioned before, we must look at this from all perspectives. This means we should think about how everyone would feel, and not just ourselves. Generally, there seems to be no losses for our community, right? Wrong. What would we do with this information? It’s not as if our lives are all figured out after the government sending for the moon once. And even if it’s not only once, by the time that we know everything about the moon, it will probably be past the time that we are alive. We mustn’t forget that this is actually a slow process and takes more than a couple of trips and a bit of research. Now if we look at this situation from the government’s point of view, there are bigger cons than pros. Of course, many things might be solved after the many trips that these astronauts took, but the money that they would be losing is huge. Let’s just think about the cost of one trip. It might equal to more than 20 billion dollars. This might not even be safe enough for the astronauts to have a safe trip. Of course, the government couldn’t risk these possible deaths, so they would have to spend even more money on the equipment. Would the government want to spend money on a trip that might not even provide the information that was requested? I believe the answer to that question is no. From the government’s point of view, they would probably take the risk of the astronauts’ lives just to say in budget. This can immediately connect to the astronauts’ points of view. The moon is so unsafe, and full of death traps. Would they risk their lives for this trip? Probably not. The salary they receive isn’t even fully worth it. Since most of the money that the government is giving to their company is used for space products, they wouldn’t even receive the salary they deserve.
Let’s think about why we decided to explore the moon in the first place. We wanted more territory and more resources. However, based on facts and statistics, the moon can’t provide us with any of those. It is so dangerous to even step on, that we simply cannot expect territory there. Also, the moon doesn’t really have any resources that are really necessary to us at the moment. Therefore, spending so much money on the moon for absolutely no reason would be a major loss for the government and for the community. Around 20% of the moon’s resources might be useful to us, but most of them are very hard to mine and to find, because of how dangerous a route it is. Let’s just take helium-3 as an example. It will benefit us in having a more lunar economy, but it is so rare on earth. However, it is much more common on the moon. Although this might seem like a reason to go to the moon, we must remember that the moon is much more of an unsafe place, therefore it has the same possibility of getting helium-3 on earth and on the moon. Also, the territory that we might be able to get on the moon is so unsafe, that it would take decades, or maybe even centuries for it to be safe enough as a territory for our human population. Given that extraterrestrials might exist, we could even be taking their territory. Even if there isn’t we can’t all go to the moon and make it a territory. How is the government going to be able to afford that? Even if there are only around 10 people who go at a time, it could equal to more than 30 billion for their trip. We also have to consider that they can’t stay there for more than a year at a time, which technically means there would have to me more than one trip. How are we going to manage all of this? After we think of everything we have to go through to get what we want from the moon, we will come to realize that it isn’t worth the trouble we are willing to put into this.
While many people believe that the government should send for the moon again, many others believe differently. In my arguments, I have stated that it is too expensive, too dangerous, and shouldn’t be our top priority. Let’s just take the money that would usually be used for one trip to the moon. Now, it costs around 4 billion dollars for a 4 people flight, but we must also include expenses for the food, equipment, etc… With the money that it takes to go to the moon and back, we could be making around 7000 AI robots! Our technology could be much more advanced with the money we must use for a trip to the moon. Also, the information we might retain is important, but not necessary. For example, let’s just say in every 100 trips to the moon, 75 of them are successful and brought us back the information we wanted. But what about the other 25 trips? This is the same case for percentage. Since we already know that we have a 75% chance of success, what if the trip goes wrong and the astronauts die in the process. The important information they might have had could have been for nothing. What will we do then? Should the government really go to the moon after 50 years of not going? Especially since the astronauts going to the moon won’t be the same, which means that the astronauts actually going to the moon would be less experienced. Even if robots can go to the moon instead, they will definitely get less accurate answers, and will be harder to operate. Also, it is much easier for these robots to get smashed and still not have the answers we are looking for. With all these risks, I believe that there are more losses than gains if the government were to send for the moon again. That is why I stand on side negative for this debate.
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