Human beings have been venturing into the boundless universe throughout history, searching for new perspectives in studying both Earth and other planets. Ever Since October 4, 1957, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth, global astronomers have been frantically competing with acquiring the best aerospace facilities. This competition especially bursted between the United States and the Soviet Union, where the Cold War tension started to emerge. For several years, the two superpowers had been competing to develop missiles, rockets, and satellites, both desiring to achieve victory. Unfortunately, the United States was left behind in the space race, losing its previous exaltation. "We choose to go to the Moon", formally the Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort, is a September 12, 1962, speech by United States President John F. Kennedy to bolster public support for his proposal to land a man on the Moon before 1970 and bring him safely back to Earth. The main purpose is to make the United States excel in moon travel, but not everyone was impressed; a Gallup Poll indicated that 58 percent of Americans were opposed. After the speech, which discussed the necessity to become an international leader in lunar exploration, a hoard of flights, including Apollo, made their execution. While a majority of scientists support the moon and space exploration, some claim that it’s a waste of time, energy, and money. Indeed, the government should not be sending people to the moon, instead, they should focus on practical problems, such as climate change, which harms Earth.
Moon exploration was popular, but because of too much expense and modern technologies, some people think it’s useless to select the moon as our main astronomical target. According to NASA officials, “the Moon will provide scientists with new views of early Earth, how the Earth-Moon system and the solar system formed and evolved, and the role of asteroid impacts in influencing Earth’s history — and possibly future”. Lunar exploration empowers scientists to test technologies, flight capabilities, life support systems, and exploration techniques to reduce the risks and increase the productivity of future missions. Scientists once considered inhabitation on the moon, but maintaining long-term abundance of oxygen and resources with elimination of the intense radiation seemed to be impossible. Although John F. Kennedy’s goal had been achieved when the Apollo 11 Moon landing took place in June, 1969, according to the Royal Observatory Greenwich, NASA faced large funding cuts, making the future of the following Apollo missions untenable. Apollo 11 was followed by six further trips to the Moon, five of which landed successfully. 12 men walked on the lunar surface in total. But in 1970 future Apollo missions were canceled. Apollo 17 became the last crewed mission to the Moon, for an indefinite amount of time. Nowadays, it’s totally unnecessary to have those moon landings because there is nothing on the moon that the probes couldn't handle and that would require people. Landing only forces us to increase budget and waste economic resources.
After ending the Moon landing mission, astronomers transferred their insight to the more distant Mars, which provides almost nothing but uncertainty, danger, space pollution and additional enormous expenses. Previously, global space organizations sent astronauts to mine scarce resources such as iron, titanium and uranium. But results appear to be that the expense in materials for mining outweighs the value of mined resources. Soon, NASA got inspiration in starting the “Moon to Mars” plan. According to NASA and Mars Society of Canada, both reason that Mars is a rich destination for the search for life, understanding the surface and the planet’s evolution, and preparing for future human exploration, just like Elon Musk announced in his speech, “Humanity should have a moon base, cities on Mars, and be out there among the stars.”
To this being said, many protesters became skeptical about if they truly encountered the huge amount of danger, effort, and energy they would spend. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, study suggests that a significant boost in spaceflight activity may damage the protective ozone layer on the one planet where we live. Ozone depletion caused by soot particles emitted by solid-fueled rockets, humans not only pollute the Earth, but also the entire universe. In accordance with NASA Mars exploration, the overall cost of the program is somewhat over 100 million dollars per year, including launch vehicles and operations, for two launches every 26 months. Due to uncertainty and safety, SpaceX, CNSA, as well as NASA have only deposited robotic landers and rovers on Mars. Their next possible plan was to send humans, but because of toxic dust, ionizing radiation, and dust storms, they postponed the plan thankfully.
Investigating the field of science is definitely a splendid decision being made, but people need to be more aware of the extreme expenses and the spending of money in different aspects of science. After Kennedy’s announcement of "We choose to go to the Moon", despite his success , on that occasion, going to the Moon was hugely expensive. Originally, Kennedy’s government had estimated $7 billion dollars, while in the end, the total cost was $20 billion dollars. The fiscal situation compelled the government to apply a plan: cutting the cost and increasing funding for NASA’s annual budget. As for transportation, they retired the space shuttle program in 2011, built less expensive replacement spacecraft, and encouraged private companies to develop spacecraft. Aside from the financial arranging problems years ago, in current days, people still spend a profusion amount of useless money on exploring mainly Mars. According to Statista, in 2022, global government expenditure for space programs hit a record of approximately 103 billion U.S. dollars, with the United States in the lead of 62 billion dollars. Instead of this expenditure on space, it’s more necessary to use it on practical problems, such as global warming, which saves Earth itself. From President Biden’s investment, the Biden-Harris Administration announces $100 Million to Transform Climate Pollution into Sustainable Products. These “reduce-carbon footprint” projects cost less and bring better efficient results. In addition, the Carbon Utilization Procurement Grants program will help offset 50% of the costs to states, local governments, and public agencies to procure products developed through the conversion of captured carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emissions.
The whole caboodle of these astronomical explorations, plannings, and fundings are built on the basis of science. Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world. Application of scientific knowledge permits us to make the right choices and solve practical problems on Earth. On the contrary, people have been making wrong predictions and idealistic agendas, which led to unstable poverty, cold wars, and extreme expenses. Focusing on space will never work because space is an unforgiving environment that does not tolerate human errors or technical failure. The spirit of innovation is considered brilliance, but we need to use it in a rational occasion. We should put our emphasis on existing issues like climate change, medical treatments (vaccines), and aquatic exploration. Thankfully, numerous governments started to become aware of the truth whilst persuading space organizations to take consideration of a temporary stop…
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