Are we alone in the universe? Without any doubt, this question is one of the commonest people have asked since the beginning of our civilization. People were always aware of the fact that there are other planets and other objects, like the moon and sun. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that so many philosophers have asked this question.
As you can imagine, operations of this kind are exceptionally hefty and humanity wasn’t prepared for this step due to the lack of technological advancements. In the sixties, the Apollo program was the first-time humankind had a step on the moon. The costs of this operation nearly touched $30 billion. Sure, when you translate the worth to today’s value of the US dollar, you will get a much higher worth. As Neil Armstrong said, this was a small step for a human, but a big one for humanity.
Even though some theories are not supporting this occurrence, we cannot deny the money that was invested in the program itself. Naturally, the race for the space program hasn’t declined to this day. If you are interested in taking a look at one of NASA’s newest project, check carlkruse.org. The question is, is it worth it? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of space exploration.
Pros
Let’s take a look at the pros of investing in space exploration
1. Knowledge About Universe
Every expert can agree with the fact that the exploration of the solar system has provided us with a plethora of essential knowledge about the universe. At the same time, the exploration of space helped us to understand all the things that surround our planet. A plethora of information can be applied to technology and science.
All the experts hope that we will be able to discover some form of life at some point in time. Surely, that would be the biggest discovery in the history of mankind. We’ve already been able to discover some new planets, and we know that there are more of them to come. Therefore, it can be said that there are a lot of things left to be discovered.
2. Predicting the Potential Dangers
What many people don’t know is that the highest percentage of asteroids are located near Jupiter and Mars. As you know, Mars is a planet near ours. We know that some of these asteroids impacted our planet numerous times. Some people can say that this is the main reason why dinosaurs were exterminated.
Therefore, one of the most important goals of space exploration is predicting these dangers, by labeling all of these asteroids and comets and predicting their movement in the future. The gravity of our planet can attract them. If that happens, we will have a really big problem that could completely change the world as we know it.
3. A New Source of Resources
One of the hottest topics in this day and age is that the planet earth will experience a lack of essential resources for humanity. The reason being that there are more people on it by the day. Therefore, we can see that this is something we will experience at some point in time.
However, what many people don’t understand is that space exploration will help us to discover various new sources of resources we can use for pushing our civilization forward. We can see that there are a lot of different projects that have the aim of pursuing this kind of space program. So, we can see that we will see more of these in the future. Elon Musk is one of the founders of these projects.
Cons
Now that we’ve established the pros, let’s take a look at the bad side.
1. There are a Lot of Risks
Pretty much everyone is aware of the fact that humans cannot survive in space without having some kind of protection. The reason is that the conditions are not fit for humans. Even if we succeed at landing on Mars, chances are that we will never have good enough conditions to protect ourselves from them.
One of the biggest dangers to human health is bone loss, due to the lower gravity than the one we experience on our planet. Plus, the radiation is a pretty big question that can represent a pretty big problem down the road. So, the scientists will need to improve the equipment more before they can reach the level when we can actually visit some places in space.
2. Maybe We Will Not Like What We Find
We’ve all seen some apocalyptic movies about Aliens who invaded Earth. Therefore, chances are that we will not like what we find in space. Maybe some of the species we find will want to explore our planet for resources, who knows? Therefore, being careful about what we do is an absolute must.
But, at the same time, we can see that this is a rather unpredictable process. So, the experts need to approach this topic with the utmost carefulness to avoid situations like these. Maybe it would happen that we will get exactly the opposite than we’ve looked for. On the other side, maybe we will find nothing that we can relate to, which is also a big question that requires a lot of discussions.
3. We Create a Lot of Junk
Recently, the public was informed about the fact that NASA is tracking half a million pieces of junk that are located in the orbit of our planet. Surely, this is not something that can provide us with any benefits. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. A lot of pieces have been left in that area after the launch of many different space programs that we’ve seen in the past.
These experts say that there’s a ring of junk and debris that we’ve left in the area around our planet, which is certainly not good. Otherwise, the predictions about the damage that it can inflict on planet Earth could be pretty devastating. So, this is one of the biggest downsides of space exploration and we need to consider this question seriously.
