Final Agruement Essay: Is Space Exploration Worth It?

Final Agruement Essay

Is Space Exploration Worth It?

Did you know that air pollution is a greater threat to life expectancy than smoking, HIV or war? We, as humans, are polluting our only habitable place in this whole solar system, and so many people are ignoring it like it doesn’t matter! And we aren’t even talking about how dangerous it could be. America should not be prioritizing Earth exploration because we need to preserve our Earth first, and it could be really dangerous to the people going into space. My first reason we should not be prioritizing space exploration because we need to preserve our Earth first. The first piece of evidence for that reason is from a TED talk, Lucianne Walkowicz declares “Compared to Earth Mars is a pretty

Consider the extent to which we have not colonized the deserts of our own planet, places that are lush by comparison with Mars, the air is sweet and thick with oxygen exhaled from thousands of miles away by our rainforests.” (Walkowicz) To clarify, the author claims that Mars is like the deserts on our planet, except ours are so much better than the whole climate of Mars. which isn’t very good because we can barely even live in the deserts of our own planet, how can we possibly live on Mars? Another piece of evidence that we should not be prioritizing space exploration is from Lucianne Walkowicz once again. She says in that same Ted talk; “...the implication and belief by some that Mars will be there to save us from the self-inflicted destruction of the only truly habitable planet that we know of, the Earth.” (Walkowicz) In this case, the author declares that Mars is a backup planet for us. So it’s completely okay if we trash the planet that is perfectly habitable for us, and we are made FOR it because there’s another planet that isn’t nearly as good just because we are lazy. The last piece of evidence that we should not be prioritizing space exploration is from the same TED talk. She vocalizes in this passage;

My first piece of evidence for that reason is from the passage “Danger! This Mission to Mars Could Bore You to Death!” By Maggie Koerth-Baker. It says “With current technology, the journey takes more than eight months each way. Which means that astronauts will get bored. In fact, a number of scientists say that -of all things- boredom is one of the biggest threats to a manned Mars mission, despite the thrill inherent in visiting another planet.” (Koerth-Baker, pg. 154, para 2&3) In other words, the author believes that even though going to another planet may be exciting, people will get bored on a rocket for 8 months straight. Which is very understandable if you think about it. The new exciting things that are gonna be on a rocket aren’t going to be exciting anymore, humans as a race get bored of things really quickly, and you’ll get burnt out on the things that you brought, and bringing 8 months of food is going to be a lot as well, and you’re going to get burnt out on the same foods for 8 months, so you’re going to want variety and it’s going to be painful. The second and final piece of evidence I have that reason is from the passage “Trip to Mars Could Damage Astronauts’ Brains” by Laura Sanders. It says “For his team's new study, the scientists beamed mice with high-energy charged particles. The idea was to simulate cosmic rays in space. …Six weeks later, they