Space Exploration Persuasive Essay

Paul Allen, cofounder of Microsoft and owner of the Seattle Seahawks, represents an anomaly in the economic market. His net worth of 17.5 billion dollars sets him soaring over the net worth of other celebrities such as Oprah and Jay-Z; however, the surprising aspect of Paul Allen is not the position on the wealth scale, but rather the fact his net worth of $17.5 billion sets him at the equal rate of what the federal government grants NASA and other space programs every year. Debates over funding for space exploration continue today; as some take the stance that the government should provide the funding, while others believe the funding should be privatized, engaging the entrepreneurial work force. Research on a variety of different topics

Careers in the space exploration field such as astronauts and aeronautical engineers intrigue young boys with around 15% of them wanting to follow in that career, (Elmer). The results of this survey sponsored by LinkedIn, proves how space exploration intrigues younger men; however, what about the young girls? In this same LinkedIn survey, only around 2% of girls wanted to follow a career in this same industry. Government funding enthusiasts support the funding by describing how it inspires young minds to become scientists and explorers, (Etzioni), but private sector enthusiasts developed another standpoint. To inspire both boys and girls, the private sector believes seeing a woman rise to the rank of CEO, head engineer, or some other important title, will result in a larger intrigue from the female population, (Markovich). Also, in a recent study by the science journal Nature, during the 1960’s a spike in students graduating with bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields (36%) occurred as a result of the inspiration of space exploration. Over time that rate has dropped, until 2008, when it peaked fewer than 31%, (Markovich). Even though these statistics dropped over time, the excitement for STEM fields still exists: “Such opportunities to

Much thought goes into the areas that NASA focuses their $17.5 billion dollar budget, including in some cases, joint projects with other countries. The most famous joint project between countries, the International Space Station (ISS), cost NASA and the U.S. government $75 billion dollars. An egregious amount of money put towards the creation of one tool in space exploration. NASA also appealed to Congress for about $80 million dollars to help support Europa mission studies, which Congress granted in 2014, (Leone). The continued use of tax money towards space exploration does not go without benefits. For starter, the ISS supports all space explorers both private and public. Even though the U.S. spent an outrageous amount of money on this space center, it will hopefully continue to aid all space explorers for the foreseeable future. According to Markovich, “Space policy experts agree that NASA faces short- and long-term challenges, including new budget pressures…” again showing the struggles NASA faces because of the budget issues. One interesting viewpoint by Amitai Etzioni states, “The main costs of space exploration arise from the fact that we are set on sending humans, rather than robots.” Robots seems like a viable option for the future;