Script version 3
- 1. SCRIPTV3 Intro: This is Sputnik, the first man made object to orbit the earth. Since the day of its launch humanity has not stopped looking up at the night sky and pouring billions of dollars into the exploration of the cosmos. But has this expensive endeavour improved our life on earth and benefited humanity or has it wasted money that could be spent on helping those who are in desperate need. In America, one third of the surveyed public felt that the government should stop funding space exploration and leave it to private spaceflight companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin. But why? They feel it is wasteful to spend government money on exploring other planets, when we have severe problems on earth that need solving and would benefit from extra government funding. Thus, space exploration should be left to private companies, as it does not directly help citizens around the globe. So, let’s break down the US federal budget and talk about whether NASA has improved life on earth or whether it is a black hole sucking up money and resources. NASA has a budget of $19.1 billion dollars in 2018, this equates to 0.46% of the total $4 trillion-dollar annual US federal budget. Or to put it differently for every $1 tax dollar you spend, 0.0046 cents goes towards the NASA budget. This by no means takes away from one of the biggest and most common argument against space exploration. The cost is very high for very little practical return, Space travel and experiments on the ISS are extremely expensive for example depending on what type of spacecraft is used sending a 500ml bottle of water to the ISS can cost anywhere between $9,100 on the low end and $43,000 high end. This means that something as simple as drinking water is an extraordinarily expensive task, a problem that simply does not exist here on earth. Because of this fact, some citizens feel that the inventions and technology we have discovered in space could have been discovered at a much smaller price point here on earth. Another common and very reasonable argument is that we should focus on fixing the world in which we live, before we delve into other galaxies. We have climate issues ranging from the arctic ice melting to extreme weather all over the globe; we need to solve the energy crisis cause by the apparent never-ending growth of our population. We have hundreds of thousand starving, and homeless parents and children in every corner of the world. There are wars all around the globe whether it is an internal war or an external war. So why should we waste our money staring into the stars when it should be focused on saving our people here on earth? I would agree that sometimes it can seem like government money goes to waste when we hear about a failed rocket launch, or simply the spending of over $25 billion dollars in 1973 to put man on the moon. (Roughly equal economy cost in 2017 is $347,000,000,000) However, if Space exploration didn’t benefit humanity whatsoever governments around the world would have stopped funding their space agencies years ago. So what has space exploration actually achieved?
- 2. To understand what space travel has achieve we first need to look at the challenges of space travel. Lots of the radical changes in technology, that are a result of space travel exist because space is a radically different environment to our globe. This means that there are problems to overcome that would never exist on planet earth. For example extreme temperature differences, NASA has developed several forms of insulation that are used all around the globe today, from the traditional home insulation we all know, to the golden foil blankets used by first responders. Because of the extreme environment the astronauts and cosmonauts on the ISS are perfect subjects for medical studies and have already given a great insight into learning about the causes and effects of osteoporosis as well as how it may be treated. Not to mention the medical experiments and technologies that have been discovered because of the rare physical and environmental properties of the ISS. When building the ISS a Canadian company MBA constructed a large robotic arm called ‘Candarm2’ that would be used to assemble the space station. Later on some medical researchers saw this arm, and realised its potential in the medical field, they worked closely with MBA to build a robotic arm that was for more accurate than a surgeon could ever be allowing before, inoperable patient, to be operated upon. Not to forget the hundreds of satellites we interact with every day, used by some to check the weather forecast or by rescue teams to help locate someone lost at sea. I think it is easy to see a large sum of money and be put off by thinking we have more severe problems that need solving. I believe that space exploration allows for very creative minds to work together at something that is larger than our imaginations and therefore their enthusiasm and creative thinking is not limited, leading to vast technological discoveries. Perhaps it would be cheaper to simply find solutions to a specific problem, however I believe that space travel allows us to dream our childhood dreams while encouraging the need for technological advancement, and discovering the world of tomorrow.