For thousands of years, mankind has stared up into the heavens and seen the stars. Now the dream of reaching them has never been closer. To say that we should halt our operations here, when we have so much more potential, would be preposterous. The space program has achieved things that we had never seen before, and will continue to do so. In under no circumstances is the space program a waste of public funds, as it helps serve society in a different way, just not the same way medical sciences do.
In the past, space exploration had multiple positive side effects, namely the inventions that spurred for its research. If we never had the dream of going beyond our atmosphere and exploring the universe, we would have never invented satellite television, nor would we have memory foam pillows. These inventions were all byproducts from the research done when the great “Space Race” between the Soviet Union and USA was at its peak. Centuries before, the greatest frontier was the oceans for people like Christopher Columbus and now outer space is that vast ocean waiting to be explored.
Only about 0.5% of the US federal budget goes to NASA, and about 19% of it goes to military spending. So if you really want to better serve humanity, cut the military’s massive annual spending of 523.9 billion dollars. Lately, the talk of colonization of Mars is a new challenge, as it may potentially be a habitable planet, just like Earth. If someday in the future we could live on Mars, it would be a potential solution to many of the problems here on earth, like overpopulation and climate change, something that is much more important than military.
With the space program’s constant ability to dazzle us, we can expect tremendous things in the future. Some examples already include the aforementioned colonization of mars, or the James Webb telescope. SpaceX has already managed to land a rocket upright, so we can only imagine what is in store for us. Constant innovation and exploration is what defines human beings, and it is these advancements in technology and ideas, that makes our society so much better. We can expect a continuous stream of technologies and breakthroughs that will help not only in our endeavors in space, but back at home on Earth as well.
So no, we should never stop exploring, innovating, and learning. Perhaps the greatest achievement the space program has done of all, is the fact that it provides students with opportunities such as the United Space School, and gives them a light at the end of the tunnel to look for. Thousands of kids look up to the stars like our ancestors did, but this time, it is quite possible that they can reach it. Programs like these, allow kids like ourselves to dream of “slipping the surly bonds of earth, to touch the face of god”.