The experimentation and research in space explorations require huge amount of investments and the money for government funded projects come from the taxpayers. Thus, it is important to look at the advantages and the disadvantages to ensure that this is the right use of the taxpayer’s money. One of the advantages that has been already mentioned in the dissertation is that it aids in job creation. People should keep in mind that a big part of the money invested in space exploration is used to pay salaries of thousands of employees and with space programs getting bigger each year this going to help reduce the employment problems that a lot of countries face.
In my opinion, the biggest advantage is that it helps us understand more about our planet and our universe. Without question, space exploration has helped us answer some of the biggest conundrums that have been debated for decades or even centuries. Questions such as whether the Earth is round or flat or does our planet revolves around the Sun (or the other way around) or even to extent it has explained the origin of our universe out of nothing. Space exploration has given us a deeper insight into our universe and helped us realize how vast the universe is and how insignificant we might be in the grander scheme of things. Thus, in the process making us more grateful for being fortunate enough to be living on this planet.
Next, as mentioned before in the literature review space exploration has paved way for many new technologies and most of these technologies have become a part of our daily life considering how everything is wireless these days thus making the use of satellites essential in almost everything we do. I feel that the critics of space exploration do not have enough awareness about all the byproducts that have come out of this or some just choose to ignore it just to prove their point. I feel they should keep in mind that all the money spent on this is not only helping us learn about life outside our planet but also making our life significantly easier. Apart from making our lives more comfortable, some of these technologies have saved many lives due to their use in medical science (the use of Ventricular Assist Device discussed in literature review). I feel that in the coming future, the list of spin-off technologies as by product of space exploration is only going to increase as new innovations in space technology will lead to even more innovative by-products.
On the other hand, one of the biggest disadvantages of space exploration is the amount of cost involved. In my opinion, this is one of the main reasons why space exploration faces so much criticism sometimes. The amount of money involved has been discussed in detail and governments seem to justify these huge figures, but a big part of the public remains unconvinced that this is the way to go. These expenses will only go up as more ambitious projects are being planned, and this will make it even harder for those against space exploration to change their mind with so many problems of our own planet that remain unresolved as mentioned in the dissertation before. A lot of people may believe that the money should instead be spent on solving issues such as world hunger, illiteracy and health issues as these issues lead to deaths specially in developing countries.
Apart from that, another disadvantage of space exploration is the detrimental impacts it has on the environment.