Funding a United States Space Program

Funding a United States Space Program

It is imperative that the United States government should put forth a better initiative regarding our flailing national space programs, and increase their budgets considerably, stressing modification on its goals, modification of its resources, and for overall further advancement of its scope and capability. The space program had been heralded for years as the pride, and future, of the United States. Its promise brought hope to a society plagued by fear and competition, and has since been both the impetus for both immense technological competition, and then conversely, a symbol of cooperation between two diametrically opposed cultures. It brought numerous breakthroughs in medicine, materials science, engineering, and defenseÐ'--over 30,000 advancements to date, including MRIs and CAT scans for detecting cancers and other health threats. Why does our government choose to slowly phase out the life of an entity that has only but added years to our own? The space program is an important part of our existence as Americans, and as world citizens.

The space program needs the appropriate funding for modification for fundamental purposes. The program has worked with the same prototype rocket for almost 50 years. New breakthroughs have emerged in planning and research; however the program does not have the means to go about implementing new ideas. With advancements created through space science research, such findings could create better means of travel on Earth. Also, space exploration gave us the first stark warnings of a world damaged by our endangerment of the environment, and it could further nurture the repair of our planet by allowing us to find better ways of utilizing our resources.

Space travel and exploration is needed for social purposes. Just as Russians and Americans, and now the Chinese, are able to put aside differences to embark on the ultimate human pioneering experience, so it is needed for the sake of unifying humanity through example. Someday, everyone in the world, even those not as privileged as the aforementioned societies, will be touched by the immense advancements space research has made, if they haven't been touched already. Since we do not truly know what can be Ð''out there' awaiting us, both living and nonliving, it is important that we are prepared as a race to face them, in case a need or emergency arises in which we are forced to.

Space travel concentrates on an investment in the betterment of humanity as a whole, and by so doing, it presents to the world the idea of our maturity as a race. This ideal is opposed to the vigilant, primitive preoccupation with destroying each other through war that the world now unfortunately shares. Since space travel challenges our level of development as a species, it is in our best interest as a race