Space Travel

Alex Gagosian

Composition II

Instructor Bieniek

Abstract

Funding by the government allows selected human beings to experience a world beyond the atmosphere of earth. Some of mans greatest accomplishments have occurred in space, such as the moon landing. Space travel not only provides the delightful experience, but it also helps us to better our technology as the year's progress. Although these are positive aspects of space travel, there are negative aspects that strongly linger, making space travel not so promising.

As you may know, funding for space travel has cost the people in our society a great deal of money. The government has managed to put the U.S. in debt causing an economic domino effect on other sectors of the economy, such as taxes. Not only is space travel costly from the expenses, lives have been taken as well. Tests have gone wrong resulting in the death of astronauts. Before an astronaut can walk on the moon, they have to go through various tests, which help them prepare for their conquest. During these tests, they are still in great danger for three men died in a fire while conducting what they call a preflight test. Many other astronauts have died through the years before actually stepping foot on the moon, and have also died in space as well during an expedition. These negative aspects of space travel are the main reasons why space travel is not worth its many costs.

Space Travel: Should NASA be held responsible for the Apollo disasters, such as the preflight mission that Jim Loy, a scientist and astronomer, alludes to?

On January 27, 1967, on launch pad 34, Edward White, Virgil (Gus) Grissom, and Roger Chaffee died in a fire, during a preflight test. Their mission had been designated Apollo 204. After the accident, it was named Apollo 1...Numerous problems developed with oxygen and communications, and the test dragged on and on. Various communications went awry. Then five and a half hours after they had entered the command module, Chafee said, "Fire, I smell fire." Two seconds later, White shouted, "Fire in the cockpit." A few seconds later they were dead from smoke inhalation. (p. 1).

The Apollo 1 event is one of the many tragic events that have come about because of preflight testing for astronauts. Is space travel worth the extravagant expenses in past and present times? The costs of death, debt, and society out weigh the positive effects of Space Travel. Past events and the impact of space travel have branded space travel not being worth its many expenses.

The actual costs of space travel in recent years have soared well beyond the billions, which in return have added to the national debt (over three trillion dollars today). Just last year another problem occurred involving a material break up of a panel on the side of a spacecraft, causing a life-staking event in returning through the atmosphere. Are the tests that NASA run actually ready for real life exploration in space or are they just proposals they hope to achieve; are the tests worth the millions and even billions of dollars being spent by the public and Federal Government. Space tourism has also become an issue especially when accounting for the costs that are involved with the trips. Mike Kelley from the North Jersey Media Group reveals that a wealthy man "Olsen, who grew up in Ridgefield Park and earned a fortune in science research, paid $20 million for a nine-day trip on a Russian rocket ship to the International Space Station. He claims his priority is to conduct experiments. Critics have another name for his star trek: space tourism." (p.1). People such as Greg Olsen are spending millions of dollars on space travel just to catch a glimpse of the earth from outer space. This certainly cannot be a logical way to use money. If you had twenty million dollars would you spend it on yourself or others in need?

All the money being spent on space travel does not come "directly" out of U.S. citizens pockets, such as a tax would impose. The Federal Government and private organizations, institutions, and corporations are primarily where the money is extracted. The problem is the U.S. doesn't have billions of dollars to throw around, so most of the money used for space travel is budgeted into the U.S. deficit. This deficit affects all U.S. citizens through taxes, interest rates, consumption, and investment. Society as a whole is affected tremendously economically. Now when a natural disaster occurs all the money is tied up in the deficit, and federal agencies battle over where the disaster relief money should come from. While all this bickering is taking place within the government, millions of people could be in grave danger. Just a couple of months ago America witnessed an event similar to this one involving Hurricane Katrina. Government agencies took too long to aid the relief and hundreds of people died. Government has been known for centuries to be very slow in decision making. If the Government allocated money more efficiently then some of the nations financial problems could be solved.

As with any advancement of technology, the moon landing had both positive and negative aspects associated with it. On the positive side, the moon landing paved the way for future space exploration. The trip was a huge success for the forward movement of mankind. The capabilities of the lunar module and other devices allowed scientists to determine the best designs and techniques for space travel. Technologies used in space from past explorations are being used on Earth; the San Gabriel Vallet Tibune alludes to some of these technologies that are currently used in everyday life such as,

A special fire-fighting nozzle originally used to break through a space shuttle's outer layers to put out an interior fire and now being used to combat all interior aircraft fires; miniaturization of computer components leading to pocket calculators; common data buffers now used in any computer for processing any computer language; heat pipes used in satellites to cool electronic components are now used in commercial air conditioning units to increase efficiency and save energy; aerial infrared mapping technology originally used in space is now being used to inventory Florida citrus trees and evaluate crop value and to identify problem areas. (p. 1)

These material values gained form space still would have been eventually discovered for testing here on Earth. In terms of human exploration, the moon landing proved that it is more beneficial for research if humans can man the mission. With humans in the driver's seat, it is possible for us to get the information