How Much Would You Pay For The Universe?

This was my final paper for my English Composition 1 class, i know the format isn't perfect but I was very proud of the over all content. That being said any suggestion to improve my writing skills would be appreciated, or just tell me what you thought of the topic.

 

We the human race are natural born explorers, we yearn to discover what is just over the horizon and beyond. We have mapped the land, traversed the oceans, and conquered the skies, but in this case is the sky really the limit? The answer is no, the boundaries of what we have left to discover are unfathomable. Space, it is the next frontier and we have barely begun to even test the expansive waters that is our universe. Why is it important that we continue to broaden our horizons? The main reason is that there are two things, history has shown, that drive humans to advance themselves and their knowledge, war and exploration, and I much prefer the latter. Actually, just in our infancy of space exploration unexpectedly birthed the polar opposite of war, international cooperation the likes of which has never been accomplished with anything else. On the International Space Station countries such as the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe, and many others, despite some previous conflicts, have all come together to cooperate on this one goal. What's the problem, let's pursue this, there is nothing holding us back right? Well, the only downside to this tenacious endeavor is it does cost money, and many people believe that the money should be spent elsewhere, and thus NASA's budget continues to be reduced. Although there are a handful of privately owned companies involved in space exploration I believe that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, is our best hope for reaching as far as humanly possible to the stars. That being said, it is being proposed in this year’s budget to cut NASA's funding by over $260 million, from its already measly share of .05% of Americas tax budget. NASA's ever dwindling funds is a major problem that requires more attention.

Beside the fact of the technological advances and the knowledge we gain from space exploration, the inspiration people get from seeing boundaries broken and heroes being made, alone, are worth the monetary expenditures. Putting a man on the moon back in 1969 was an inspiration to an entire generation of scientists and engineers, leading to the technological boom of the 20^th century. Seeing awesome feats achieved will inspire children, and give them something to strive for. Neil Armstrong is still held in reverence today, and some children still look up to him, but imagine the shock and awe of seeing the first man on Mars. It has been too long, since we have had a hero like him to look up to, and it is time we made new ones. It is important to create the next generation of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, and NASA has educational and outreach programs to encourage and educate children in these fields. Wait, no they don't, NASA was forced to suspend their outreach programs in compliance with the Budget Control Act of 2011. This a blatant lack of foresight, lessening the avenues for creating learned individuals will only hurt our economy in the long run, despite the immediate savings. However it should be noted that the people at NASA are a crafty bunch and were able to find loop holes to still continue some projects, but as a whole their outreach programs will still suffer due to the suspension. Aside from inspiring the next generation of scientists, we also need to make sure we keep the current generation on its toes. Back in 1993 Congress canceled the funding the SSC, Superconducting Super Collider, because they couldn't see the sense in such an expensive project, even after construction had already begun. This collider would have been three times larger thanthe LHC, the Large Hadron Collider, at CERN, the hadron collider that discovered the Higgs Boson, and would have been completed almost ten years earlier. We could have easily discovered the Higgs before the LHC, and a discovery as big as that would have made SSC one of the major scientific hubs of the world. The United States would have become a leader in particle physics, much as Switzerland is now, with scientists from all over the world coming here to study our data. Instead all of our scientists are going overseas, and all we have to show for it is an unfinished facility with about fifteen miles of flooded tunnels underneath it. If only Congress considered the matter more carefully, and wouldn't have cut the budget much like they are doing with many of NASA's projects today.

NASA also has a more personal impact to all of us, there are things we use every day that are a direct result of inventions used for space exploration. Adam Kissiah Jr was an engineer working on the space shuttle program, and helped in the development of cochlear implants, a much improved hearing aid compared to the analog version, by applying his knowledge, and the advancements NASA had made with observational and monitoring sensors, to the device. Today people with complete hearing loss, in some cases, are able to hear again because of this invention. Another advancement in medical technology, that NASA had a hand in, is the insulin delivery system. This device works by monitoring the patient’s blood sugar levels and automatically administering the proper amount of insulin. It was adapted from NASA scientists trying to develop new ways to monitor astronaut health during the time of the Mars Viking probes in anticipation of humans being in space for extended periods of time. There are many other inventions that were direct spinoffs of NASA technology, such as a lighter weight breathing apparatus that fire fighters use, that was originally created for use in space suits, the scratch resistant coating on eyeglasses, which was developed for use in a spacecraft’s water purification systems. Other practical things that NASA helped develop or improve on, like memory foam, shoe insoles, invisible braces and advances in water purification, is frankly overwhelming to think about. If we continue to chip away at NASA's budget who knows what technologies we might miss out on in the future.

On a grimmer note of why NASA and space exploration is important to us, is the inevitable threat of large scale destruction caused by meteors. The recent meteor impact in Chelyabinsk, Russia with around $33 million in damage and over 1,500 injured, serves as a warning that we need to be more mindful of near-earth objects, or NEOs. Believe it or not, we were actually very lucky this time, this meteor was only 17m in diameter and weighing in at around 10,000 tons. Yes only, NASA's Spaceguard Survey have predicted approximately 1,100 NEOs larger than 1km, one of these objects hitting the earth would yield a blast of around 100,000 megatons of TNT, for a comparison the most powerful bomb set off by humans was the Tsar Bomba with only a 57 megaton yield. Okay, enough of the fear mongering, fortunately for us NASA already has programs in place to help solve this cosmic quandary, such as the Spaceguard Survey and NEO Program along with the international effort in the new NEOSheild project. Unlike previous species that faced extinction level impacts, such as the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, we have the means to create technology to prevent future ones. The technology used to deflect and monitor NEOs could also be adapted to mine the rare resources of some asteroids and may eventually help NASA become self-sufficient. Their mission to capture and move a small asteroid, around 7m in diameter, into the moons orbit is the first step to such a venture.

Space exploration is vital to our future weather you seek knowledge, new technology, or a safer planet for future generations. The thought of space explorers, off world settlements, and asteroid mining are no longer science fiction, we can start now. Our main obstacle though is politicians’ ever increasing disinterest in the importance of this endeavor. Though NASA has other supporters, such as the Planetary Society headed by Bill Nye, it is not enough, we need to convince Congress that they are doing America a grave disservice by continuing to cut NASA's budget year after year. Half a penny on the dollar is all NASA sees of your taxes every year, just .05%! It would help future projects immensely for NASA to get just a mere 1% of the budget. As Neil Degrasse Tyson asked when addressing congress on NASA's behalf, “How much would you pay for the universe?”

Slainte,
Jay