NASA's budget is a small fraction of the overall US federal budget at 0.46%, or about $19.1 billion annually. While some argue this money could be better spent on problems on Earth, space exploration has significantly benefited humanity. It has led to many innovations such as insulation, medical research using subjects in the unique environment of space, and a robotic arm that has helped make before-impossible surgeries possible. Overall, if space exploration did not provide benefits, governments would not continue to fund space agencies, suggesting it has improved life on Earth through technological advancements.

1. SCRIPTV3
Intro:
This is Sputnik, the first man made object to orbit the earth. Since the day of its launch
humanity has not stopped looking up at the night sky and pouring billions of dollars into the
exploration of the cosmos. But has this expensive endeavour improved our life on earth and
benefited humanity or has it wasted money that could be spent on helping those who are in
desperate need.
In America, one third of the surveyed public felt that the government should stop funding
space exploration and leave it to private spaceflight companies such as SpaceX and Blue
Origin. But why?
They feel it is wasteful to spend government money on exploring other planets, when we
have severe problems on earth that need solving and would benefit from extra government
funding. Thus, space exploration should be left to private companies, as it does not directly
help citizens around the globe.
So, let’s break down the US federal budget and talk about whether NASA has improved life
on earth or whether it is a black hole sucking up money and resources.
NASA has a budget of $19.1 billion dollars in 2018, this equates to 0.46% of the total $4
trillion-dollar annual US federal budget. Or to put it differently for every $1 tax dollar you
spend, a whopping 0.000000000001 cents goes towards the NASA budget.
This by no means takes away from one of the biggest and most common argument against
space exploration. The cost is very high for very little practical return, Space travel and
experiments on the ISS are extremely expensive for example depending on what type of
spacecraft is used sending a 500ml bottle of water to the ISS can cost anywhere between
$9,100 on the low end and $43,000 high end. This means that something as simple as
drinking water is an extraordinarily expensive task, a problem that simply does not exist here
on earth.
Because of this fact, some citizens feel that the inventions and technology we have
discovered in space could have been discovered at a much smaller price point here on
earth.
Another common and very reasonable argument is that we should focus on fixing the world
in which we live, before we delve into other galaxies. We have climate issues ranging from
the arctic ice melting to extreme weather all over the globe; we need to solve the energy
crisis cause by the apparent never-ending growth of our population. We have hundreds of
thousand starving, and homeless parents and children in every corner of the world. There
are wars all around the globe whether it is an internal war or an external war. So why should
we waste our money staring into the stars when it should be focused on saving our people
here on earth?
I would agree that sometimes it can seem like government money goes to waste when we
hear about a failed rocket launch, or simply the spending of over $25 billion dollars in 1973
to put man on the moon.
(Roughly equal economy cost in 2017 is $347,000,000,000)
However, if Space exploration didn’t benefit humanity whatsoever governments around the
world would have stopped funding their space agencies years ago. So what has space
exploration actually achieved?

2. To understand what space travel has achieve we first need to look at the challenges of
space travel.
Lots of the radical changes in technology, that are a result of space travel exist because
space is a radically different environment to our globe. This means that there are problems
to overcome that would never exist on planet earth. For example extreme temperature
differences, NASA has developed several forms of insulation that are used all around the
globe today, from the traditional home insulation we all know, to the golden foil blankets
used by first responders.
Because of the extreme environment the astronauts and cosmonauts on the ISS are perfect
subjects for medical studies and have already given a great insight into learning about the
causes and effects of osteoporosis as well as how it may be treated.
Not to mention the medical experiments and technologies that have been discovered
because of the rare physical and environmental properties of the ISS.
When building the ISS a Canadian company MIBR constructed a large robotic arm called
‘Candarm2’ that would be used to assemble the space station. Later on some medical
researchers saw this arm, and realised its potential in the medical field, they worked closely
with MIBR to build a robotic arm that was for more accurate than a surgeon could ever be
allowing before, inoperable patient, to be operated upon.
Not to forget the hundreds of satellites we interact with every day, used by some to check
the weather forecast or by rescue teams to help locate someone lost at sea.
I think it is easy to see a large sum of money and be put off by thinking we have more severe
problems that need solving.
I believe that space exploration allows for very creative minds to work together at something
that is larger than our imaginations and therefore their enthusiasm and creative thinking is
not limited, leading to vast technological discoveries.
Perhaps it would be cheaper to simply find solutions to a specific problem, however I believe
that space travel allows us to dream our childhood dreams while encouraging the need for
technological advancement.