Track 15

Unit 7

Astronomy

Mission to Mars

Page 65

Try it out!

So there are a couple of things to consider. To start with, there’s the cost. Space exploration is notoriously expensive and that raises at least two important and related questions. First should we really give priority to expensive space projects when we have more immediate problems to solve here on our own planet. I’m talking about a lack of schools and good healthcare and starving populations, to name a few.

Secondly, why aren’t the billions of dollars invested in space projects used to solve Earth’s environmental challenges. In other words if we invest in solving Earth’s problems then we eliminate one of the main arguments for space exploration, colonization. Besides that solution may be decades if not centuries away anyway.

Okay, so that’s cost. Next is the inherent danger of space travel. Every time we send astronauts into space…