How important is space exploration?

It is 40 years since Apollo 11 carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, lifted off on its historic journey to the moon. Should we go back to the moon?

Hundreds of millions of people around the world watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin step off the Eagle Lander and become the first humans to walk on the moon.

Forty years on, Buzz Aldrin has said that there is no reason to return to the moon but that the focus should be on heading to Mars.

Where do you see space exploration going in the next 40 years? Should we be trying to put humans on Mars? Should more money be spent on space exploration? Should we create a united international effort to explore space?

Buzz Aldrin answered your questions (on the BBC website)

Link is broken

Thing is, its good doing Space exploration...but, I think there should be a limit..personally. If we explore too much we might walk into another alien's territory :P

Putting Humans on Mars, have you ever played Doom 3?...if not, do so..and there will be your reason as to why we shouldnt. We should we happy where we are I think, lets populate the world first..and then think about doing another world

Reply 3

Joshua3

5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YIPCg6_2yY

Reply 4

GazzyG

Eventually Earth will become overpopulated and we will start to run out of resources.

For this reason, I believe that space travel is a necessary expense.

Reply 5

xiah

Needs to be started now, as GazzyG stated above. Obvious reasons, humans are too stupid and will end up damaging the planet too much for it to repair itself (In our lifetimes) and humans will all die out while our planet slowly recovers itself to habit future life as it always has.

Reply 6

Psyche05

11

Humanity is already well on the way to ruining one planet. I have no wish to see that extend to others. If humanity can't inhabit a planet without destroying it it's better we end with earth.

Reply 7

eulerwaswrong

13

we should definately have an international joint effort - at the moment all space exploartion is seen as just showing off to other contries/trying to show you are better than them.

All that money is being spent on a non essential thing, and then other countries try to follow and compete and spend money on research and stuff for stuff that has allready been done by another country - a joint effort would be a lot more efficient and effective and less about competition.

However i am a big fan of space travel and love anything to d with space but it seems mad to be spending that vast quantity of money on something that isn't really essential when there are millions dying of curable diseases etc etc etc - every day

Reply 8

dougiemacs

eulerwaswrong

However i am a big fan of space travel and love anything to d with space but it seems mad to be spending that vast quantity of money on something that isn't really essential when there are millions dying of curable diseases etc etc etc - every day

this. we should only begin space exploration as a planet when with have reached ther pinnacle of what we can do with our own planet. And we are nowhere near that stage. we need to solve all the problems here before spending billions on space exploration.

Reply 9

Drewski

19

Massively important: it's what's next.

Man looked out of his cave into the next valley, he saw fire, he harnessed the power available to him, he crossed oceans and mountains, he settled land and domesticated animals.

Then he looked to the heavens.

The history of mankind is based on exploration. That should never, ever end.

Reply 10

DayneD89

21

I consider it to be very important. It creates knowledge and makes people think. This indirectly leads to technological advance. A joint international effort would also reduce costs and aid international communication.

I would agree that the moon should not be our priority. We should aim for mars as it is harder than going to the moon, and thus will likely surprise us with more technological advance, directly or indirectly.

Reply 11

LearningMath

14

Psyche05

Humanity is already well on the way to ruining one planet. I have no wish to see that extend to others. If humanity can't inhabit a planet without destroying it it's better we end with earth.

You do realise there isnt any life on mars? :wink:

http://www.daviddarling.info/images/Mars_panorama.jpg

100% behind it, it's a uniting factor for the world, and shows humanity at its most brilliant.

Reply 12

LearningMath

14

DayneD89

I would agree that the moon should not be our priority. We should aim for mars as it is harder than going to the moon, and thus will likely surprise us with more technological advance, directly or indirectly.

It will be nearly impossible to reach mars without having first established a base on the moon. Establishing a permenant base on the moon will be the next big target along with expanding the ISS, these two are kind of like stepping stones to further exploration! :biggrin:

Reply 13

spex

16

Psyche05

Humanity is already well on the way to ruining one planet. I have no wish to see that extend to others. If humanity can't inhabit a planet without destroying it it's better we end with earth.

I don't think anything has value unless it has value to us humans. If humans were gone from this planet and everything was green and lovely, then who would appreciate it or benefit from it if not us ? That's why i don't think that populating other planets is a bad thing. At least we're getting use out of it.

LearningMath

It will be nearly impossible to reach mars without having first established a base on the moon. Establishing a permenant base on the moon will be the next big target along with expanding the ISS, these two are kind of like stepping stones to further exploration!

I doubt there will be a moon base anytime soon. There's no real benefit to going back there because it has no resources, so everything would have to be shipped back and forth at astronomical cost.

Reply 14

Olivia_Lightbulb

9

I don't think Britain should spend large sums of money on space exploration; they should contribute a sum to the European Space Agency but in times of economic hardship, the money could be better spent in other areas and space exploration does not offer value for money. In previous generations for example, Russia spent billions on space exploration, at the expense of the Russian people who endured poverty from a government who granted little public spending.

Reply 15

Drewski

19

Olivia_Lightbulb

In previous generations for example, Russia spent billions on space exploration, at the expense of the Russian people who endured poverty from a government who granted little public spending.

Pretty duff argument, though. At that time only two nations were going into space, both spent billions but only one allowed it's citizenry to descend into poverty. And it's not space travel that was at fault.

Who's to say whether space exploration delivers value for money? Noone knows what new developments would be made in the process of getting there. Some amazing products that have revolutionised the way things on earth are done were created as a by-product from the space race.

Reply 16

jermaindefoe

15

very important, if not for a long time, at some point <if we havent already destroyed the planebt and need to find somewhere else> we have to remember the sun is going to eventually run out

i think my point maybe a little cack actually lol

Reply 17

DayneD89

21

LearningMath

It will be nearly impossible to reach mars without having first established a base on the moon. Establishing a permenant base on the moon will be the next big target along with expanding the ISS, these two are kind of like stepping stones to further exploration! :biggrin:

The moon is just under 240,000 miles from earth. Mars is 35,000,000. To quote a comedian, thats like taking a trip to japan by building a garage at the end of your driveway.

In all seriousness i was thinking that when i posted. Thats why i only said mars should be the priority. I realise an unmanned moonbase would be usefull for this. In many ways mars will be much easier than the moon to spend a long time on.

Reply 18

Joshua3

5

I think we should stay on Earth. Its soo amazing. We should concentrate on getting this planet better and sorting ourselves out. Plus the Nephilim are in space, until they are brutally killed and tortured for what they have done.

Reply 19

Trefusis1234445

spex

at astronomical cost.

I found that oddly funny- touche

How important is space exploration?

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you