Some people believe that the government spends too much money on developing space exploration technology. There are many other financial needs that the government should address instead. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

In the past, governments spent lots of financial resources on space projects, while their population claimed that that money should have been destinated for other needs. Undoubtedly, from my point of view, spatial technology meant a real “giant jump” for humankind, yet it did not always bring significant consequences, resulting in a waste of funds. It is clear that during the 60s the so-called “space race” had only one aim, namely demonstrating what nation was the strongest. Nowadays, instead, it is not a question of challenges, but rather a sort of international cooperation. An instance of this is the International Spacial Station, where astronauts from all over the world live for months working on scientific plans. A further reason that explains why we keep launching rockets out of the atmosphere is the research of innovative materials related to the electronic field. To exemplify, China sent various times Rovers to Mars in order to analyze its soil and surface. Conversely, if we contemplate the topic from another standpoint, we realize that those expeditions were actually enormously prohibitive and often revealed themselves as a failure. In particular, this was the main critique made by American citizens of their government, which gave excessive financial support to NASA. Assuredly, those finances should have been used for other priorities, such as education, employment, or infrastructures. In brief, it is pointless to explore space if the population is starving: that is exactly what happened in Russia during the cold war. To sum up, I cannot help but restate my opening opinion: financing interstellar exploration is surely beneficial if the nation is wealthy and rich. On the contrary, those funds should be aimed to solve other problems if necessary.