Some people feel that the exploration of space justifies a large amount of government and private investment. Other people think that this field is of increasingly low relevance, and should not be a priority. Debate both sides of this discussion, and explain your own view. How important is it for us to explore space at the moment?

Space exploration is a subject which provokes great emotions as well as scientific interest, and at times the two become somewhat blurred. There are strong arguments on both sides of the debate about whether to continue space travel, which we will discuss here. On the one hand, those who urge the continued exploration of space say that this field has given us substantial technical advances over the past fifty years, ranging from better plastics andalloys to a greater understanding of flight and gravity. Furthermore, they claim that further investigations will help to solve some of mankind’s most pressing issues, such as lack of food and environmental damage, because the study of (for example) biology and chemistry can be carried out more radically in space. Recent experiments on the International Space Station in the field of genetics certainly seem to support this view. Conversely, however, people who oppose more funding for space research point to the extremely high costs involved, compared to the practical benefits which are gained for almost all members of the human race. For example, these opponents state that all the major developments in terms of medicine, genetics, materials and mechanics have actually been as a result of terrestrial science and experiments, rather than stemming from space exploration. Moreover, they feel that space investigation is largely an academic pursuit, fascinating though it is, and that at a time of austerity our funding should be directed to more practical programmes to help people. It is indeed true that addressing some major human challenges such as pollution control, protection of wildlife and greater political stability would not require any involvement at all by space scientists. Overall, I feel that the opponents of high funding for space have the stronger argument at present. It seems that the enormous sums involved could be used more practically to deal with some of our most immediate problems. After all, space will always be there to explore, when funding and other problems make its research more affordable for us as a species.