synthesis Essay Is space exploration really worth the cost? This is the inevitable question we must face when deciding how much of our tax dollars and the federal government's dollars are spent on space exploration versus things such as education, social security, medicare and health. Although space exploration could eventually make a difference in the way we live our lives and life as we know it here on Earth, we should be focused on the things that could change our lives now. Things like a cure for cancer, and a cure for HIV and AIDS. Our money needs to stop being spent on space exploration, and be put towards something that’s been proven to benefit the people of our nation.
It would not be wrong to say that maybe one day space exploration could provide us with something miraculous here on earth, but in the meantime the extensive amount of money being spent on space exploration should stay here where we can make a difference now. In February of 2006, Margaret Mclean published an article on a web page dedicated to ethics called To Boldly Go: Ethical Considerations for Space Exploration. The article stated, “almost $17 billion will fly into NASA’s coffers with around $5.3 billion dedicated to space exploration” (source E). I don’t know about you, but to me this seems like an awful lot of money to be spending on something that has no supporting evidence of benefiting the United States and its people. Our government is responsible for how our tax money is spent and it is clear to see that our hard earned tax dollars should be going towards a much more beneficial cause. The Office of Management and Budget provides us with a chart titled Pennies of Each Federal Spending Dollar, and it shows that a total of $0.06 of our tax dollar is spent on the “All others” category, which includes the funding for NASA and space exploration, while $0.23 goes towards medicare and health (source C). And although $0.06 does not seem comparable to the $0.23 that is spent on medicare and health combined, you must keep in mind that the $ 0.23 of each dollar is going towards a cause that is able to bring promise to the American people rather than going towards an empty promise.
While I don’t believe that all funding for NASA should be put towards other causes, I do do belive that they should be funded less and that money should be put into a more promising cause, such as that of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH has an extensive background of success, followed by a long list of statistics that prove and support the success of the NIH such as “Death rates from heart disease and stroke [falling] by 40% to 51%, respectively, between 1975 and 2000 … AIDS related deaths [falling] by about 70% between 1995 and 2001 [and] sudden infant death syndrome rates [falling] by more than 50% between 1994 and 2000” (source D). It seems more logical that of the billions being spent by NASA, the government would increase the funding to the NHI rather than that of NASA. And I am not the only one with this opinion. Russell Roberts, of the National Public Radio, was aired speaking on the subject of “Funding Space Travel.” His thoughts on the subject were similar of mine. He stated, “ I don’t see the case for using taxpayer money to get it done. Don’t tell me about the spin-off technologies… Leave the money here on earth” (source H). And while Roberts appreciates and understands the beauty of space, he also understands that our money can be of much better use here on earth, not in space.
Funding for space exploration and NASA have been a controversial discussion for many years, and the question of whether or not we should continue to spend billions on these programs still remains unanswered. However, in regards to the information and sources I hope it is evident how your tax dollars should be spent. It is apparent that space exploration is costly and provides very few real benefits; Furthermore, there are several more urgent projects that need to be addressed and implemented, and that can only be done if our money remains here on earth.