Space Exploration Process - Essay Example

Every launch of a space mission often costs some substantial amount of money, which is paid by the taxpayers. As the world continues to struggle with the economic recession, the question of whether expenses on space exploration missions can be justified continues to be debated. This paper discusses" why space exploration is not a waste of money"There are hundreds of missions, which has been launched with a view to exploring the extraterrestrial bodies from Mars to the moon and to another periphery of the solar system.

From each of these bodies, mankind has been able to learn something about the universe, what constitutes it and what lies beyond the planet earth. Hereunder are prime factors underlying the justifying the important need for heavy spending on space exploration? Through space exploration of planets including Venus, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter and other mass, man has gathered important information that has been used by scientists to unravel the question of why there only emerged life on earth.

Scientists have also unravelled the mystery of solar system formation. With the recent space exploration on Planet mass, imaginative ideas of living on Mars have been put to rest, while at the same time confirming the existence of water on the mass. According to Kranz (2011) the knowledge of the nature of planets alongside their gravitational dynamics, and the structure of the solar system is a template that can help scientists to identify extrasolar planets that revolve around stars that may harbour life.

The underlying motive behind exploring the planets including Moon and Mars is that they can be future potential habitable places. It is, therefore, important to develop technologies that can make it possible for mankind to settle in these hostile worlds. This requires resources are dedication towards technologies that enable mankind to understand the material resources, composition, surface conditions and atmosphere of these worlds. Space exploration is one of the greatest challenges to mankind.

The leap of genius is needed to accomplish space missions has translated into the development of technological spin-offs that have in the long run made life on earth more comfortable and easier. For instance, through space exploration, several technological spin-offs that have emerged include artificial limbs, solar cells, water purifiers, memory foam, air-craft anti-icing systems, space blankets, strong radial tires, cochlear implants among many more. This wealth of technological inventions justify investments that have been made in space exploration research.

One of the key reasons for exploring Planet Earth and the Moon is mapping extra-terrestrial worlds for purposes of mineral exploration. Upon exhausting mineral stores on earth, man would consider looking for these minerals in these other worlds. The data on space exploration will be of importance. Besides, developing technologies would make the mining of these minerals possible. In the future, as humankind exhausts the planet's store of minerals, we will have to look elsewhere for them. Our space exploration data of these worlds will come in handy in the future when we develop technologies that can actually make mining these worlds possible.

Space exploration involves studying the asteroid belt. As noted by asteroids are threats to planet earth. Previously, large asteroids have had a devastating impact on the earth. There is a looming possibility of another collision. It is important to study these asteroids as part of space exploration. The data on the composition of asteroids can help in understanding the formation of the solar system.Space exploration efforts such as building the International Space Station will contribute largely to the colonization of the extraterritorial worlds such as the moon and Mars (Brownell, 2012.

From previous space exploration, we have learned what gravity means to a man. Findings from these explorations will be important in devising strategies for coming up with long-distance manned space crafts in future.In conclusion, moving out of the earth to colonize other terrestrial worlds would be inevitable. This we cannot do without space exploration. More than the aforementioned reasons, a simple motive justifying space exploration is the increasing need to understand what is beyond the planet earth, understand what is possible, where we come from and who were are.

This requires that efforts and resources are invested heavily in space exploration.