Hey everyone,
Hope you are enjoying the break so far and all the sunshine!! Take advantage while you can in the UK, it doesn't last!
I hope you have all been able to join the blog without any problems, but please let me know if you do have any.
So, the first online discussion of the summer term is here! Yadan and Tsai will be our presenters for this discussion, so they will be reading and summarizing all of your comments here on the blog in class on Thursday.
This week's topic is:
Should governments spend money on space exploration?
Participate in this discussion by commenting on this post. You must write an original opinion, as well as respond to the opinions of 2 of your classmates! All comments should be submitted by Wednesday the latest so Yadan and Tsai have time to prepare for Thursday.
Finally, I want to say thank you again for all your participation in the badminton tournament last week! I had so much fun and I hope you all did as well! I was so impressed, and I really look forward to playing with you all again soon! Big congratulations to Parry as well for being on the winning team! And thanks to out lovely supporters who just joined in the fun and cheered =-)
See you all Wednesday and have a wonderful break!!
=-)
Jennifer
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn modern ages, outer space exploration is one of the vital areas which governments annually spent financial expenditures in progressing scientific knowledge and technology. It is generally believed that governments should be responsible for these expenses of space researching. Obviously, several benefits and reasons could be noticed. Such as high costs, international status and human progress.
ReplyDeleteTo start with, in terms of funds, individuals such as private researching industry or NGO (non-governmental organization) can not afford such high costs for space exploration. As we known, scientific researching is a costly practice because it needs huge amounts of advanced equipments. Besides, some of equipments and materials have to be imported if it can not be produced domestically. In this circumstance, the only likelihood is that governments dominate the market and pay for researching funds with revenue.
Then, space exploration could be used to improve or maintain the international status by some countries. As Dellios, R. (2005) analysis in China’s space program, in order to allay the fears of the international community that China might be preparing through its space program for a dominant role, Beijing's diplomacy has been carefully orchestrated. On the other hand, U.S. is one of the countries which governments are willing to spend huge funds in space exploration since Apollo Project was set up in 1960s.
Furthermore, the development of human being could be another reason for governments should spend money in space exploration. With a shortage of natural resources, it seems more like governments’ obligation to support individual organization and correlative institution for scientific research. Likewise, space exploration is the area which might discover new natural resources and planets for human being. In U.S, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA for short, has strong influences in international community because they have plenty of achievements and contributions for the development of human being.
However, it is unpractical that poor countries place emphasis on scientific researches instead of spending funds in economic growth. Although space exploration provides different aspects of benefits for a nation, government should spend revenue in scientific areas according to its economic capability.
Reference
Dellios, R. (2005), ‘China's space program: A strategic and political analysis’, Bond University, Available from: http://epublications.bond.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1093&context=cm (accessed 23rd Apr 2011).
wow...Super long words( ⊙o⊙ )hahahaaaaa...
ReplyDeleteThanks Joe!!!
Guys, tsai and me look forward to your participation and have a nice holiday. ;)
Hi Yadan and Tsai, pls have a look at my opinion on this topic. Cheers !
ReplyDeleteSpace science can contribute further human understanding of the universe, others planets like moon or Mars, even our Earth. However, the cost for this scientific experiment is enormous, not in term finance, but brings attention to human and environment risk.
First of all, astronauts who live in spacecraft for their aerospace research may be in unpredictable jeopardy. If you had a chance to see a successful spacecraft landing which are commonly broadcasted on television, you would easily recognize that the astronauts are impossible to walk by themselves, they need a wheelchair instead. What is the reason? Microgravity induces this symptom which is more dangerous than we imagine. In other words, the astronauts in space lose gradually their muscle strength and bone density during a long time on spaceship because their bodies hang in microgravity. The bone loss state of most astronauts after space mission is obviously still an uncomfortable challenge for NASA to approach treatments optimally whenever they carry out long space projects such as the Mars mission to Mars or the Moon colonization. Besides, the more harsh risks such as space radiation effects which cannot be discarded entirely by any known equipment to protect human living and working in spacecraft.
Not only space projects make human risks, but also they cause serious environmental problem. Space debris, also known as space junk or space waste, which are potentially dangerous and useless objects such as inactive satellites, space stations or spacecraft, are regarded as pollution problem. Although most the space debris will be burn up in the atmosphere, the larger objects may go through and cause catastrophic and deadly impacts for human living on the ground. The Columbia disaster in 2003 was a demonstration of this risk when large portions of the spacecraft reached the ground. Furthermore, warnings of hazardous chemicals in space debris, which are sent continuously by NASA to people who are near the falling debris locations, also expose the seriousness of this problem.
After all, space exploration is just scientific experiment, so that there are definitely many unexpected results or potential risks. The government and space agencies like NASA should be responsible to consider and make thorough solutions for these problems.
Best regards,
Phong
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi, all my clasmates and Jennifer. This is my opinion.
ReplyDeleteConsidering this topic, I believe that it depends. If governments have enough money to do so, meaning economy is doing well. Then, Yes, the govern ment should do.
But, if the economy is down, priorities that we have to consider are such as education, jobs, welfare etc...
In 2009, the Japanese government introduced and began the Budget Screening to reduce wasteful budget spending. Then, the budget for space ecplaration was also debated and cut. After that, the Hayabusa, which is the development of the asteroid probe, successfully landed on the asteroid, Itokawa, and finally returned to the Earth.
The success of Hayabusa was praised and some people blamaed the government for the budget cut. As we know, space exploraiton must take a long period of time in addition to the huge amount of cost. And also, there is tiny possibility of success.
Japan is on of the countries that has a huge amount of national debt. Also, the economy is stable in very low revel. Therefore, Japan may not afford to spend more money than necessary.
Concluding, Wherether the government shold spend money on space exprolation or not... It depends on circumstance. People shold decide prioritiese to do.
Regards,
Megumi
Hi everyone! In my own opinion, space exploration should be encouraged as long as certain country can afford the huge amount of funds it involved. Discovering the space enabling us to know more about the universe, so as how it can benefit us. Telephone, internet, television, radio etc that we used in our daily-lives are all contributed by the satellites which were launched to the space after researches that scientists had made. I can’t imagine what our lives will be without these technologies. Observation of astronomy also enhances our knowledge on the solar system as well as understanding what is happening to our planet. Technology advancement is essential to a country and made a great impact to its economy. This is why so many countries are trying to participate despite the prodigious cost.
ReplyDeleteEven though some people may think that the budget on this category should be placed on rescuing the financial crisis, it is still undeniable that exploring the space is still somehow important and affecting all of us in some way.
Goverments are for many years spending money on space exploration. There were mainly two countries that were spending for new scientific inventions about space in the past. These were Russia and USA but now addition to these countries Europe, China and Japan also making serious investigations about Space exploration.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all we should know what happened about the space exploration. On October 4, 1957 Soviet Russia sent the first successful orbit launch named as “Sputnik”. On April 12, 1961 first human spaceflight made by Soviet Russia. I think everyone heard this first human who went to space, “Yuri Gagarin”. After that space exploration became a competition between USA and Russia. USA established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on July 29, 1958.
First explorations were very excited and hopeful for example the first man that walked on the moon or the first man that orbits the earth. These explorations did not only improve the knowledge about space but also improve the knowledge about computers. First computers were as big as a room so they were useless. The scientist made it smaller for using in the spacecrafts. Also the satellites that we sent to space are sending the signals for our cell phones. Spending money for space exploration is not bringing only photographs from moon or space, it also provides the technology for the future that we can use in our daily life.
Recently the most important developmet had been the “first landing on the other world’s moon” this is important because there is a possibility of an oceans of hdrocarbons in that planet. In the world the sources that are needed for human and other living beings are decreasing day by day so we need to find new resoruces for living. Space can be the one of the largest resource that can support our needs so goverments should spend more money on space exploration.
Stephen Hawking, renowned British theoretical physicist, said that "I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars.”
See you,
Oguz
Wow,everyone's points are like professional.
ReplyDeleteHere is mine point of view:
Space is a place where we still can hardly touched although the first astronaut had landed on the moon on 1969, from then until now, the history for space exploring is only 41 years, compare to the human life, this is just a little step from it. Government has spent loads on space exploration, but the feedback is not as good as they expected sometimes, failure happens on every country where they try to explore space, the pace is moving very slow due to space is still an unknown place along with unknown data.
But as we understand, space exploration is not just a simple experiment, to my point of view, it is a competition between the countries, as we have seen on television, rockets and spacecraft had been launched often in this past ten years, but on few succeed. What is the point of wasting money on this such a awful racing game, every country wants to be the superpower of the world, but on top of that, wasting that kind of money for exchanging failures, why not having a neutral organisation which is hold by the world, which can be hold like THE EUROPEAN UNION, where they can put expenditure to it, but not just using their own country’s technology, but with the whole world’s knowledge and technology, I assume with this, the future of living in space or even for space travel, it will not be an impossible dream anymore. But the difficultly is how can the big country such as U.S, CHINA, join together? They are opponents since the First World War happen, if they can stop racing each other, probably now, we have already lived in Mars or even further.
Therefore, before the impossible dream happens, I would say the government still have to put money on space exploration due to the unpredictable effect in the world, although we can predict weather, but we can predict natural disaster, we never known when is the end of the world, at my opinion, stopping the pace of evolving means the human being will come to end.
Victor Ng
Hi, Nice to meet you on the internet...
ReplyDeleteI hope all of you had great holiday.
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Actually, space exploration is entirely strange topic for me but I understand it could benefit humanities in a sence.
In my view,The government should spend appropriate money on these spheres.
In the first place, the pure science aspect of space exploration should be sponsored and encouraged. For instance,NASA and other space agencies around the world have a strong focus on scientific information. they have obviously provided significant and essential information for human beings so that accelerated development of human civilization.
Additionally, the scientific understanding of the universe has proved fruitful. Before the beginning of the space exploration, people had no idea what the climate was like on other planets or how gravity fully functioned away from Earth. Thus, investment of space exploration may bring planty of advantages for us.
In contrast, recently,some governments in the world have been over-funding space exploration in order to improve militaries even if there are many people that have suffered from poverty in their countries. Also, it might threaten peace of world.
Overall, I agree that government should invest money in space exploration, despite the low rate of return sometimes.
hey my dear classmates,
ReplyDeletei am very surprised that everybody is so excited and write a short essay about this topic : )
my short answer;
humans are searching new planets where we can live after we consumed earth, and spending billions of dollars. how about this; spend that money to prevent the earth's end? it seems like, we can't move another planet in 100 years so we will be all dead. so here is the result; don't worry be happy : )
Cheers
Efe
Hi, everybody, short holiday is end; I hope u all had a good time in your holidays.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, Joe is really amazing that he wrote a sooo long comment for the beginning. It is a big pressure for us to follow him. And his comment is very formal just like academic writing with references. I think he improve the level of this blog. Thank Joe!
Then about this topic I agree with Megumi’s opinion, government should spend money on space exploration or not it depends on this country has enough money or not. The enough economy of a country is essential for government to do other exploration. However, it is also the key point for a country to show its stronger power to other countries. It has functioned to every country even the developing countries. Such as China, as we all know China has enough money and power to do space exploration like discover the moon. It is a feat not only for Chinese people but also for human beings. It is a progress for whole world.
Next, when I saw Efe’s view, I can’t help to say Efe is really cute! Ha-ha. After read his comment I feel confident to live on the earth. I won’t worry about the 2012 the end of world. I will be happy to live everyday just like Efe!
Good luck to everyone, my dear classmates!
Hi Everyone,
ReplyDeleteHope you guys had a swell time during the holidays.
I'm going be coming in with something short like Efe and I support Winne totally,
Space exploration came into being because people wanted to know what was out there asides the earth and if the outside world had any resources that would be beneficiary to us. If a government decides to spend money on space exploration,its fine but it must not be done at the expense of its economy or its people. There should always be a balance.
Cheers,
Damola.
Hello, everyone.
ReplyDeleteFor this discuss, I agree with Megumi and Jessica's opinion.
I think that governments should to consider the people's basic needs (e.g. health, education) before spend money on space exploration.
However, Space exploration has the potential to move the human spirit. It's an expensive process, which is why governements usually need to fund it. But the money spent cannot be weighed in benefit type analysis. The benefit to all mankind is knowledge, so you can't put a price on that. The civilization we have built is useless if we aspire to nothing greater than our daily routine.
Wow...so surprise! You guys participate this discussion so well.
ReplyDeleteUhhh...for me, I agree some opinion with Joe and Megumi. The Different countries have different economic situations; thus, the government should depend on what economic situation they are to decide to spend money on space exploration or not. Otherwise, thanks for Phong to give us another point of view. The following human and environment risk might be obtained, but I partly disagree with Phong's view. Yes, the risk might be obtained, however, I trust the solutions of problem will be found by the new technologies in the future. Addtionally, the space exploration might help us to find another suitable planet to live or the solutions of the resources deficiency.
Thus, above all, generally I agree the government should spend mony on space exploration, but depends on what economic situation ther are.
Hi everyone, it seems that I am a little bit late, sorry about that. It is my first time using this blog. These are my opinion about the topic.
ReplyDeleteIn times day and age, the humans advancing at an amazing rate. But the problems as we know, high population, global warming, resource exhaustion, compel us to find out the solutions to address these problems. Space exploration is one of the best ways that can address the resource and environment problem if it cans success in the end. It is acknowledged that the resource in the world is limited. During the increasing of population, resource and environment become the most urgent problem. For instance, many countries don't have enough water and electricity for their common people. Most people damage the environment for seeking the energy and profit. Resources reduced in a great quantity and then human damage the environment more serious. It becomes a vicious circle. So if we can success in space exploration, it will be the most important news for human’s future. We can break the vicious circle, reduce the density of population and protect the environment. Why there is some people worry about the end of the world in 2012, just because we have only one earth. Actually it should cost a lot of money to achieve, so it should be done by developed country. It is their responsibility to create the human future.
In my opinion, the government should contribute in the space exploration. Especially some developed countries. They have enough money and mature technology of this area, why not do it for the human’s future.
These are my personal opinion without any source, it may have some mistakes, I just talk about my thinking. :p
Best regard
Parry
Wow, I was surprised that all of you did a quite good job. I hope that my opinion doesn’t come too late. I agree with Efe’s opinion. Personally, I don’t think that governments should spend money on space exploration. In my opinion, governments should spend this amount of money on other more useful areas to humans, such as education. Space exploration doesn’t make sense to the common people and also may bring pollution to the space. Usually space exploration cost huge amount of money. It seems to be a big waste of money and labor force. I think it is better to focus on education, economic, health care and environmental protection. That’s my personal opinion, Yadan and Tsai. Thanks for reading. Hope you will do a wonderful presentation for us. Good night.
ReplyDeletehello evryone ,
ReplyDeleteguys you are so serious its amazing!!! jo keep your energy for our economics essay ( 500 words), i will the advocate of space exploration to spice up the debate( EFE).there are several reasons, why governments should spend more mon money on space exploration.One of the most significant is,On the moon, a possibility considered by NASA is to build a catapult to launch electromagnetic materials facilities in orbit for a much lower cost of raw materials shipped from Earth. Based on theoretical studies carried out by Jerome Pearson, a consultant for NASA, a lunar space elevator could be used. Unlike the terrestrial space elevator, it can be built with existing technology but no construction schedule has yet been fixed.Furthermore, as the world consumption of energy continues to grow it is becoming vital to find an alternative methods to meet this demand, which is already done by the NASA and the DOE .the concept is,to use sunlight directly with solar cookers made of wire mesh ultralight that can generate temperatures of several thousand degrees, all for practically no cost. The energy could even be an export product for space colonies using a wireless power transmission by microwave radiation from the solar orbital flights to the Earth.
mohamed