Spaceflight is a field of science loved by science fiction writers, describing a world where humans overcome their problems to become a thriving interplanetary, or interstellar species. But can space flight actually help humans acheive this utopian future?

The pros of space exploration

It helps in the advancement of science

The studies we conduct in space massively impact our lifes on the ground, and we developed many technologies that have massive roles in our lives due to spaceflight, such as Artificial limbs, phone cameras, LEDs, memory foam, and even the PC. The innovation required to get to the stars makes our life on Earth better.

It gives us access to tons of raw material

Not only does spaceflight help create groundbreaking products, it could also provide the materials to make them. Things like asteroid mining can be an absolute game changer for the advancement of the human race. Also, Finding despotits of useful materials on other plants can be very useful in the future, when humans expand out from Earth and settle on other planets.

It helps preserve our species

There are a plethora of threats in the universe on our small planet, and only staying on this small rock will eventually be the end of our race. Exploring space not only helps us locate threats and prepare for them, it also helps preserve our species by not putting all our eggs in one basket: if Earth is anhialated, humans as a species still exist.

It helps unite nations

Out of the 72 nations that currently have a space program, only 3 have a government space agency - China, Russia and the United states - and 14 with basic launch capability (Adding europe, India and japan). The remaining nations need to work together with these nations to go to space due to the costs involved and the resources needed to acheive space flight. This is one of the places humans of all nations can work together, without much conflict.

it improves life back on Earth

Spaceflight creates thousands of jobs all across the world. People from all walks of life contribute to space exploration every day, ranging from astronomers to actual rocket scientists. These opportunities allows us to explore many different fields of study

The cons of spaceflight

Getting into space can be dangerous

While space travel has become much safer over the past decades, it is still a rather risky project and the chances for accidents are still present. Astronauts still have to get in to the rocket knowing that they might not come back home. there have been over 20 individuals who lost their lives in the line of duty while advancing U.S. space program interests.

Space missions takes a lot of time

Most space missions are long-term, taking months,years or even decades to complete. Few deliver immediate results and most are considered long term projects.

Space missions are often very expensive

When the space shuttle program was active in the US, A single launch cost around $500 million, not including the expenses of postponment that often occured. manned missions could cost about 10 times that amount, and seeing that space missions are long term, spending so much money for such a late return is a questionable descision.

Our technology is not advanced enough

Our current technology may have gotten us far, But for things like permanent bases on mars, It simply does not cut it. The tech needed for this requires innovation that will take years or even decades to be developed. And considering that most missions are pretty slow and long-term, it is very time consuming in the end.

Space junk

Space junk - defunct man made objects, such as non functional sattelites, in Earth orbit - has risen exponentially, and is a very serious problem. If humans do not do something to combat space junk, it could lock us on Earth, away from the stars. There are the questions of who is responsible for this and who should fix this, but that is another topic.

In the end, Though spaceflight comes with its negatives, all and all, it is very beneficial for humans, in the long run.