Essay 197 – Advantages and disadvantage of spending money on space exploration

GT Writing Task 2 / Essay Sample # 197

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Space exploration costs taxpayers an exorbitant amount of money each year. What are the advantages and disadvantage of spending money on space exploration?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Model Answer:

A substantial amount of money is spent on exploring space annually. This essay will highlight some of the advantages and disadvantages of space exploration, and then come up with a reasoned conclusion.

Space exploration can reap many benefits to humankind. First of all, it enables us to address potential hazards before they strike. The universe is a huge place where hidden dangers lurk almost anywhere. A very good example here is asteroids or comets. In the solar system, there are comet and asteroid threats that could obliterate our planet. Exploring space offers us an opportunity to identify these potential dangers in advance to avert apocalyptic catastrophe. Second, many groundbreaking innovations are developed through space programme research. The inventions are LED lighting, anti-icing systems, ear thermometers, and even temper foam, to mention but a few examples. Besides, space exploration could provide mankind with an opportunity to search for a new habitable place for the human race outside of our globe and find other intelligent species who might be searching for a way to contact us. This would essentially answer some of our century-old questions.

Exploring space, however, has its drawbacks which should not be ignored. One of the major disadvantages is that funding space programmes is a huge cost. Evidently, an exorbitant amount of money is spent on space exploration every year, yet simultaneously our earth suffers from the vital humanitarian crisis that could be solved by budgeting generous money. For example, in order to ensure basic education for all in developing countries, we need only 6 billion dollars, whereas the U.S alone spent 18.7 billion dollars on space exploration last year. Another obvious drawback of it is the damage to the environment because of the huge consumption of fossil fuels. A case in point is the first Apollo mission. It consumed over 500,000 gallons of fuel only to get out of the atmosphere. Thus, exploring space causes environmental damages.

To reiterate, space exploration confers both advantage and disadvantage. It is expected that we will budget the space exploration programmes prudently while also addressing more imminent issues that we have on earth.