Writer Cory Muehlebach argues that we cannot disregard the need to expand and discover
By: CORY MUEHLEBACH
Opinions Editor
Space: The next frontier of human exploration. Distance means nothing to the naked eye, but the vastness of the universes speaks a different story. The moon is 239,000 miles away from Earth and Mars is 49 million miles away, and Jupiter 342 million miles beyond that. The further you travel from the sun, the further the distance between planets is.
This is just the beginning. Past our solar system, which reaches beyond that of a light-year, (5,878,612,800,000 miles) are other stars existing in all kinds of sizes and luminosities. Our closest star, Sirius, is two and a half light-years away. Beyond that lie other brilliant stars, galaxies, clusters of those galaxies and incredible nebulae. The universe is vast, so finding our place in it is crucial.
Space exploration is a beautiful thing and we should not hinder the chance to discover hidden treasures in the cosmos. NASA’s cutbacks are a major defeat of this unearthly goal. Sure, private organizations are funding new projects, but they do not have the resources or education these astronomers do. What would America be today if the Queen had skimped Columbus out of funding? What would we know of the sun, the planets or the Milky Way if we forwent the use of satellites?
We, as humans, cannot disregard, belittle, avoid or ignore the need to expand and discover; it is crucial to our survival as a species. Cutting funding to anything science related should be of last resort and conserved for those willing to struggle in the future. Science itself has become such a vital part of humanity; I do not think it wise to underfund it (in any sector, private or public).
Naysayers would complain that tax money is wasted on space exploration and that it should be used here instead. But we all know Earth will not be suitable for long, global warming, atmospheric changes and tectonic movement is bound to change the Earth. Like our ancestors and other beings that have lived here, it will inevitably change and we must change with it, not against it. Putting too much attention of where we are now anchors us in place, inhibiting us from becoming better, stronger and more capable as a species.
In today’s unsettling world, where war is prominent, disease is rampant and global catastrophes unweave our certainty of survival, we must allocate more resources into space exploration and diversion; we must strive to become universal, not just worldly.
