I hope you all enjoyed our movie this week, Apollo 13. As is usually the case, true stories make the best movies.
For us, it is an especially important time to be thinking about the space program. As you may know, the space shuttle (our most recent space vehicle) has reached the end of its life with its final landing in July 2011. There is a huge debate raging over what - if anything - will replace it. With a return to the moon being put forth as a goal of NASA, any future space vehicle would have to be more like those in the Apollo program. Our space shuttles are incapable of going to the moon.
As you might imagine, any new program would involve billions of dollars. One side of the debate argues that the benefits to science that would be realized are worth all of the money needed. The other side argues that in a time of such difficult economic problems, it would be irresponsible to spend money in space.
Your generation will have to pay for much of whatever is decided in this debate. Whether it's paying the billions that the program will cost if we decide to return to the moon, or the potential scientific advances if we decide to cancel NASA's plans. What do you think we as a country should do? Should we make the investment necessary to return to the moon? If so, why? If not, why not?
Please make your responses thoughtful. If you would like extra credit, make sure your response is in by the end of this Sunday.
Again, I hope you enjoyed the movie. We'll be scheduling the next one in the next few weeks.
We as a independent county should take action and agree upon ths debate or argument by having a convention like how the delegates did to discuss the revision of the Articles of Confederation and the articles weaknesses and then like CIVILIZED human beings agree upon this important subject SUCCESSFULLY. To me i think we should return to the moon so we can discover how it changed and to see how advancd our new and improved space shuttles or ships are today in the present time but i also think we should not attempt another visit to the moon because like it said in the readings the space attempt would cost BILLIONS of dollars. We should instead use the money to help out the economy, charities, SCHOOLS,or even our United States Military.
ReplyDeletei dont think we should spend billions of dollars to go to the moon again whats the piont in going if we have already been it cost to much money and its a risk of peoples lives
ReplyDeleteI agree with Holly. We shouldnt be spending billions of money on something we have already done. It's pointless. We as country have many better things to spend that money on then sending people into space which can, even still today, be risky.
ReplyDeleteI believe that spending our money in space is very redundant. The citizens in our country are deep in debt, thousands are losing jobs! We are in a economic crisis and we do not have extra money to just THROW into space! There are other necessary things we can spend our money on. Like helping people in need, or just helping ourselves. I agree with Holly, we have been to the moon before. It's very dangerous,and is just a waste of time. I believe our country has better things to spend extra money on, and going into space is NOT one of them!
ReplyDeleteBY: MALAK KHALEQ
i agree with malak,i think we should just make the plans at the moment, and when the economy gets better ( if the economy gets better) then we should make the effort to go bak to the moon or even further in to the vacum of space.
ReplyDeletethe united states puts to much money in the space program and the united states is in lots of debt so they need to cancel the space progrem and save money.
ReplyDeleteI think we should spend the money, to figure out about the world-- more than planets but space. However, we are in such deep debt, we have to think of our country, and what we have to deal with. While we could plan out actions of what to do, we wouldn't want to spend the money immediately with a struggling economy. I think it is very important, because one new thing can be revolutionary in science. But at the same time, we shouldn't go--not yet-- until we are sure of a success, or we have to figure something out. I think we can't go to either side's extreme until we really scope things out.
ReplyDeleteI think we should spend the money to return to the moon. Yes, the economy is struggling, but space is such an important subject in our world, I mean if something happens to earth where are we going to go? If we start with further research of the moon think of how much we could achieve, is something happens to Earth is the economy going to be our biggest problem?
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Rebekah and Robin the economy right now is in bad shape so we don't need to spend our money on sending more people to the moon, and we need to spend our money on better things like school and military
ReplyDeleteI believe that we ,as the U.S.A. should continue our NASA program. I believe this be cause it would we would further the research of other planets in the Milky Way. The reason I said future is because our countries economic issues and our debts.
ReplyDeleteI think that we should not waste our money for another crew of people traveling out to space or going to the moon.We should save that money to give to the people that need it, like for example traveling to space risks the peoples lives and puts us in debt were we can't afford to pay for anything. So another crew should not travel to space, because it risks peoples lives and puts us in debt when the money needs to go to the people that need it.
ReplyDeleteI think that the period of NASA sending shuttles to the moon has already come and gone. It was very exciting and necessary to explore the moon. The efforts to explore have benifited science and have furthered our understanding of the moon, but these space missions aren't worth it anymore. It would be easy, as young middle schoolers, to side with further exploration of the moon since it seems like an exciting topic. Yet the billions of dollars necessary for exploration will be coming out of our generation! WE will be taxed, WE will suffer from a government of debt if this country pays for continuous exploration. Furthermore, i can't see what is left to discover on the moon. We've already collected moon rocks and experienced the bouncy gravity. The cost of further moon exploration doesn't meet the science we would recieve, I don't favor returning to the moon.
ReplyDeleteI think we should'nt use our money...right now because we certainly dont have it. Maybe in the future once everything is settled in the world and we have the money without putting us in debt. Also it would take time to build another space shuttle. And we would not want people getting hurt up in space. But, NASA should keep working towards that goal and dont give up from working on it.
ReplyDeleteI think that the period of NASA sending shuttles to the moon has already come and gone. It was very exciting and necessary to explore the moon. The efforts to explore have benifited science and have furthered our understanding of the moon, but these space missions aren't worth it anymore. It would be easy, as young middle schoolers, to side with further exploration of the moon since it seems like an exciting topic. Yet the billions of dollars necessary for exploration will be coming out of our generation! WE will be taxed, WE will suffer from a government of debt if this country pays for continuous exploration. Furthermore, i can't see what is left to discover on the moon. We've already collected moon rocks and experienced the bouncy gravity. The cost of further moon exploration doesn't meet the science we would recieve, I don't favor returning to the moon.
ReplyDeleteI see Zoe Sheldon's point. She sort of says that we should be exploring the moon so we can discover a threat to earth before catastrophe strikes. Based on her post, I also think she would agree the the NASA program brings to people the relization that there's more in this universe then just us... it sort of brings people into the light of understanding more than just earth. I see Zoe's point and I think it's a great one, but continuing the moon exploration will only dig a deeper grave of debt for the U.S.
ReplyDeleteThe world means alot to everybody. We still have alot to learn about the world. I think NASA should make another trip to the moon. They should make sure everything is working, but before that we have to get our economy better. The reason I think we should go to the moon or even outer space because scientists can learn more about outer space. To me I think NASA has a better chance of going to the moon because there is more technology. If we do go to the moon when the economy gets better we have to make sure the people want to go. Our country should make the investment, after the economy is better so we don't have to owe $5 billion more.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Malak and Brenn- if America is already in debt, why make it worse? I think we should definitely wait until the economy gets better to start the space program up again. But, like Zoe said, the space program could help us avert a disaster. However, if we start the space program again now, America will just fall farther behind than it already has with education and employment rates because of the debt.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be a great idea to have someone go to the moon again and much other places in the universe but the problem is it would cost around a billion dollars and we are already in terrible debt as a country so why make it worse. When we get out of national debt if we ever do I think it we should carry on the excitement of of going to the moon and other places in space.
ReplyDeleteYes Kathryn, I agree!
ReplyDeleteLots of great points. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rebekah. We should not spend all this money, which who knows were we would get the money from, to send astronauts into space. We have already accomplished this project and the results turned out ok. The money instead could be used towards schools, the economy, or other useful projects.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kathryn and Malak, we shouldn't spend all this money on trying to get to the moon with such a bad economy! We need to work on getting to the moon AFTER we have improved our economy to a state which it can handle this spending of large amounts of money on a space program. In our economy, many people have no jobs and this country is deeply in debt by the trillions. After I looked on a website called http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
ReplyDeleteIt says that the estimated share of debt for each citizen $47,981.27!!! That's a lot of money! For now, we should stop spending on other things and save up our money. Anyways, to summarize all these thoughts, I think that we should wait until our economy is ready to fund a space program to go to the moon.
Oh, and I definitely agree with Sydney! We, as the future generation, would rather not suffer from lots of taxes and BIG debts! We want a peaceful, abundant economy, not a horrible, in-debt economy.
ReplyDeleteJust like Tom Moss said, I think we should have a convention or conference of some sort so we can have a wide range of ideas to decide from. I say this because if we decide on someting that only a part of the country agrees with, we will have chaos. I'm not saying that we should take a long time making this decision, but rather take some time to see what the whole country thinks instead of just the minds of scientists and other great and wise thinkers. After all, there are other people that live in Ameerica too.
ReplyDeleteI mean, sending another shuttle would be great and all, because having the technology we do today, we are able to do amazing things. But when you consider the cost of doing amazing things, you might start to think about whether to do them or not. I think it would be awesome to have another shuttle sent up to space, but the our generation is already looking at economic trouble in the future. So to be honest, I don't know what to think about this issue(:
ReplyDeleteAs Malak said, we shouldn't just throw our money into space. Yes, it would be nice to explore the wonders of the moon again, but at this moment in time we don't have the money to do that. Our economy is falling, we're in great debt and people are loosing jobs. to do this would be very costly. I think we should wait until we are out of this great debt and we have the money saved up to spend on this program. We should be still thinking of ways to make our trip safer to the moon but not until we have the money shall we actually make the trip.
ReplyDeleteCASTON SHIELDSSSSS (: (:
I think we should continue the shuttle program when the ecnomy gets better and/or when nasa has the funds to. I think we've only discovered a little about space compared to what may be still out there. Also, if we can't do that, like tom said, we should have a meeting about it.
ReplyDeleteI think we should spend the money to go to the moon because one of the major dreams of people is to live on the moon or take a vacation there. I know i do in my lifetime. Also i too agree with tom.
ReplyDeletei think would should keep the program and spend money on it beacuse it is a major life thing for people it is my dream to go there i think many people feel like this to. spending money on this is using up alot of money for are community but it is life changing events for people it is so awsome i would love to see the first time man walked on the moon.
ReplyDeleteI dont think we should spend money to go to the moon because we don't have the money too. We need to worry about earth not the moon we have plenty of problems here and right now going to the moon will do nothing to improve earth other than give us knowladge on something thousand of miles away that has no affect on us and waste money and lives. We are already in debt by trillions of dollars and do not need to increase that debt. We are also going through a war, money that would go to war would go to space.
ReplyDeleteI agrre with sarah kim
ReplyDeleteI agree with Caston, Malak, Tom, and Evan. Dosen't everyone want to see a man or women step on the Moon again? But we have to consider the economy and the debt we are in. We are spending money on securtiy and wars and putting us in deeper debt. Like Tom said, if we were to even consider this we should have a meeting. Seeing a space shuttle launch is a life long dream of mine, but I know that right now is not the best time.
ReplyDeleteThankyou, Mr. Veliz
ReplyDeleteThinking of our world and all, still making space voyages to the moon would be great for out country, but it could also be dangerous. i think if there is truly, not enough investment to make another voyage to the moon scientist could use another way to gather information. they could just make theories that make sense based on their research of earlier space explorations, but that's just a back up option. :D
ReplyDeleteThese comments are impressive, well-thought out and address valid points. Keep up the excellent conversations!
ReplyDeleteI think we should spend the money to go back to the moon even with the struggles our economy has had we could possibly find new natural resources such as oil.
ReplyDeleteI think we should spend the money to go back to the moon because we can learn more about different planets, and our planet too. Also many kids do have the dream of going to the moon. Lastly i agree with Josh there could be good natural resources there maybe even better than what we use today.
ReplyDeleteGo Cardinals
ReplyDeleteI think that we should continue the NASA program but we ave made so many discoveries about if there is life on other planets. But since we have gone very far in "planet" science, we need to wait a couple (more like 10-20) years and learn more things about our own planet. We know so much about space and that's great and all but we need to explore things about Earth that we don't know much about like the ocean, how earth was made etc. Thats just my 2 sense about how we stand as a country with space knowledge.
ReplyDelete<3 u guys (especially Lexi!!!!)
I am kind of in the middle. We have gone to the moon at least three times. I don't think we need to spend all this money for another trip. What I do think will be beneficial is finding a way to explore other planets and moons. There are so many more things in the Solar System that we haven't discovered.
ReplyDeleteI agree with half the people that said we should spend billions of dollars because one day i want to go to the moon even if it means that i might die. It seems like such an experience for the people that want to go to the moon. I also believe that we as a country would learn a lot for the people out in space.
ReplyDeleteYes Chika, I agree with you completely, I think if there is not enough investment to make another voyage to the moon scientists could use another way to gather information, therefore we won't be at risk.
ReplyDeleteI think that exploring the galaxy would be cool but along with this bad economy spending the billions to fund the project would put the U.S into even deeper debt. If there was a way to do any preparation or research without spending billions, then when the economy is better they can pull out all that information they collected and start the project. It’s hard to justify spending billions on a space program when so many people in the U.S are suffering.
ReplyDeleteI think we should spent the billions of dollars because it can answer any questions that NASA may have about things like crater formation. Since we are in a bad economical time, we should sell the spacecraft for money after the mission is over to help people with finantial problems.
ReplyDeleteWe have only sent a rocket to space for research. Obama thought we had enough evidence from space to fill our minds. That’s why he closed NASA and eliminated those scientists’ jobs. People may risk their life going to space but they need to realize it’s for their knowledge and ours. Its true it takes a lot of money to open a new program. Most of the money should be well spent. Though the economy is in debt we would still be making money because of these job openings. This extra money can be used for school, military etc. Most of you say we have seen the moon before. But only enough to call it an adventure not scientific research. What if the earth was destroyed and the reason we had nowhere to go because of the closing of NASA! What would you think then? Our citizens need to realize that space is the final frontier. We could possibly discover another world like earth to investigate and live.
ReplyDeletei think that we should no tgo to the moon it would cost billions of dollars we have already been there and it --like sydney said-- it would be coming out of our pockets we are the next generation. if we go to the moon it would be a waste of money even though we could figure out new things it would cost WAYYY to much!! Rachel Erickson makes a good point about space being the final frotier sooo i dont really know im in the middle.
ReplyDelete<3 Mickey
Im also in the middle. I think that we should continue to explore space and learn more about our solar system and our moon. I believe that there is MANY more facts to learn about our moon so i think we should continue to explore space. Also, i think that we shouldnt waste our money in space because we as a country are in DEEP debt so we should wait till we are not in debt any more to go back to space which will proabably take a while but it is proabaly better than spending our money now.
ReplyDeleteI think that both science and economy are crucial to the growth of America, and humanity as a whole. I do not think that money should be put towards science at this very moment, due to one of the worst economies in the history of the United States of America. I think the U.S. should wait untill the economy rebounds back to a reasonable point, and then we can start funding. As for the fact that our generation would have to pay for it, I would be happy to contribute to a worthy cause, science.
ReplyDeleteI think that we should continue the space explorations. There are still so many things to be discovered in space. There area still secrets that mankind has not uncovered. We can't very well make new and amazing discoveries if we shut down space expeditions. But I also think that we should at least wait a few years until our economy is back on it's feet so our country won't go broke.
ReplyDeleteSorry, in the third line it says there ARE, not area.
ReplyDeleteI think that we should not make another trip to the moon. Like Tom said, in the state our economy is in, we need that money for other things. Our country is also in debt to other countries, I don't think they would be very happy if this was what we decided to spend our money on. Despite the money issue, I think going to the moon again would greatly improve our scientific knowledge, but we should wait until our economy isn't in such a slump to go.
ReplyDeleteYes everyone has made very good points but even though we have already been to the moon there is still lots of facts that we havent found out about yet so i mean we shoudnt stop going to the moon we should just put it on hold until or economy gets better.
ReplyDeleteI ment our instead of or on the last line :|
ReplyDeletei agree with malak entirely. i'm thinking for our country and sending a space ship to the moon would put us in even more debt. spending billions of dollars in space exploration really isn't worth it. we think that sending people up to the moon would be so spectacular for the science world but what else is there really to discover and how is that supposed to help us today? we have already been to the moon and more than once so i don't see a need to go again. furthermore we have all sorts of machines that have been launched into the atmosphere and those are collecting information for us just fine. so there's no need to waste tons of money and risk peoples lives while we're at it in sending ships to the moon.
ReplyDeleteI think that we shouldn't waste a massive amount of money on something that wouldn't really benefit us in the long run. We have already set foot on the moon and gone where no man has gone before. I'd say we have not need to repeat that. Its something that has been accomplished and something that we should move on over.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with everyone. I think that spending all that money for something that we have already done, like Rebekah said, is pointless. We have already reached our goal to get on the moon and to step foot on the moon. Maybe we should study more and more about the moon. While doing that we could learn more about the moon and traveling there so we would be more knowledgable about this. Spending all our money for one trip that we could do later with more money is worthless. I think it is a good idea to not spend all that money.
ReplyDeleteI believe that we should not go to the moon again anytime soon becase our economy is already in giant hole of debt if we do proceed with this plan, then we will be digging ourselves in a bigger hole. So I think we should postpone these plans until the near future when our economy is more stable.
ReplyDeleteIf NASA did close down I think we should get a group of men who are intelligent or who worked in the space program and will debate on wether they should fly to the moon. It would be fair because they would be convicing each other what to do if we will fly to the moon or not.
ReplyDeletei am with the people on the siide of the debate that think that we shouldnt go through with another space project because...
ReplyDeleteit would cost thousands of billions of dollars, yes we might discover something that will make the USA rich and pay tons of our huge deat but, that is very unlikely to happen and we will end up loseing money and the economy will get worse. Also what if something went wrong and we didnt even get to the moon like Apollo 13, we would be in more deat than eny country state or city has ever been and all hopes of ever paying it will become next to nothing.
Oh ya,
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't think they should because are country is spending a whole bunch of money for people to go in space and it would be horrible if something bad happens or they just can't find anything.
I have to agree with Natalie. The chances of us finding something on the moon that will make america rich is very unlikely and we are already in deep debt and the economy is getting worse and we are beginning to live in a recession. As far as i know, no other country has gone to the moon so there really is no rush. I think america should just focus on the economy and repaying our debts to the rest of the world or things are just going to get worse. And i think people should keep in mind that we are in billions of dollars in debt so how will going to the moon again help the economy in any way.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if something goes wrong when we get older we are probably still going to have to deal with the issues that would be caused so we have to keep in mind how that is going to affect, we the young people, in the future. If things keep getting worse soon less and less people will be able to afford to go to college so no one will have an education and no education means no money and no money means the poverty rate will increase so keeping those things in mind i feel that we should NOT plan another space project.(sorry just thinking ahead!)
ReplyDeleteI loved reading all the thoughtful comments on our space program. Science and research is NEVER a waste of money, in my humble opinion. It has always led to bigger and better things, everything from new "space-age" materials, to medical innovations, to higher technology in all areas including our national defense! Dropping the space program is like going back in time. I think we need to progress rather than regress. I'm just sayin' :-)
ReplyDeleteThis comment forwarded to me from Jenny.
ReplyDeleteI think that spending our money on exploring the moon, which is something we have already done, would be a waste. In this economy I believe that it would not be a good idea to just throw that money away. I agree with everyone else, and think that we should not spend our money on exploring the moon. Perhaps in the future when our country is not in dept, it would be nice to explore the moon along with more of outer space.
I dont think we should keep paying to explore the moon. Our country is in deep debt and we have already been to space. Right now I think we have gone to space enough and maybe in the future when we have more money we could fund for this. We have gone to the moon many times and if we keep spending money on something we have done multiple times it is like we are wasting our money over and over again.
ReplyDeleteI think that we should not be spending billions of dollars trying to wend more people to the moon when they would be riscing their lives. It might be cool to send more people to the moon but it would cost a heck load of money and a lot of equipment. I just don't think it would be worth it. They might send more people to the moon in the future when they have more experiance with space travel. That is my opinion on space travel.
ReplyDelete