Dow 1

Austin Dow

Professor Watkins

Comp I 9:30

7 November 2016

Space vs Ocean Exploration

Do you know how much money the United States spends on space exploration or how

much it spends on ocean exploration each year? Every year NASA (National Aeronautics and

Space Administration) spends billions of dollars on technology to explore space. They build

rockets and spaceships to carry robots, humans, cameras, and rovers to explore other planets in

our solar system. The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) spends only

gets a couple million dollars each year to research that we live on. The US spends more money

each year researching other planets trying to find life or even another planet to live on than they

do on finding ways to help Earth, make it a better planet to live on, and keeping humans alive.

A new chapter in space flight began in July 1950 with the launch of the first rocket from

Cape Canaveral, Fla: the Bumper 2, an ambitious two-stage rocket program that topped a V-2

missile base with a Corporal rocket. The upper stage was able to reach then-record altitudes of

almost 250 miles, higher than the International Space Station's orbit (NASA Administrator). The

Bumper 2 rocket was directed by the General Electric Company before NASA. NASA was

founded on July 29th, 1958 and started out with an annual funding of $89 million. The first moon

landing happened in 1969, called Apollo 11. Back then, the total cost for the Apollo program was

$25 billion. The US spent more money in the 60s sending people to the moon than on studying
 Dow 2

the oceans on our own planet. In 1960 Jacques Piccard and Lt. Don Walsh performed the first

manned deep sea dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The trip to the bottom of the trench

only cost $250,000 in 1960.

So why arent we spending the same amount of money on deep sea ocean exploration that

we are spending on space exploration? The oceans on Earth have a big role in controlling our

climate. Take the oceans, about which we know much less than the dark side of the moon.

Ninety percent of the ocean floor has not even been charted, and while we have been to the

moon, the technology to explore the ocean's floors is still being developed (Amitai Etzioni).

Lots of organisms in the sea have been used to cure an array of diseases in humans. We could be

spending more money on studying the ocean and possibly finding more cures to diseases in sea

organisms. Our country needs to research the 95% of the ocean floor that has never been seen by

human eyes.

Few people realize how important horseshoe crabs are to modern medicine. Because

their blue, copper-based blood quickly clots in the presence of bacterial toxins, medical

researchers use it to test intravenous drugs, vaccines, and medical devices, ensuring that they are

free of bacterial contamination (noaa.gov.). Modern medicine uses a lot of marine organisms in

cures for diseases. Some algae from the ocean have been used for cancer therapy and the venom

from cone snails has also been used for painkillers. Our country has not found anything from

other planets that can be used to cure diseases or even be used in medicine. Protecting marine

environments across the world ensures coral reefs will be around for future medical discoveries.

Still our country would rather send people to Mars or the moon and spend billions of

dollars than discover the rest of our ocean. Most of the costs of space exploration come from the
 Dow 3

fact that we are set on sending humans into space rather than robots. Humans have to have a

return ticket home whereas robots can be sent one way without worry. Rockets and shuttles have

to be built safe, have enough food storage, and have to protect humans from radiation. If we cut

down the costs of sending humans to space and use robots, we could spend more of that money

on researching the rest of our ocean. Sea life is becoming endangered and extinct because we are

not working on cleaning up the ocean.

Right now we are working on a new sea vessel called the SeaOrbiter. It will be an

international oceanic station that can carry out major scientific and educational benefits for

humanity. It will have the ability to deploy a wide range of exploratory devices under the sea.

SeaOrbiter wants to help boost education on marine life in order to increase its appeal as a field

of study, and it wishes to encourage new ideas for creating a living environment that respects and

nurtures the riches of the ocean (seaorbiter.com). This project is the start of a dream to build a

city underneath the sea that we can live in. They want to live the stories wrote by Jules Verne that

has inspired many generations. In 1978, a group of people built a miniature scientific observatory

that was suspended underwater at 60 meters called the Aquabulle. Water scarcity is becoming a

real problem in our country right now. We need to learn how to control oceans and water supply

to keep humanity alive. Given the looming crisis of water scarcity, we badly need more efficient

and less costly methods to desalinate ocean water. By 2025, 1.8 billion people are expected to

suffer from severe water scarcity, with that number jumping to 3.9 billion by 2050well over a

third of the entire global population (CNN).

In conclusion, I believe our country should learn how to spend money more

equally between projects. Space exploration takes up way to much of the governments money.

We can wait on sending people to other planets and worry more about helping clean up the planet
 Dow 4

that we inhabit now. NASA and the Seaorbiter crew have been working together on the sea

project. The Orbiter oceanographers use NASAs space simulator equipment to test the equipment

they will be using under the ocean. Half the money spent on space could be used to explore the

rest of the ocean floor, clean up the ocean, and protect the endangered species of the sea. Yes

NASA does a lot of work studying the oceans from outer space but it does not help when actually

on Earth. They study the climate change, tidal change, track hurricanes and other severe weather

from above the Earth. The budget for NASA currently is $3.8 billion and the budget for the

NOAA is currently $23.7 million. It is definitely a big difference in funding between the two

groups.