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1AC [5/7]Additionally, returning to the moon under Constellation not only helps the industrial base and the American economy, it also opens up the possibility for the colonizing of Mars and further exploration, resulting in increased wealth and prosperity. Harrison Schmitt, Former U.S. Senator and Former Chair of the NASA Advisory Council, 8/10/2009 “Liberty and Space Leadership,” http://www.spacenews.com/commentaries/liberty-and-space-leadership.html Returning to the Moon and to deep space constitutes the right course for the United States. Human exploration of space embodies basic instincts — the exercise of freedom, betterment of one’s conditions and curiosity about nature. These instincts have been manifested in desires for new homelands, trade and knowledge. For Americans particularly, such instincts lie at the very core of our unique and special society of immigrants. Over the last 150,000 years or more, human exploration of Earth has yielded new homes, livelihoods, know how and resources as well as improved standards of living and increased family security. In historical times, governments have directly and indirectly played a role in encouraging exploration efforts. Private groups and individuals often have taken additional initiatives to explore newly discovered or newly accessible lands and seas. Based on their specific historical experience, Americans can expect that the benefits sought and won in the past also will flow from their return to the Moon, future exploration of Mars and the long reach beyond. To realize such benefits, however, Americans must continue as the leader of human activities in space. With a permanent resumption of the exploration of deep space, one thing is certain: Our efforts will be comparable to those of our ancestors as they migrated out of Africa and into a global habitat. Further, a permanent human presence away from Earth provides another opportunity for the expansion of free institutions, with all their attendant rewards, as humans face new situations and new individual and societal challenges. The competitve international venue remains at the Moon. Returning there now meets the requirements for a U.S. space policy that maintains deep space leadership, as well as providing major new scientific returns and opportunities. Properly conceived and implemented, however, returning to the Moon prepares the way for a new generation to go to Mars. The current Constellation Program contains most of the technical elements necessary to implement a policy of deep space leadership, particularly development of a heavy-lift launch vehicle, the Ares 5. In addition, Constellation includes a large upper stage for transfer to the Moon and other destinations, two well-conceived spacecraft for transport and landing of crews on the lunar surface, strong concepts for exploration and lunar surface systems, and enthusiastic engineers and managers to make it happen if adequately supported. The one major missing component of a coherent and sustaining architecture may be a well-developed concept for in-space refueling of spacecraft and upper rocket stages. The experience base for developing in-space refueling capabilities clearly exists based on a variety of past activities, including ISS construction. 1AC [6/7]Human exploration of space and establishment of colonies guarantees the survival of the human race. J. Richard Gott, Professor of Astrophysics at Princeton University, 6/17/2009, “A GOAL FOR THE HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT PROGRAM,” http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/368985main_GottSpaceflightGoal.pdf The goal of the human spaceflight program should be to increase the survival prospects of the human race by colonizing space. Self-sustaining colonies in space, which could later plant still other colonies, would provide us with a life insurance policy against any catastrophes which might occur on Earth. Fossils of extinct species offer ample testimony that such catastrophes do occur. Our species is 200,000 years old; the Neanderthals went extinct after 300,000 years. Of our genus (Homo) and the entire Hominidae family, we are the only species left. Most species leave no descendant species. Improving our survival prospects is something we should be willing to spend large sums of money on— governments make large expenditures on defense for the survival of their citizens. The Greeks put all their books in the great Alexandrian library. I’m sure they guarded it very well. But eventually it burnt down taking all the books with it. It’s fortunate that some copies of Sophocles’ plays were stored elsewhere, for these are the only ones that we have now (7 out of 120 plays). We should be planting colonies off the Earth now as a life insurance policy against whatever unexpected catastrophes may await us on the Earth. Of course, we should still be doing everything possible to protect our environment and safeguard our prospects on the Earth. But chaos theory tells us that we may well be unable to predict the specific cause of our demise as a species. By definition, whatever causes us to go extinct will be something the likes of which we have not experienced so far. We simply may not be smart enough to know how best to spend our money on Earth to insure the greatest chance of survival here. Spending money planting colonies in space simply gives us more chances--like storing some of Sophocles’ plays away from the Alexandrian library. |