You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Present a written argument to an educated reader with no specialist knowledge of the following topic:
Governments spend millions of dollars each year on their space programmes. Most recently, Mars is the focus of scientists’ attention. Some people think this money would be better spent on dealing with problems closer to home. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
You should write at least 250 words.
Sample Answer
Investment in space research is often debated and people who are against this venture suggest that eradicating deadly diseases, educating children, fighting crime, hunger and corruption and improving people’s lifestyle are far more important than searching for life on Mars. I believe that outer space research is quite important and totally justify the cost it involves.
To begin with, the humankind always had problems on earth and a huge budget alone does not guarantee that we will be able to solve the crime, poverty, social discrimination and other pressing issues. To illustrate, some developed countries have better education facilities, lower unemployment rate and standard lifestyle and yet the crime rate is quite alarming in those countries. So diverting the budget from space research to the improvement of people’s living style does not guarantee a result. Furthermore, only a handful advanced countries like the USA, the UK and Russia invest on outer space exploration. If they even stop the research, they are not going to give away the money to the poor nations.
Moreover, we live in an era which is the gift if scientific inventions and research. Yet we have to go a long way to bring more innovations to the humankind. To better understand our life on earth, we have to explore further. A solid understanding of the planets around us would open unimaginable possibilities for us. Millions of dollars spent on finding the existence of ‘life’ on Mars might prove to be the wisest idea ever for the human. Who knows Mars might be the next planet for us to live on!
To conclude, a large investment in the space research has not stopped countries from investing on our earth. The portion of the national budget by only a few countries to understand the universe we are a part of is quite reasonable towards the quantum leap towards the scientific improvements.