Space Exploration- Enriching our knowledge or Wasting our resources?

Space exploration has always been a central and well funded field of the 2 super powers in the world. Nowadays it seems that the United States is far more advanced and efficient in this area than Russia. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in this field for research. Is it really worth it? Do we get anything else in return? Maybe we can invest that amount of money to improve the world's welfare situation. There are some arguments which might help us take better decisions.

Before stating the normal and obvious arguments, I believe that space exploration has been a part of a race.

A race between the 2 great superpowers in the world, this race is called the cold war and space exploration took a significant part in it. Space exploration isn't only about the research and the knowledge of space. Having achievements in it comes with a great feel of honor and prestige. And that is why those 2 superpowers raced between themselves for 4 decades and the winner received the honor and the respect it deserved. Fortunately, Space exploration isn't only about the honor and "fame", it's also about the research of the history and the future of our galaxy and universe. A Big part of the knowledge gained in this field is used to improve our quality of life on Earth. I believe those areas aren't less important than fame and glory.

Travelling to space has its disadvantages too. During the history of space travelling a lot of accidents occurred on the shuttles and 2 of them were fatal- they caused explosions.1 of them exploded after a few seconds of flight and the other while trying to get back to Earth. In the second one we lost our beloved Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon. Space exploration is not only risky but expensive too. Success in this business comes with huge amounts of money paid from us- the tax payers; the question we're facing is if we, as human beings, can tolerate any kind of ignorance with the current undergoing issues such as the economy crysis, global warming etc . Imagine if all the money that was spent on space projects was invested in improving upcoming issues on Earth, such as welfare problems, environment problems, political issues etc. , we could have had much better and healthier lives.

To sum up, I agree that space exploration is very important and we should finance it and push this field to success and achieve knowledge but, there are more important issues on Earth we should put in our top priority list. If necessary, we should put the space projects on hold and concentrate on the upcoming recession.

Peer Pressure

As a teenager in today’s world, I can see that our lives are a constant product of peer pressure and that our minds are often swayed from what may be considered better judgment because of how those around us feel. Peer pressure can come from any and everywhere and in every aspect of your lives. You can be five or ninety-five but yet, we are all victims of peer pressure. I would like to talk about one specific area which includes me and my friends, the adolescents, and express my opinion.

Before expressing my opinion I think I should clarify one thing.Peer pressure isn’t always negative and wrong. In certain parts and periods of our lives we will be exposed to positive and helpful peer pressure and in others to the exact opposite. It is our "job" to select the ones we need or think will be good for us.

During our studies in high school we are constantly exposed to peer pressure, positive and negative. The real question isn't about the specific details of the pressure such as "alocohol", "smoking", "cutting classes" etc. The real question is about US. Whether or not we can select and tag what we believe is good or bad for us.

For exmaple: few days ago a good friend asked me to cut bible class with him and a couple of guys. I answered negatively simply because I liked the subject and there was a test coming few weeks from then. One more example: There was an essay our biology teacher told us to write and needed to be handed very soon. I planned to write the essay on the last evening before it needed to be handed out, but my partner pushed me to do it right then and not to postpone it for the last day.

These are 2 examples of peer pressure. The first one is by all means a negative pressure and the first one is positive. What I'm trying to say is that at one hand we should stay far from pressure which is tagged by us as negative and on the other hand get the closest we can to pressure which we believe is positive. This is the only way I believe we will do the least mistakes and even succeed in our lives.