A famous writer once said, “Make sure that your own house is in order before you visit someone else’s.” Though planetary exploration seems like an exciting prospect, the quality of life on earth should be the world’s top priority. Countries should not funnel more money to explore space and instead focus on strengthening our economy, creating jobs, and innovating our world.

The U.S. space program spends over a billion dollars a year on its space program, NASA. Other first-world countries spend similar amounts. Imagine if this money were used to strengthen the world economy instead. Thousands of people were affected during the 2009 financial crisis, which could have been averted with more aid from the U.S. government to families with outstanding mortgages. Bank defaults from Argentina and Greece would be precluded by more funding from international banks. With the extra money available to world governments, there will be less threat of a global economic meltdown.

Instead of focusing on an industry that requires limited manpower and increasing automation, countries should invest more on creating jobs on the national and local level. Though NASA employs thousands of employees, it is pale in comparison to other national institutions such as the Social Security Administration and Internal Revenue Service, which employ hundreds of thousand of workers. Local governments will have more available public funds to hire teachers and police officers to improve public schools and law enforcement. These public institutions provide far more employment opportunities than a solitary administration whose main focus is exploring outer space.

Finally, our world will be better off with innovations from within. Scientists and researchers expend a considerable amount of brain power to design efficient spacecrafts and satellites. These “think tanks” will benefit our world more if they continue to innovate machines that we use every day. For example, it is only recently that we have been using solar and electrical powered cars on the road. Companies such as Tesla and Toyota would certainly benefit from NASA-level engineers working on more eco-friendly and energy efficient car designs. Innovations such as these will flourish more quickly when experts focus on our planet rather than towards outer space.

A stronger economy, healthier employment, and better innovations are all positive by-products of investing on our own home rather than outer space. With the opportunity cost too high for interplanetary exploration, our dreams of Star Trek and Martian Chronicles may have to be put on hold.

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This is a great example of an upper level students effort in the essay writing section of the SSAT Exam.