„Bitter as it might sound, mankind have been given the opportunity to explore their planet to the fullest, and to spend a golden age living in harmony and splendor. But, as you will find out, the stars are not for man." Supervisor Karellen sighed. „I'm sorry to tell you this, but it has not been mine to decide." Is this quote, taken from Arthur C. Clarke's „Childhood's End", and therein spoken by the Supervisor to Earth, reasonable? Are the stars not for man? And, more importantly, why on Earth should mankind even wish to explore the darkness that waits beyond the horizon? Is space exploration necessary?

From a cynical viewpoint, the fear of space that from time to time seems to grip the human race, might be one of the major factors making space exploration feasible. Horror tales of asteroids falling onto Earth and causing anything from another ice age to the total destruction of the planet itself have been a recurring topic in tabloid papers all over the world. Exploring our solar system, analyzing and cataloging all major asteroids that might pose a potential thread to Earth in the future might help to diminish that fear - and to remove the

Space, with its infinite mysteries might also provide the answer - and well neigh only solution - to one of the problems the population of Earth will be facing at some point in the not too distant future. Which is the problem of - population. Or, over-population, to be precise. The growth of the human population inhabiting Earth is ever-escalating, with no end in sight. Blue eyed as it might sound today, if we do not destroy each other and our world first (also a solution, of sorts) at some point in the future mankind might have the technical possibilities to build large space stations, a settlement on the moon or even to terraform the Mars, thereby providing space for the vast number of inhabitants of Earth.

A far less hysterical and, say, more immediate reason are possible gains and benefits that space exploration might yield for the human race. Teflon and liquid nourishment (now used with patients suffering from a variety of diseases) have both been invented in the course of the space program, and are now being used in a variety of fields and to the benefit of a great number of people. At a larger scale and in the future, crystals needed for telecommunications and in medical laboratories could be grown to a greater size and of far better quality in a zero G environment than is currently possible on Earth; solar panels could catch the energy of the sun (unhindered by Earth's atmosphere, and therefor much more efficiently) and transfer the so gained solar energy to earth by using microwaves or a simila

Some common words found in the essay are:
Supervisor Earth, Mir Russian, Earth Kennedy, , Supervisor Karellen, Earth Besides, Arthur Clarke's, space exploration, space station, human race, solar system,
Approximate Word count = 1022
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)