Space Exploration has significantly shown a reason to discuss the topic, most people thinking it is a way to keep money away from science and solving problems on Earth. Throughout the course of the years, space exploration has been a conflict since it seems to be consuming time, effort and money. The author of this article, The Planetary Society, are a group of people conveying the idea of how good Space Exploration is. The author’s purpose is to emphasize and empower the population to understand and accept Space Science and Exploration by illustrating a rhetorical situation about how the time, effort and money are advantageous to our planet.

To start, the author starts by providing sets of evidence about how Space Exploration has only used a small percentage of the US National Budget, “NASA’s budget only represents about 0.5% of the total federal budget and the proportion is even smaller for other spacefaring nations.” (The Planetary Society). The audience, which is usually those that do not believe in Space Exploration, are offered an illustration about how much Space Exploration takes from the US Federal Budget. As the author describes, it only takes about 0.5% of it. By this, the author persuading the population to understand how little it is being taken. However, “Spending on space supports highly skilled jobs, fuels technology advancements with practical applications, and creates business opportunities that feed back into the economy.” (The Planetary Society), the author elucidates that the money given is not only worth it, but that it pays off itself by providing big opportunities to the population. All over this website, The Planetary Society, medium in which this evidence is presented, the tone used is persuasive to contextualize and highlight the importance of Space Exploration. As previously seen, the tone and stance that the author uses are very similar, both corroborating Space Exploration’s benefits to Earth. The article continues explaining the audience through an informative and formal language how Space Science contributes Earth’s benefits. For instance, the language used unifies the whole article in which tries to produce change in order and create knowledge about the topic. In order to demonstrate the language used, “medical research conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) helps us understand the human body in new ways” (The Planetary Society), the author refers to the medical research as to inform how Space Science improves quality of life on Earth through investigations made in the International Space Station. 

As previously seen, this genre is an article through the internet. In order to elaborate more into the purpose of this article, which is to persuade and expand upon Space Exploration, the author reiterates how Space Science and Exploration helps the population to understand the world. As a matter of fact, by changing perspectives and studying other planets like Mars, Saturn, or Venus. Not only that but having in mind that NASA has sent two rovers in order to explore Mars’ surface and investigate whether there was life or not in outer space. Going back to the author’s tone to emphasize that “When we sent spacecraft to Venus we saw how a runaway greenhouse effect turned the world from a habitable planet to an absolute hellscape.” (The Planetary Society), was just pure informative in order to make the audience understand how it explicitly helps humans to understand the gorgeous world they have in which they live. This surely demonstrates that The Planetary Society’s article is to address how important this kind of explorations are. Not to mention that this article analyzes the work of astronauts to appreciate the delicate balance humans live in. The Planet Society also examines how Space Exploration is a vital part of social and environmental progress. This is because, “explore space to find and study the asteroids and comets in our cosmic neighborhood” (The Planetary Society), exploration is needed in order to be capable of defending the planet if any kind of threat is interfering with the progress Earth has. For instance, the International Space Station is a resource scientists use in order to study these kinds of threats. Comets and asteroids can be disregarded if they are far away enough from Earth in order to focus on those who are near and destroy them if needed. This article’s audience is persuaded by all the evidence the author shows in order to convey the idea of Space Exploration being worth it, also by showing how interesting and powerful it is to explore outer space.

It should be noted that the importance given to Space nowadays inspires the future generations. The Planetary Society considers that “the idea that life might exist elsewhere in the universe reminds us that we might not be the only planet struggling to achieve balance” includes the interest of future generations to study and perform studies about Space Exploration in order to raise more importance about the topic and how to, as the author mentioned, achieve balance. Although it is understandable that the audience mentions the recent problems and issues Earth has, that does not mean that Space Exploration must stop achieving extraordinary discoveries. Though the population advocates that there are more problems nowadays, it does not depend on or are created by the money and effort put into Space Exploration. “The problems we face don’t persist because we’re spending money on space science and exploration.” (The Planetary Society) contextualizes that issues Earth is facing are not part of Space Exploration and its helpful benefits to the planet.

‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎Throughout the article, the author uses the rhetorical situation to persuade the audience into a topic that has been discussed over the years. The author explains the audience through an informative tone about the benefits that Space Exploration brings to Earth. Not only that but the connection the author makes in order to make the stance relevance about Space Exploration being worth it. The purpose of this genre, through an article called The Planetary Society –which is the medium-, is to inform and expand upon Space Exploration’s advantages on Earth, explained and connected to an organized language which leads to an expansion about the work outer space has to offer. 

Works Cited

The Planetary Society, Why space exploration is always worthwhile, August 30, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2022. https://www.planetary.org/articles/space-exploration-is-always-worthwhile