The United States and other nations have been exploring outer space for more than 50 years.
Orbiting Earth, visiting the Moon, and maintaining an international space station have been
landmarks of technological and scientific achievement. But major problems persist on the home
planet, including hunger, disease, and pollution. Plans for further space exploration—sending
people to Mars, for example—compete for financial and intellectual resources that could be used
to help address these problems. To what extent, then, should we continue to explore outer space?
Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular way of thinking
about the question above.

Essay Task
Write a unified, coherent essay in which you address the question of whether we should continue to explore outer space. In your essay, be sure to:
clearly state your own perspective and analyze the relationship between your perspective and at least one other perspective
develop and support your ideas with reasoning and examples
organize your ideas clearly and logically
communicate your ideas effectively in standard written English
Your perspective may be in full agreement with any of those given, in partial agreement, or completely different