R: Restart the Space Race

From sea to shining sea, we have manifested our destiny. We have even made it to the moon and back. But perhaps we should go back, or even beyond. In this debate, we should think of restarting the Space Race as renewing the American effort to establish a presence in outer space. This may mean colonizing the Moon, mining asteroids, or traveling to Mars. Such an endeavor will require a tremendous amount of resources and have significant consequences for life on Earth. 

Those in the affirmative will attribute certain benefits to the reinvigoration of the Space Race. During the Cold War, the United States was able to make it to the Moon before the Soviet Union. Victory in the original Space Race required us to be at the cutting edge of science and innovation. This feat of human achievement inspired countless people and made them proud to be Americans. In the modern day, a new Space Race would force us to innovate and, along those lines, could do wonders for American industry and the economy. A concerted effort to develop advanced technologies would also bolster national security and aid in great power competition against China. Eventually, our rivals will go to space again and we must not let them beat us. Could the Space Race be what is needed to revitalize American life? Might a focus on innovation make us susceptible to a wrongheaded materialism? 

Those in the negative will hold that letting our sight fix itself on the stars is imprudent for a variety of reasons. Domestic concerns are always more pressing than foreign concerns, let alone extraterrestrial ones. The United States should prioritize healthcare, criminal justice, education, the economy, and any number of other domestic issues before it looks beyond Earth. Even then, some may argue that it is more important to alleviate world hunger and global poverty than to usher in some triumphant return to space. China may colonize the Moon before us or be the first to start mining asteroids, but we can rely on the market to fairly deal with the goods and services that come from their victory. On the other hand, the negative might argue that, given the primacy of the private sector in the twenty-first century, another Space Race will only serve to fuel the fiery excesses of late-stage capitalism and individualism. To what extent would the Space Race be dominated by the private sector? Should practical concerns prevail in this debate?

How does climate change factor into the Space Race? What are the theological implications of space colonization? How much should we care about national spending?