To get started, good morning to all the judges and the rest of this beautiful audience. My name is Juan Manuel Henríquez and today I will present a very controversial question: at these strange ages, is it better to focus on studying space and the unknown rather than solving the problems on Earth?
First, I would like to state that planet Earth has more than 2 billion humans inhabiting it, and we are a multitasking species, so we need to get rid of the idea of focusing entirely on one thing.
Proceeding with my presentación, I would like to dispel a very common myth: The United States invests the majority of its money in space programs. Nowadays, that amount that the U.S.A. is giving for this purpose might surprise more than one nation. To be exact, in 2020 they invested 0.3 percent of their budget in space programs as Nasa. In simple númbers, this is nearly 22.6 billion dollars.
Sadly, in our world, there are dirty rats known as corrupts, who take part of this money to fill their purple but filthy pockets. And they for sure are the principal reason why our world is that sick and should be eradicated for humanity to prosper pacifically.
But focusing more on the main question, it's not new for anybody that we're dealing with huge problems in the real world, such as the above mentioned, poverty, diseases, hunger, and the protagonist of these years is climate change. But what if I tell you that space investigations have contributed positively to some of these problems and our lifestyle?
Maybe some of you might be bewildered when I say lifestyle, but the truth is that a great quantity of things we see and use were made possible by space programs. A very common example and the thing that most of you are thinking of, are telecommunication and satélites. But others that may surprise almost everyone are things such as the use of solar cells, the Discovery of the infrared, contributions For mechanical prosthetics, and even the cordless vacuum cleaner.
Leading these points we musnt forget our Rocky friends, asteroides. Space exploration will also save our lives if a giant asteroid wanted to crash on Earth. But asteroids also can help us with our lack of resources. Companies such as Astro Forge have shown intentions of mining asteroids to get some precious materials.
As everyone knows, eventually humanity must leave their original home planet to expand itself through the universe. The clearest plan we have yet is the colonization of the red planet Mars. Enterprises interested in this could be SpaceX led by its CEO Elon Musk. This is the ultimate backup plan no matter what happens on earth, but this doesn't mean we should ignore earth's troubles.
Now, I want to ask a quick question, what made us humans? Many philosophers during past years have been trying to answer this titanic question. But a possible answer that many have posed is our hunger for knowledge. Since the beginning of string theory, we have wanted to know everything about all which surrounds us. Where do we wish to go? That space exploration is the great dream of humanity and we shouldn't slow this due to all the benefits that this brings to us.
Near the end of my presentation, I would like you all to see the image in my presentation for a few seconds. That symbol is the flag of the unknown. I would like you to think about this: there's only 2 percent of all things that you know and for sure that you don't know, but there are 98 percent of things that You don't know that You don't know. This opens all the gates of imagination, everything is possible out there, now I want you to all think about the craziest thing ever, now let me tell you that is totally possible out there, so for closing, I would like to invite You to dream, to seek for your ambitions and target to the moon and beyond.
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