ACT Writing Sample Prompt 2

Space Exploration

Space exploration has been a source of enthusiasm for the past seventy-five years. Man has always looked up at the stars and imagined what might lay beyond our atmosphere, solar system, and universe. As technologies have improved, we have taken men and women into space, and even thoroughly explored our own Moon. Though humanity is by nature curious, some argue that our space programs are a waste of valuable time, money, and resources. How much should we devote to developing our space programs? It is worth examining the cost versus value of these endeavors in order to determine how much of our resources we should allocate to such projects in the future.

Perspective One: The Space Race between the former Soviet Union and the United States galvanized both nations’ economies. Competition always encourages expansion and profit, and from an economic perspective, continuing to fund space exploration makes sense.

Perspective Two: The exploration of our solar system has yielded remarkable scientific data about the Moon and the planet Mars, and has greatly expanded our knowledge of physics. However, it may not make logical sense to spend millions of dollars on these expensive programs as long as poverty and hunger are still prevalent on Planet Earth.

Perspective Three: Curiosity and imagination are the two most important qualities to develop in young children. As the popularity of Space Camp has shown, children are fascinated by the possibilities of future space travel. If we remove this avenue for child development, we risk limiting the potential of our posterity.

Essay Task

Write a unified, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on the resources allocated to space exploration. In your essay, be sure to:

• analyze and evaluate the perspectives given
• state and develop your own perspective on the issue
• explain the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may be in full agreement with any of the others, in partial agreement, or wholly different. Whatever the case, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.