Is space exploration a waste of money?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Is space exploration a waste of money?". Your opponent's style: Devil's advocate

Space exploration is not a waste of money. It simply isn't. Think about the number scientific breakthroughs that came through the many missions space agencies have operated. Furthermore, it may prove life saving if scientists are able to find a planet where humans can move to if we cannot save the planet

You're conflating two separate claims and betting everything on the weakest one. Yes, space missions yield spinoff technologies, but that's a sideshow—we could fund pure research directly and cheaper. Your real argument crumbles faster: "find a habitable planet" assumes we can terraform it, transport billions, and solve Earth's problems remotely instead of here. Why spend trillions on a backup plan when the original planet still needs fixing? What makes abandoning Earth more realistic than fixing it?

you cant find meteorites easily on earth so no we cant find new technologies and science which is in space on earth. So you're not making sense. "What makes abandoning Earth more realistic than fixing it?". Well 2050 zero co2 emmsiions is looking hard and we need a fallback

You're dodging the math. Meteorites literally fall to Earth constantly—we don't need rockets to study space rocks. But your real problem: reaching 2050 zero emissions is "hard," so your fallback is... colonizing another planet by then? That's exponentially harder. You're abandoning a solvable problem for an impossible one. If we can't decarbonize Earth in 24 years, what makes you think we'll terraform Mars in the same timeframe?