1. Religious Moral and Philosophical Studies on Mars 31 st of August 2012

2. The big debate Fact: The total cost of the MSL project is about US$2.5 billion. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laboratory)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laboratory Question: Should we deal with the Earth’s problems first before spending this money on Mars exploration?

3. Arguments for Here is an example of an argument for it not being a waste of money. Spin off technology from the space race that is now used on Earth. http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3169 /eight-spin-offs-space http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3169 /eight-spin-offs-space Can you come up with any others?

4. Arguments against Here is an example of an argument against spending this money in space. We are in the middle of a huge recession, this money could be used to fight poverty. Can you think of other arguments?

5. Try and come up with three arguments for and three arguments against spending this money on the Mars mission. You have one argument each way already, so you have only another two to find.

6. Extension Questions to challenge S4-S6 Who really benefits from the Mars mission? What are the true and good things about life on Earth,? Can we have these things living on a colony on Mars?