In the eventual future, humanity might be compelled to colonize the planet like Mars for existence. This has led some people to speculate that investment in such exploration is more important than ever in the current times. While I agree that the widespread human activities has declined the lifespan and living environment of the Earth, I still believe that working on issues that are solvable should take precedence.
Figuring out the problems to make the Earth should be the main focus instead of space exploration. There are many existing issues relating to the pollution, environmental issues, and human activities that can be controlled and supervised. Restriction to such activities will result in enormous change in the living activities. It is evident that that compared to the past few years, the Ozone layer has healed naturally because the world is more focused on protecting the environment and ecosystem. Not discounting such alterations, many problems relating to survival of human lives such as starvations, wars and poverty are still prevalent. The government should focus primarily on eradicating such aspects, beneficial to the quality of life of modern people.
The developments and researches, however, should not be halted. While I firmly believe that government should focus basic problems firstly, it is still essential to subsidize the astronomy and scientific community. This will lead to the major progress on the technologies that can improve the living conditions in our planet while being able to react effectively to the extraterrestrial threats. If we gain the ability to terraform the planet, then the Earth should be terraformed instead of exploring the possibilities on other planets. As a consequence, more life will be able to sustain while also protecting the thriving ecosystem of the world.
To sum up, it is paramount to solve the current and emerging issues in the world. There should, however, be plausible investment along with stricter guidelines in order to make the world more habitable.