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The first time when an astronaut arrived on the Moon, he said: It is a big step for mindkind. However, some people think it makes a minor impact on our lives. Do you agree or disagree? Almost every day we see something in the papers about the latest exciting developments in the space race. Photographs are regularly flashed to the earth from thousands and even millions of miles away. They are printed in our newspapers and shown on our television screens as a visible proof of the mans newest achievements. The photographs neatly sum up the results of these massive efforts to conquer space and at the same time they exposed the absurdity of the undertaking. All we can see is an indistinguishable blob which is supposed to represent a planet seen from several thousand miles away. we are going to end up with a little moon-dust and a few stones which will be put behind glass in some museum. This is hardly value for money when you think that our own earth ca provide countless sights which are infinitely more exciting and spectacular. The space race is not simply the objective search for knowledge it is often made out to be. It is just an extension of the race for power on earth. Only the wealthiest nations can compete and they do so in the name of pure scientific research. But in reality, all they are interested in is power and prestige. They want to impress us, their spectators, with a magnificent show of strength. Man has played the power game ever since the appeared on earth. Now he is playing it as it has never been played before. The space race is just another aspect of the age-old argument that might is right. | 
