The Future of Space Exploration

Why we need to push the limit of space exploration, and who is doing a fricken’ good job at it. 

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

When I was a little kid, the heavens were my only interest. The stars, planets, galaxies all fancied my fascination. I would stare up into the heavens on cloudless nights, and I would tell myself that one day I will be up there, exploring space. Neil Armstrong was my hero, and NASA was my future employer… or so I thought. Neil Armstrong has now since moved on to the heavens, and NASA is slowly disappearing. Now we have people like Richard Branson, Burt Rutan, Robert Bigelow, and Elon Musk. All of these gentlemen own some type of Aerospace company that offer, or will offer, flights into space. And in the case of Robert Bigelow, offer “space hotels.” This is my future, either working with these men, or starting my own Aerospace company that will offer tickets to explore the galaxy. The U.S., and the world, is at a pivotal moment in space exploration. We have a choice; do we go out there and be bold, and embrace the final frontier; or do we tuck our heads in our shells, and spend useless money on programs that won’t get us anywhere in the Galaxy. By the end of Generation Y’s lifetime, there will be manned missions outside of this solar system, because of the foundation that NASA has built, what private companies are doing right now, and advances in modern technology.

“… the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

Conspiracy theorists aside, there is still much opposition in the space program. The biggest outcry is that it costs to much money! To this, I say, so what? As long as space travel brings back results, the cost shouldn’t matter. Actually, one of the goals of the private industry is to offer affordable seats to space. And now that space exploration is shifting over to private companies, NASA’s costs are going down. But that doesn’t mean we shut down NASA; in fact, NASA should be one of the highest funded programs of the government! This would bring many jobs to the economy and possible future technologies that could benefit the country. Another criticism of the space program is that the risk factor is too great. Anais Nin once said, “… the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” As humans, we can not be expected to sit still on this planet when there’s a whole universe to explore! At this moment, there are multiple agencies, countries, and universities who are searching for habitable planets. Seth Shostak, an astronomer claims that we will find Extraterrestrial Life in the next 24 years (Wall). Shostak says, “‘Instead of looking at a few thousand star systems, which is the tally so far, we will have looked at maybe a million star systems’ 24 years from now…” (Wall). The odds of us finding life out in space are heavily in our favor. This point also answers oppositions claims that there is no use to go out into space. To that, I say, there insurmountable evidence that space exploration will benefit humankind. In 2008, a Gallup poll was conducted that asked Americans about the space program. Over 52% of Americans supported an increased budget for NASA, and 68% of Americans felt that the results outweigh the benefits. (NASA). The potential to find Extraterrestrial Life is at its highest odds than any other time in the history of NASA, the rewards of finding/discovering something profitable to mankind are very high-paying, and those willing to risk it all for the greater good of science are the ones needed for the space program.

To really understand what potential we have in space exploration, we must look at what NASA has done so far. NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was created in 1958 in response to the Soviet Union launching Sputnik 1, into space. The actual legislation behind NASA is called the “Space Act.” The Space Act has nine objectives for NASA to accomplish, these objectives are:

1. The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space;
2. The improvement of the usefulness, performance, speed, safety, and efficiency of aeronautical and space vehicles;
3. The development and operation of vehicles capable of carrying instruments, equipment, supplies and living organisms through space;
4. The establishment of long-range studies of the potential benefits to be gained from, the opportunities for, and the problems involved in the utilization of aeronautical and space activities for peaceful and scientific purposes;
5. The preservation of the role of the United States as a leader in aeronautical and space science and technology and in the application thereof to the conduct of peaceful activities within and outside the atmosphere;
6. The making available to agencies directly concerned with national defenses of discoveries that have military value or significance, and the furnishing by such agencies, to the civilian agency established to direct and control nonmilitary aeronautical and space activities, of information as to discoveries which have value or significance to that agency;
7. Cooperation by the United States with other nations and groups of nations in work done pursuant to this Act and in the peaceful application of the results thereof;
8. The most effective utilization of the scientific and engineering resources of the United States, with close cooperation among all interested agencies of the United States in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort; and
9. The preservation of the United States’ preeminent position in aeronautics and space through research and technology development related to associated manufacturing process. (NASA).

These nine points given by the Space Act show how crucial NASA is in the advancement of civilization. Number two is a really good point. Even though it says that NASA needs to develop safe and efficient space vehicles, those advances in that technology could easily convert over to airplanes, boats, and even cars. And if NASA were to disappear, like Obama wants it too, then the least Obama could do is help the private industry of space travel by making sure that they don’t have too much red tape to go through to conduct research, experiments, and test theories. The Space Travel Industry is a pivotal point in its history, with so much that has been discovered, and yet there still a lot we don’t know.

Now that we understand the foundation of space travel, we can now look at what some companies are doing in the commercial aspect of space travel. The one company that has made the biggest strides is Virgin Galactic, owned by Richard Branson. The overall goal of this company is to offer cheap tickets into space. According to their website, over 530 people have booked a seat for a flight in space. These people are paying $250,000 for their flight, and so it is expected that those who are flying are those like Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, etc. But expensive flight tickets aside, I fully support this company and all the advances they are doing for the private sector. They were the first company to invent a reusable spaceship, which is huge for their industry. They can’t be like the Apollo program, where they have use a new rocket to send the spacecraft into space every time, that would just cost too much money. This year is the big year for Virgin Galactic. Richard Branson says, “‘2014 will be the year when we will finally put our beautiful spaceship in her natural environment of space,’” (Thisdell). It will be exciting to see whether Branson will go through with his promise, because recently he has been not keeping promises that he has made to the public. This is not the only part of the space travel industry, there is a whole cargo/supply side to it, and the ones that are dominating that industry is SpaceX.

SpaceX is a company founded by Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors. Basically this guy is going to own the land and the air pretty soon. SpaceX has multiple contracts with NASA to send up and cargo and eventually astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX’s website says, “Under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA, SpaceX will fly numerous cargo resupply missions to the ISS, for a total of at least 12— and in the near future, SpaceX will carry crew as well,” (Spacex.com). While Richard Branson may be leading in the passenger side, Elon Musk is owning in the cargo side. With SpaceX, and like Virgin Galactic, the use of reusable rockets is huge. SpaceX’s main rocket is the Falcon 9. The design of this rocket is a lot similar to the Apollo rockets, with the payload on top. The payload consists of the Dragon capsule, and its purpose is describe by the website, “Currently Dragon carries cargo to space, but it was designed from the beginning to carry humans. Under an agreement with NASA, SpaceX is now developing the refinements that will enable Dragon to fly crew. Dragon’s first manned test flight is expected to take place in 2-3 years,” (Spacex.com). This is a huge help to NASA because the only way to the ISS has been with the Russian’s, and now that tensions are heating up between the US and Russia, it is a relief that we have a guarantee to the ISS with SpaceX. It will be exciting where we see SpaceX go in the next few years.

So with this information, what does the future hold, and better yet, why should we go out there? Well one of the biggest challenges is the huge distance between stars in the galaxy. The closest star to Earth (excluding the Sun), is Proxima Centauri, which is about 4.8 light years away. Meaning it takes light, the universal speed limit, 4.8 years to travel there. Obviously this is the biggest obstacle, but could provide the most benefits. Think about it, if we found a fast way travel through, and then found a planet that could habit life, we could expand the human race as we know it. Or we could find a planet that has an unknown resource that could be used for clean energy, or better transportation for space craft. The potential is huge. Probably the most realistic way of travel that is going to be invented next is nuclear fusion. “The British Interplanetary Society… creat[ed] an interstellar spacecraft design called Daedalus. Daedalus would generate thrust through small fusion explosions… The force of the explosions would be channeled out of the spacecraft through the use of magnetic fields. The spacecraft would be able to reach Barnard’s Star, for instance, about six light-years away, in fifty years,” (“Interstellar). Among scientists today, this the most widely accepted way that spacecraft re going to travel by the end of the century. It seems the most reasonable, and the most likely to happen due to the fact of how “close” we are to nuclear fusion. By “close,” scientists say 50-70 years. However, there are more short term goals for interplanetary travel.

“MEN WANTED: For Hazardous Journey. Small wages, Bitter Cold, long months of Complete Darkness. Constant Danger, Safe Return Doubtful. Honour and Recognition In Case of Success.”

Bill Stone, a cave explorer, expressed his ideas about using the huge hydrogen reserves that have been detected on the moon. This is called the Shackleton Crater, and Stone says, “[a] strong hydrogen signature that could only be produced by 10 trillion tons of water buried deep in the sediment,” (Stone). And so Stone wants to send a team, one-way, to the moon to mine this hydrogen reserve. He quotes Sir Ernest Shackleton, an explorer of Antarctica, for the men he wants on the trip, he quotes, “MEN WANTED: For Hazardous Journey. Small wages, Bitter Cold, long months of Complete Darkness. Constant Danger, Safe Return Doubtful. Honour and Recognition In Case of Success,” (Stone). This description of the men wanted for that expedition, is the type of people we need running SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and NASA. Ones who are willing to push the limits, to see how far we can go, no matter the cost, no matter the danger. Burt Rutan, the designer of the Virgin Galactic spacecraft says, “I feel very strongly that it is not good enough for us to have generations of kids that think it is ok to look forward to a better version of a cell phone with video on it. They need to look forward to exploration, they need to look forward to colonization, they need to look forward to breakthroughs. We need to inspire them because they need to lead us and help us survive in the future,” (Rutan). This needs to be the motto of NASA, and even better, the U.S. government! We are the future, the kids right now are the future. This needs to be the goal of space travel.

A new type of propulsion that we will see in the coming years is Ion Propulsion. Basically what it is is using magnetism and electrical energy to propel spacecraft. This type would not be good for liftoff, and escaping the Earth’s gravity, but it would be very efficient in space when traveling to the moon, or Mars, or anywhere in the Galaxy. Its effectiveness is explained here, “…ion engines can be very effective, because they can accelerate a spacecraft continuously over a long period of time, compared to minutes of acceleration from chemical rockets,” (“Ion). This will be really helpful when it comes to traveling to Mars, and the Moon.

So now what? What are the missions that are close at hand? One of the biggest ones is the Mars One mission. Founded by Bas Lansdorp and Arno Wielders, is a mission to set-up a human colony on Mars. The first unmanned mission will be in 2018, with the first manned mission in 2024. Anybody can sign up, and so basically anyone could become an astronaut. And when these people sign up, they realize that they might never come back. It is a one-way ticket, which makes the whole thing risky. There is a whole FAQ section on the Mars One website that addresses every concern from ethical reasonability, what type of government system, preparation, etc. This will be cool to see where this mission, and even if it gets off the ground.

It will be exciting to see where the human civilization goes in the 21st century and beyond! If we can fix our problems down here, our push for the edge of the galaxy will only become stronger and stronger, as well as capability to do so. By the end of my lifetime, I hope to have traveled and space, and even set-up a colony of humans, on some planet in the galaxy. One day, I hope to the Supreme President of the Galactic Council, the future governing body of the Milky Way Galaxy. To close with some revised words of the great William Shatner a.k.a. Captain Kirk… Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of humankind. Its mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Works Cited

“Interstellar Travel.” Space Sciences. Ed. John F. McCoy. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2012. Science in Context. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.

“Ion Propulsion.” Space Sciences. Ed. John F. McCoy. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2012. Science in Context. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.

“NASA.” Space Sciences. Ed. John F. McCoy. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2012. Science in Context. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.

Rutan, Burt. “The Real Future of Space Exploration.” TEDTalks, Feb. 2006. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.

Spacex.com. N.p, n.d. Web. 19 March 2014.

Stone, Bill. “I’m going to the Moon, Who’s with me?” TEDTalks, Mar. 2007. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.

Thisdell, Dan. “Virgin Galactic promises to reach space in 2014.” Flight International 14 Jan. 2014. Science in Context. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.

Wall, Mike. “Bold Prediction: Intelligent Alien Life Could Be Found by 2040.” Space.com. 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.