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Ad Astra

Entry 2120, on 2021-04-15 at 13:11:32 (Rating 2, Science)

About 60 years ago, on 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. As far as I can tell, there hasn't been a lot of recognition of this, perhaps because it was achieved by the Soviets, and their accomplishments tend to be downplayed by the Western press. Just as an aside: this is interesting, considering the apparent preference for socialism by most of the media, but that's not the subject of this post.

I suspect this will become a more important historical event as time goes by, because interest in space will inevitably increase in the future. Why? Because we will have facilities on the Moon, we will have colonies on Mars, and space in general will become an important part of future economies.

The other great milestone in the exploration of space was the Moon landing, of course. And yes, it did happen. Refer to the "Moon Landing" item in the skepticism section of my web site for facts supporting this. That happened on 20 July 1969, and there were several other missions, also landing astronauts on the Moon, from Apollo 11 (the original landing) to Apollo 17. Of course Apollo 13 famously didn't make it to the Moon, although through some brilliant work by NASA engineers the crew returned to Earth safely.

That was over 50 years ago, and just 8 years after the first person in space, which was remarkably quick progress. But what has happened since then?

Well, there have certainly been some worthwhile achievements in space since then. I would count the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope as being the two highlights, but space technology has become such a part of our everyday lives now - with services such as GPS, weather forecasting, and communications being taken for granted - that we barely notice it any more.

But there have been no humans sent to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. In fact, until recently, the most important space nation, the USA, after retiring the Shuttle fleet, didn't even have a launch vehicle capable of sending them, and had to rely on Russian rockets!

But now we are entering a new phase of space exploration as private companies start building launch systems. Most prominent of these is SpaceX, lead by my hero Elon Musk, but there are others as well. Private companies don't always produce the best outcomes, but Musk has made so much progress so quickly that it is impossible to see how a slow, bumbling bureaucracy like NASA could ever have matched him. Note that this was not always the case: they achieved the aim of landing humans on the Moon very quickly.

Whenever I hear discussions of space exploration on the mainstream media it is almost inevitable that the host will ask the expert being interviewed whether spending money on space is worth it. They think that maybe those quite significant sums might be better spent back on Earth, especially to fix those trendy current issues such as climate change and inequality.

It is perhaps a severe condemnation of our current society that this attitude is so prevalent. I mean, it's not totally unreasonable to ask the question, although that same question has been asked for decades and usually gets the same answer, which is that both are important. But I think it shows a lack of imagination, a lack of sense of adventure, and a lack of ability to accept risk as necessary for progress, that wasn't so widespread in the past.

NASA's budget for 2020 was US$22.6 billion. Any number involving the word "billion" sounds like a lot, but it is really a small amount, representing less than half of one percent of the total US federal budget. Whether that amount was diverted to climate change mitigation or equality improvements through poverty reduction would make no real difference at all.

But I think the question is even worse than what is suggested by the misplaced idea of it being expensive. Whatever the cost, and whatever else might receive less funding as a result, we should be doing this. Why? Well, there are two main reasons...

First, because it's the right thing to do. Yeah, I know that statement is a bit meaningless, because what is "right" is subjective, and I have really just restated the question in my answer, but let me give some details to justify it.

Humans have always wanted to explore - at least some have, because many just want a "quiet life" at home. But the more adventurous individuals are the ones who have achieved the most. This attitude requires a certain a mount of audacity and arrogance. These two attributes are not so much in favour right now, when many people are rejecting the advantages of Western culture, of colonisation, and even of a lot of technology, but they are important.

Many of these people from the past wanted to embark on their journeys (either literal in the case of explorers, or metaphorical in the case of scientists, inventors, etc) without really knowing what the future benefits might be. But they did it anyway, and the benefits did materialise eventually.

In fact, I would say that there is almost nothing new that doesn't have benefits which outweigh any negatives. This even applies to technologies like nuclear weapons. A case could be made to sya they are significantly responsible for the lack of any large-scale conflicts since the end of World War II.

So space exploration is the right thing to do, but what is my second point? Well, that is a more practical thing. We need space technology for two reasons: first, to exploit the resources which are available there, and second to colonise other planets.

Note that I deliberately used those triggering words "exploit" and "colonise" there. I know these word aren't in favour right now, but I think they should be. Well planned and reasonable exploitation and colonisation aren't just something nice to have, they are both essential.

Space might easily become the best way to accumulate important resources, such as rare metals. Asteroid mining is the most obvious technology which might be helpful here. And that could easily help the Earth. If we can mine lithium efficiently and safely from an asteroid we don't need the damaging and dangerous mining we currently have. So investing in space could easily improve the state of the Earth more than direct investment in our planet might.

And the Earth is overdue for a major, global extinction, most likely because of an asteroid impact. Whatever the climate change extremists tell you, the current rate of extinction isn't significant compared with what happens during these events. If we really want to help life on Earth, we need to get it off Earth to a "backup" planet.

And according to our current understanding, humans are the only intelligent life in the whole universe. Surely intelligence is important and we should be doing all we can to preserve it. If the Earth is susceptible to global disasters the only good solution is to settle other planets.

So, not only is space exploration an important component of the total number of things we do as a race, but it is really the only thing that matters. But many people don't see this. Luckily we do have some visionaries, like Elon Musk, who see the big picture, are prepared to take risks, and aren't taken in by the anti-colonisation and anti-technology narratives popular today.

We need to invest more in space. Ad astra!

Comment 1 (6553) by Anonymous on 2021-04-21 at 11:46:44:

OMG, you lost me on exploit and colonise. Awesome. What century did you write this stuff?

Comment 2 (6554) by OJB on 2021-04-21 at 15:12:28:

Oh, really? Do you think I might have used those words to be deliberately provocative? Answer: yes, but I still think they are relevant despite their controversial nature.

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