The Wright Brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903 in North Carolina. On 20th July, 1969 the Apollo 11 landed the first humans on the moon. There were less than 70 years between these two monumental human achievements.
The human need to achieve new heights and reach new goals has driven us to explore every corner of the earth-from the highest mountains to the deepest depths of the ocean. Space has just been the latest frontier for exploration for the human spirit.
Space: The Next Frontier
The space-race ended when the US beat the Soviet Union to the moon more than five decades ago.
Since that era of exponential development in this area slowed down ever since then. Apart from the space-station, exploratory satellites, and the Mars Rover, there have been a few popular human overtures into space.
The most recent spurt of human interest in forays into space have shifted from the public to the private sector. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson are currently the front-runners of the potential space-tourism industry with the latter two personally going to space this year.
This has led to a lot of questions being raised by a lot of people concerned over the large amount of money being spent on these endeavors. The same questions were and are raised over the government forays into space as well, with NASA coming under strict financial constraints and reduced budgets due to focus on allocating money towards solving on-ground problems.
What is the real benefit of the human fascination with this new frontier? Would it be good for us to continue in this direction? Would it be better for the money being spent on space exploration and the research and development associated with it to be expended in solving the world’s problems?
What Are The Costs?
Space exploration is an expensive venture.
One of the main reasons for the reduction in government expenditure on space exploration has been the prohibitive costs associated with it. As an example, the total cost of the five Apollo moon missions was around 25 billion dollars in 1973. To put that into perspective, accounting for inflation, this equals to around 160 billion dollars today.
Fortunately, however, one of the upsides of the privatization of an industry is that it tends to become more cost-efficient. During the space-race the idea of turning a profit never really entered into consideration. Like most government run ventures, there was a lot of fat in the system and there was not a focus on cutting costs as achieving the goal was more of a priority.
When this industry transitions into the private sector into the hands of businessmen it can be expected to become much leaner and the priority would be to eventually become a profitable endeavor.
The Privatization Of Space
The idea of having space-travel become more cost-efficient has no longer seems out of reach.
SpaceX under the helm of tech-billionaire Elon Musk has done massive amounts of research into making space-launches cheaper. One of the biggest successes in this realm have already been achieved upon the successful landing of re-usable rockets (mainly the boosters) which would traditionally disintegrate once used.
This massive reduction in cost has been touted as the “Holy Grail” of space launches as the Falcon series of rockets are estimated to cost as low as 30 million dollars per launch. For trips to the International Space Station, SpaceX and Boeing are both offering cheaper alternatives (almost 20 million dollars less than through the Soyuz program) than the traditional modes per astronaut to NASA.
One of the biggest objections placed upon space-travel has been the cost borne by the tax-payer and the prohibitive costs in general, money that can be spent on welfare programs like health or education. The privatization of the industry has alleviated much of this concern as it has become more cost-effective and also shifted the burden from tax-payers to wealthy investors.
The Benefits Of Space-Travel
Efforts being made by the research and development in this sector translate very well to solve problems down here.
An example is when people invest in the possibilities of space-based agriculture and surviving in harsh environments can translate to breakthroughs for terrain agriculture. Medical research done on the international space station on maintaining human health in extreme conditions leads to improving the pool of medical knowledge that can help save lives here on earth.
Another benefit is researching the atmospheres of other planets helps us understand our own ecosystem better. The research into finding and melting ice-stores on Mars or the effects of greenhouse gases on Venus helps us understand our own planet and how to maintain it in the goldilocks zone for life in the future.
It might even end up being the salvation of mankind in the future if our planet is being threatened by climate-change or asteroid or meteoric impact.
In Conclusion
The human passion for exploration and the pioneering spirit pushes us towards space-travel. Fortunately, the technological and informational progress made through research in achieving this goal can help us improve quality of life here on earth as well.
Improving the state of humanity on earth and investing in space-travel is not mutually exclusive. With cost-cutting and reducing waste in other sectors of industry can lead to a future where humanity can flourish down here, and maybe even up there.
