{"id":381406,"date":"2021-12-15T17:15:36","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T14:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/space-exploration-is-about-more-than-launching-billionaires-into-orbit\/"},"modified":"2021-12-15T17:15:36","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T14:15:36","slug":"space-exploration-is-about-more-than-launching-billionaires-into-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/space-exploration-is-about-more-than-launching-billionaires-into-orbit\/","title":{"rendered":"#Space exploration is about more than launching billionaires into orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Space exploration is about more than launching billionaires into orbit<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n The Eagle touched down. And Neil Armstrong stepped out. And as millions of people watched the grainy footage on their TV sets, beamed down from a camera attached to the side of the spacecraft, he said the words we can all recite by rote more than half a century later: \u201cThat\u2019s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original Star Trek<\/i> series<\/a> had wrapp<\/a>ed up its three-year production six weeks earlier. Now, 52 years later, its nonagenarian star, William Shatner, has flown to the edge of space himself.<\/p>\n

Shatner likely won\u2019t be remembered as a pioneer, even though his brief journey outside the atmosphere was, not so long ago, the stuff of science<\/a> fiction. His trip<\/a> came at a time when earthly concerns felt much more pressing, and cynicism was running high.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGiant corporations and billionaires have had a free ride for far too long. Sometimes they take that ride all the way to outer space,\u201d tweeted politician Elizabeth Warren the day of the flight, alluding to Blue Origin\u2019s Jeff Bezos (who invited Shatner onto his rocket) and Virgin Galactic\u2019s Richard Branson. Prince William, in a BBC interview, argued: \u201cWe need some of the world\u2019s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live.\u201d<\/p>\n

The eye-rolling at the obvious PR stunt of putting Captain Kirk in space could be expected. But behind it, there was a kind of antipathy toward the idea of the final frontier. A feeling that it\u2019s not so important, that there are bigger problems on the ground.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve perhaps forgotten the enormity of the Cold War-driven ambition that put a man on the moon in the first place, and humanity\u2019s abject awe at watching it happen. We\u2019ve forgotten how much of our technology<\/a>, from cellphones to mattresses, was developed because of the space race.<\/p>\n

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We take it for granted that rocket ships carry human beings\u2014American and Russian colleagues, at that\u2014to the International Space Station (ISS) at regular intervals. We are unsurprised by the idea that a robot like the NASA Perseverance rover can not only land on Mars, as it did in early 2021, but transmit high-quality images from 389 million km away.<\/p>\n

Now is not the time to look inward and give up on space, says Gordon \u201cOz\u201d Osinski, the founding director of Western University\u2019s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration and an expert in planetary geology. And there are silver linings to its commercialization. Because of private companies\u2019 interest in space, launches are now as much as 50 times less costly, allowing government agencies to outsource routine spaceflight (like cargo trips to the ISS) and focus on farther-flung missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a sign of how the space program has matured. We needed NASA and Russia in the \u201960s to come up with these technologies. We needed the might of government,\u201d Osinski says. That\u2019s changed with private-sector involvement. \u201cWhy have NASA spend its money on that which has really become quite routine? Let\u2019s let the space agencies do what they really do best, which is pushing the frontiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s a lot to look forward to in the near future\u2014missions that will expand our understanding of the solar system and beyond, and could yield new discoveries and technologies. Sara Mazrouei, a planetary scientist and science communicator based in Toronto, calls this \u201ca golden era of space exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n

The powerful, $10-billion James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency and scheduled to launch on December 18, will allow scientists to peer farther into the universe than ever before.<\/p>\n

In February, NASA\u2019s first Artemis mission will get underway with an uncrewed flight to the moon, paving the way for astronauts to conduct flybys and, eventually, for a crewed lunar base to be built.<\/p>\n

In August, NASA\u2019s Psyche mission is expected to launch en route to a metal asteroid between Mars and Jupiter that we know absolutely nothing about. Also this year, the ESA\u2019s JUICE mission (short for JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) is planned to explore Jupiter and three Jovian moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.<\/p>\n

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In 2023, NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx mission will return to Earth with samples from near-Earth asteroid Bennu. Because Canada built one of the instruments, some of the samples will come home to our scientists.<\/p>\n

Even if space exploration doesn\u2019t excite the public the way it once did, there are myriad ways that people on the ground could be affected by what happens in space, from new tech being developed as a byproduct of aerospace engineering to private satellites providing global high-speed internet.<\/p>\n

And as governments work to redefine the UN Outer Space Treaty, there are many important geostrategic and jurisdictional questions tied to the future of space and what we do with its vast potential resources. Earthly animosities could factor in, with China increasingly interested in space but secretive about its plans, and other countries, such as India, the United Arab Emirates and Israel, conducting ambitious space programs.<\/p>\n

For Mazrouei, more governments in space means more potential collaboration, more companies in space means more tech, and more space tourists means more wake-up calls.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEspecially in the middle of the pandemic and the climate change crisis, there\u2019s always a conversation of \u2018Is this the best use of our money?\u2019 Which I understand. If you\u2019re struggling to provide food for your family at the end of the day, you\u2019re not going to care about these billionaires going to space,\u201d says Mazrouei.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no better way to put the fragility of life into perspective than by looking at Earth from the edge of space, she says. There\u2019s no better way to prompt the powerful to rethink their responsibilities to the planet.<\/p>\n

In the year 2073, people probably won\u2019t quote William Shatner the way we quote Neil Armstrong today. But he seems to have experienced the sort of epiphany Mazrouei is talking about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I would love to do is to communicate, as much as possible, the jeopardy,\u201d he said after leaving the capsule. \u201cThe vulnerability of everything. It\u2019s so small. This air which is keeping us alive is thinner than your skin. It\u2019s a sliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

In wonder, he described the contrast of the \u201cblack ugliness\u201d above him and the blue below, the comfort of Mother Earth. \u201cThis is life. And that\u2019s death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

This article appears in print in the January 2022 issue of<\/em> Maclean\u2019s magazine with the headline, \u201cA few more giant leaps.\u201d Subscribe to the monthly print magazine here<\/a>.<\/em>
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