Space Race

Exactly 12 men have walked on the moon, and only slightly more than that have ever been as far as her orbit. Unmanned spacecraft have carried out a great deal of science, at lower cost and lower risk than manned missions, but at what cost?

I'm so disheartened every time I hear someone suggest we cut NASA's budget, or nievely question the need for exploration. We need to explore that great frontier because we need to dream, to grow, and to learn. Humankind wasn't meant to stay idle for long. It's not in our nature to be contained. We're masters of our environment, and it's time to go farther.

What we need to do is increase public funding and private investment in the space program. Here are the areas to be advanced if humanity is to move forward:

1. Long distance space exploration. We should keep exploring with ground based telescopes, low earth orbit projects like the highly successful Hubble, and eventually include lunar telescopes which could have the advantage of being very large and not having atmospheric interference. These should be looking for signs of life, hospitable places, and other stellar points of interest.

2. Manned exploration. We should be going everywhere: back to the moon, mars, asteroids, everywhere that we can reasonably go. And we should do it in the name of innovation. There's a fundamental difference between sending a probe and sending an astronaut. A person can see a new landscape and develop new ideas. For a human, answering a question is not just a check off box on the mission log, it's the gateway to a hundred new questions waiting to be explored. If we want science to advance quickly, we need to get people out there and exploring.

3. Robotic Exploration. Don't think I'm crazy, I don't want to cut this out; it is cheaper and safer than manned flight, it just shouldn't be a substitute when it's such a good auxiliary. Unmanned craft are perfect for initial missions to new places, to pave the way for manned missions. They can go before and establish habitable landing sites in distant places.
Unmanned craft also have a place in mining resources from asteroids and other planets, resources we will need as space collonies grow. They also have a great ability on self destructive missions, such as flying into the sun, or crating an investigatable impact on another planet.

4. Space Collonies. These are critical to our long term space plan for a few reasons. First, it's how we will create a new paradigm where people are born, live, and die in space. It's our chance to create new cultures and reap the benefits that come from that.
Space collonies will also be critical to manned exploration of distant stars. Some question the morality of a multiple-generational space ship, but once the prescedent is established that some people live out their entire natural lives in space, this moral dillema will fade. And if the collony is materially self-sufficient, information is all they need to stay as connected to the remainder of humanity as they would have in low Earth orbit.
Space collonies have the advantage of being potentially profitable in the near term as space tourism begins in earnest. The cash waiting to be invested and spent in ths industry will be a great driver for space exploration of all types.
The final great benefit of space collnies is the strength they impart to our species. Currently it seems we may be the greatest I telligence that exists in the universe; it'd be a shame to lose it all in a single cataclismic event. A single manned space colony sitting at perhaps L5, the Lagrange point on the far side of the moon, would be a great insurance pollicy until we establish bases around the solar system.

5. Investing in Space Education. We should be encouraging and funding education in science, engineering, and like fields. The more kids we have interested in these areas, the faster progress will go as they enter the workforce. We'll also see growth in what we're willing to invest into science and exploration as we shift to a more science minded society. It's coming, but we'll improve the lives of generations if we invest in education and make it come that much sooner.


None of this is impossible, we'll be getting Christmas cards from Alpha Centuri soon enough- but it's going to take an investment on our part. The good news is, we'll see the returns.