Gazing
upon the night sky, we are filled with so many questions. Is there life out there?
Is our planet really that small? Will I ever be able to walk on the moon? These
romantic ideas are what fuels the science fiction genre and inspires people to
discover the secrets of the universe. Yet after spending trillions of
government dollars, it is debatable if we have really gotten anything
substantial in return.SPACE ODDITY
There
have been many events throughout history that have fueled space exploration. It
began during World War II when German scientists successfully launched a V2
rocket into space. During the Cold War, American and Russian scientists were
competing against each other to prove their superiority. The Americans were the
first to photograph Earth from space, as well as sending the first life into
space by sending fruit flies into orbit. Not to be outdone, the Russians were
the first to have a successful orbital launch by using Sputnik 1 and sent Yuri
Gagarin into space, the first human to do so.
Feeling
threatened by the Soviets, the US government formed the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 with plans to do what even the Soviets
hadn’t done before. On July 20, 1969, the crew of the Apollo 11 were the first
humans to walk on the moon. Many people consider this event to be one of mankind’s
greatest accomplishments, yet it has been argued that the $202 billion (the
approximate cost of the Apollo program) could have been spent on something more
progressive than bragging rights.
Since
its inception, NASA has continued to make contributions to space exploration.
In 1990, they launched the Hubble space telescope, which has taken several
beautiful pictures of the cosmos, including thousands of distant galaxies and
the forming of stars, as well as determining the rate of expansion of the
universe. In 1998, NASA teamed up with other country’s space programs to work
on the International Space Station. The ISS is used as a laboratory,
observatory, factory, and aid in future missions to the moon and Mars. NASA is
currently working on a new space launch program to take astronauts farther into
space. At a cost of $100 billion, some consider the ISS to be a massive
failure.
FANTASTIC
VOYAGE
In
recent years, the market for space tourism, while small and exclusively
available to a wealthy elite, has grown. Whether it is for leisure, recreation,
or business, anyone with enough money can visit the International Space Station
for a mere $35 million when booking your trip with Space Adventures. Virgin
Galactic is planning on making the price a bit more affordable, at about
$200,000.
With
the American government’s funding to space exploration being cut by 20 per
cent, it might be up to billionaires such as Sir Richard Branson to pick up the
slack. Already, there are over 500 people who have put a down payment on Virgin
Galactic flights, including Ashton Kutcher, and these participants will require
only three days of training. Branson is confident that space tourism is safe
for the young and old, even stating that one of the people who pre-purchased a
flight is 90 years old.
These
suborbital flights will travel 109 km above the Earth at three times the speed
of sound. The shuttle can take six passengers, and the journey will last two
and a half hours. Virgin Galactic is planning on running a test flight later
this year and will hopefully be taking passengers in 2013. “If it is a
success,” Branson said in an interview with The Daily Galaxy, “we want to move into
orbital flights and then, possibly, even get a hotel up there.”
The
draw of space tourism is obvious. Being able to see the Earth from orbit is a
spectacle that few get to witness. People who have already experienced space
travel have said to have returned to Earth with a heightened awareness of the
nature and vulnerability of our planet.
Clumsy
people have always been at odds with gravity, and opportunity to abandon
gravity is something that a lot of people want to experience. Celebrity
endorsement is also expected to help sell more seats, and might even make space
travel trendy. Finally, there’s the prestige of being one of the few humans to
leave the planet.
Due
to the significant cost, personal space flights are only really within the
budget of the super rich. One of the concerns about space tourism is that while
the travellers are off having fun, we are left to deal with the environmental
impact caused by space crafts and space debris. According to Branson, “We’ve
been working on a program that can go even farther with cleaner fuels. It could
be the cleanest form of air travel there is.”
Branson
has also pledged the next ten years of profits (approximately $3 billion) to
renewable alternatives to carbon fuels. Yet studies by NASA predict that soot
emitted by rockets in the upper atmosphere could lead to significant disruption
of the world’s climate, resulting in an increase in temperature and loss of
ozone.
Another
downside to space exploration is the negative effects it has on the human body.
Astronauts who are exposed to long terms of zero gravity run the risk of
abnormalities in the eyes and brain caused by pressure in the skull. Without
the resistance added by gravity, muscles begin to atrophy. Since artificial
gravity is still a ways off, astronauts wear suits with elastics connecting
their waist band to their wrists in order to exercise while performing their
tasks. Another issue is deterioration of the skeleton, although scientists are
experimenting with vibration therapy to promote bone growth.
STARMAN
With
these environmental concerns in particular, companies have been looking into
alternative ways to get into space without costing the planet. The Japanese
company Obayashi Corp. have unveiled plans to build a space elevator by 2050.
The elevator would consist of a spaceport floating on the ocean by the equator,
and attached to the space port would be a 96,000 km tether made out of carbon
nanotubes. At the other end, there would be a space station functioning as a
counterweight. An enclosure known as a “climber” that could house 30 people
would travel along the tether at 200 km an hour, arriving at the space station
in a week. The entire elevator and space station would be powered by solar
panels located at a terminal station at the 36,000 km mark. The space station
could function as both a space hotel as well as a laboratory.
The elevator could also provide more practical uses. By sending materials up the elevator, companies will no longer have to use large rockets that are harmful to the environment. Philip Ragan, co-author of the book Leaving the Planet by Space Elevator, states in the book, “The first country to deploy a space elevator will have a 95 per cent cost advantage and could potentially control all space activities.”
Conventional
rocket designs cost over $11,000 per pound to transfer objects such as
satellites for TV and radio to geostationary orbit. By using the space
elevator, this cost can be reduced to around $100 per pound. If a second
elevator was built, then the two terminal stations could be connected by a solar
ring and provide a large amount of renewable energy to Earth. Large shipments
could be transported by sending the shipment up an elevator, then transport it
between the two elevators by space shuttle.
This
process is also much more fuel efficient than using a giant merchant vessel.
“At this moment, we cannot estimate the cost for the project,” an Obayashi
official said. “However, we’ll try to make steady progress so that it won’t end
just up as simply a dream.”
But
why stop there? Space elevators could just be a stepping stone towards space
colonization. With Earth’s population reaching its limits, it might be feasible
for humans to move into space. Stephen Hawking believes that in order for
humankind to survive, we must become a multi-planet species. A possibility
would be to construct giant space colonies within Earth’s Lagrangian points.
One
of the possible colony designs is the O’Neill cylinder, also known as an Island
Three habitat. The colony would consist of two counter-rotating cylinders, each
8 km in diameter and 32 km long, connected at each end by a rod via a bearing
system. The cylinders would rotate, causing artificial gravity through
centrifugal force. It would be possible to create an artificial atmosphere to
protect the inhabitants from radiation. Large mirrors would be hinged at the
back of each window with the unhinged edge of the windows pointing toward the
Sun. The purpose of these mirrors is to reflect sunlight into the cylinders
through the windows. Night is simulated by opening the mirrors, letting the
window view empty space; this also allows heat to radiate to space. During the
day, the reflected sun appears to move as the mirrors move, creating a natural
progression of sun angles. In order to build such a massive structure, asteroids
would have to be mined, creating a whole new industry. The logical next step
would be to establish a habitat on the moon, which would evolve into colonizing
Mars.
UNDER
PRESSURE
On
Jul. 8, 2011, NASA launched its last space shuttle, and the International Space
Station is planned to be burned up in the atmosphere by 2020. As fewer and
fewer are investing in space exploration due to the current economical
recession, space is slowly becoming “that place where we send our GPS
satellites” and Mars colonization is nothing more than a wide-eyed dream.
However,
that’s not particularly a bad thing. As previously mentioned, hundreds of
billions of dollars have been sent into the void. Nobel Prize-winner Richard
Feynman believed that space travel has never achieved any major scientific
breakthroughs. It has been suggested that instead of pictures of red rocks on
Mars, the humans of Earth would much rather have better health care, homeless
shelters, and similar social services. Potentially, science could have evolved
so much more already if we instead had invested those billions into medicine.
Gerard DeGroot, author of Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of
the American Lunar Quest gave his down-to-earth opinion in an article for The
Telegraph:
“The time has come to pull the plug on meaningless gestures in space. An
expensive mission to the moon (especially at a time of global recession) seems
like lunacy when terrestrial frontiers such as disease, starvation, and drought
cry out for cash. Furthermore, expensive space missions add credence to
fundamentalist allegations about American spiritual vacuity.”
It
is impossible to determine the cost/ benefits of future space travel. Space
elevators seem to be the first step to distant worlds, but we won’t see one for
at least another least 40 years. Until then it seems like the only activity in
space will be commercial flights for the wealthy. Unfortunately, reality is
stronger than gravity, and without any urgent need to go into space,
governments are investing their citizens’ tax dollars into other priorities.
With
so many problems on earth, space travel has become a low priority in the public
eye. However there are still a few people out there who willing to devote their
lives to unraveling the secrets of the universe, because they know that the sky
is no longer the limit.
//Mike Bastien, humour and fiction editor
//Graphics and cover by Camille Segur
//Mike Bastien, humour and fiction editor
//Graphics and cover by Camille Segur
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