The Space Club, Part II

1/13/08 – 1/19/08
by C.Zaitz

In our current climate of economic struggles, sometimes it’s hard to see the benefits of globalization. As Michiganders see jobs flying out the proverbial window to other countries, it’s hard to welcome the change. But it may be argued that the sharing of resources may be the only way to continue human and robot space exploration, and therefore help ensure the survival of our species.

Globalization is painful. Rich countries, superpowers even, may lose some of what they have to support countries that don’t have as much. Can a country, can a people, be that altruistic? I don’t know if compassion is anywhere in Darwin’s “survival of the fittest.” I don’t know that evolving the ability to share for a common good is necessarily going to help us survive as a species, much less get us to the moon or a nearby star. Maybe that’s why we don’t see aliens in Red Cross trucks patrolling our solar system.

The ability to launch space vehicles is the first level of space exploration. The second level is sending probes to other worlds. The Soviet Union sent the first landed spacecraft explorer to Venus in 1970. Prior to that, both the US and USSR had sent flybys to Mars and Venus, some successful, some not. In the 1990’s, Japan sent a probe to the moon, and then tried to send one to Mars. The first made it, the second didn’t. India also wants to join the probe club with a program to go to the moon and Mars. They plan on launching an unmanned moon mission in April of 2008. Meanwhile, nearly two thirds of the probes sent to Mars have failed. It turns out that sending probes to space is not the easiest thing to do. With a failure rate like that, it stands to reason that sending people to space is even more dangerous. So instead of secretly “cold-warring” our space programs, maybe our nations should share our resources. But can that happen? Perhaps the space race is fueled by competition, not compassion.

Level three of the space club, sending humans into orbit, has been reached by only three countries so far: China, Russia and the United States. The Soviet Union beat everyone in 1961, when Yuri Gagarin became the first human in orbit. The US, sweating bullets, followed by shooting John Glenn into orbit in 1962. China has recently gained entry to this level of the club by blasting Yang Liwei off to space in their own launch vehicle in 2003. This is a very elite club, but not as elite as the next level.

The twelve American men that walked on the moon from 1969-1972 are the only humans to step foot on extra-terrestrial ground. Many countries have a stated interest in going to that level, but the stakes, expense and danger to human life are so much greater than the other levels of the space club that I wonder if it will happen. Intense motivation is needed: perhaps motivation like a large asteroid heading our way, or a real visit from extraterrestrials. Or perhaps just the Helium-3 that we know the moon is loaded with. Whatever it takes, cooperation and compassion, or competition, I hope we can someday enjoy the next level of space exploration: stepping foot on another planet.

Until next week, my friends, enjoy the view.