What Happened to the Old Frontier?

What Happened to the Old Frontier?

By Nigel Kelly

During the 1960s the USA glorified its image in the midst of the cold war by achieving the near impossible: landing human beings on the moon. The Soviets, during this time, were having technical difficulties with their rockets. By doing this, the USA achieved its goal of outsmarting the USSR. But for some reason in the ensuing decades, expeditions to this orbiting body have ceased to exist. The last time mankind set foot on the moon was in 1972 in the Apollo 17 mission, marking the completion of USA’s exploration on the moon.

In the years following, the many space shuttle missions have explored the orbiting space around Earth, but it has been 36 years since mankind has set foot on the moon. Surely we would be past this by now. The next planned mission to set down on the moon is the Orion 15 expedition set for no later than 2020. Now that is a long time to wait. My question is: If we could land on the moon thirty-six years ago, why haven’t we sent any more manned expeditions out of the primary Earth orbit. Why isn’t our focus more spaceward? Does it cost too much to fund these kinds of missions to space? If not for this costly war, a feat of this kind wouldn’t be so hard to accomplish. Many important people think the exploration of our solar system is insignificant, but there are many advantages to building up industry in outer space. For instance, the asteroids and comets drifting in the asteroid belt offer many rich mining opportunities which may yield materials very rare on Earth. Space station hotels also present a romantic feel for tourists. Of course, there is more important things to attend to such as ‘The War on Terror’ or ‘politics’. What about the big picture though? If the human race does not expand to the space surrounding it, then eventually Earth will become a tomb for mankind due to a plague, asteroid impact, nuclear war, etc. Anything can happen, and that’s why people should stop squabbling over the planet’s resources.

Evidently, asteroid mining and space hotels seem more like science fiction than science fact. Though technology pales in comparison with the possibilities available in the future, there is much to be exploited with the technology we currently have. For example, the technology exists to expand the infrastructure of space-based industries. The moon can be used for ore to build more space-stations, while sunlight uncorrupted by a planet’s atmosphere would power them. Space-stations can be used for a variety of things. Hotels, mining facilities, solar-collecting facilities, etc. can all be constructed and help mankind reach outer-space that much faster. Because Earth’s human population is growing exponentially, there won’t be enough resources to sustain mankind for long. Space stations could be used as colonies to help ease the high-population problem. Though only science fiction writers dream of it, in fifty or so years concepts like space-colonies and moon-bases will no longer be concepts. They will be real.

Already more and more countries across the globe are funding space programs. China intends to land a manned mission to the moon by the year 2017, three years before the USA’s planned manned landing. While only the USA, China, and Russian government have space agencies that have launched humans into space, the actual list of countries with space programs is vast. Spanning from Argentina to the United Kingdom, approximately 45 countries have a space-related agency of some kind, with India and Iran being the most important. It seems quite likely the USA will lose its dominance over space and more countries will develop the ability to explore the void. So what will become of us? Will we lay back and watch while other countries lay claim to space? Or will we take advantage of the endless resources available out there. The first step is the moon. But achieving this first step seems to disagree with the priorities of our current government…