Something to Believe In
“I have a feeling this is going to be the last moon mission for a long time.” (Lovell, 205) was Jim Lovell’s melancholy prediction during Apollo 13 in 1970. This pronouncement echoed across the 230,000 miles of empty space to Earth, where people listening across the world were faced with a hard truth. The prediction was not necessarily correct, as Apollos 14-17 flew up to the moon soon after, but, after Gene Cernan’s white-booted feet left the gray dust of the moon’s surface, no one has gone back. In 2016, 44 years later, children look at the moon and see it across an unbreachable void, a void that disappeared after Apollo 11, but has returned, inexplicably, decades later. The United States of America cancelled the shuttle program in 2010 (“Brief History”), leaving Americans in foreign hands for passage to the International Space Station. The reasons for this are glaring: Challenger and Columbia. The dangers of space exploration are mind-numbing; should we continue? Although there are many risks associated with space exploration, we should continue because understanding the world around us can help us to better understand ourselves.
That mission begins at NASA. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was created by President Dwight David Eisenhower in October 1958. Among NASA’s first actions was the hiring of seven astronauts: the Mercury Seven. These elite seven pilots were in peak physical condition, and carried out the Mercury missions, which consisted of being shot into orbit for a while and then crashing back into the ocean. After Mercury, the Gemini Nine were hired, and the sixteen astronauts completed the Gemini missions which had such diverse goals as navigating in orbit, performing space walks, and linking with other spaceships. (“Brief History”) The Apollo program, the most ambitious program thus far, began with a horrible tragedy. Apollo 1 burned on the Launchpad during a routine test. NASA immediately began to cover it up, casting a shadow over the entire program. (Kauffman) Apollo 7 was the next manned mission, but Apollo 8 was the landmark. Jim Lovell, Bill Anders, and Frank Borman went around the moon over Christmas 1968. In 1969, the most famous mission of them all, Apollo 11, landed on the moon. Michael Collins circled overhead as first Neil Armstrong and then Buzz Aldrin stepped on the dusty surface. Apollo 13 was a near disaster. An oxygen tank exploded halfway to the moon, leaving Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert in a dying ship with a long trip home. Apollo 17 rounded out the program two years later, when Gene Cernan became the last man on the moon. The shuttle program and the era of cooperation with Russia soon began, but this too was marked by tragedy as first Challenger and then Columbia exploded. The shuttle program was shut down in 2010, and now only unmanned probes are launched, flying by planets. (NASA: Triumph and Tragedy)
Many people say that probes are all we need, that sending people into space is too expensive and requires too many resources. They would be right. Technology needs to be developed to make better craft, less expensive craft, more efficient craft, less resource intensive craft. Within a few years, if America applies itself, the technology can be honed to the point that the space program is no longer exorbitant. Plus, the technology that creates spacecraft also creates CAT scans, better tapes, strange pens and many other commonplace items. (“NASA Technologies”) Space exploration is more helpful than just shooting people into space. Plus, robots are fallible. One tiny error in their programming renders them useless. Robots cannot adapt to unfamiliar situations. While a human may be able to save themselves from a disaster, a robot cannot. Robots, and computers in general, are limited by their programming. Any situation that those on the ground could not foresee, a robot cannot navigate, cannot bounce back from, cannot survive. Humans are necessary for going outside the parameters, collecting unusual samples from unforeseen places and judging the prospects for future use. The human touch is necessary for accurate information and helpful exploration.
Besides, the people we are talking about desperately want to be shot into space. They spend their entire lives training for missions. Yes, they are putting their lives on the line, but they want to. How can we deny them that right? If they want to risk their lives for something they believe in, why should they not be allowed to? Soldiers risk their lives every day for what they believe in, as did the civil rights protestors, as do construction workers, truck drivers, zoologists, National Geographic camerapeople, and many others. Going to space is less dangerous than walking along a roadway. The average pedestrian is in more likely to die than a passenger on a space shuttle. (MailOnline) Plus, being in space is an amazing, almost religious experience. In the words of astronaut Ken Bowersox, “You just can’t beat looking out the window and seeing our planet. We live on the most beautiful place probably in the universe.” (Jones, 233) Even the moon is described with a strange mysticism by those who have seen it up close. Being in space shapes these men and women’s lives. Without the goals and structure of the space program, many astronauts would be adrift in the world. They seem to live in a world apart, a world touched by wonder that does not enter the world of earthbound mortals. Being in space makes a person otherworldly, ethereal, mystical. (Jones, 176) Space changes a person, and every astronaut wants them. How can scientists presume that they can make choices of life or death for others? This is the land of freedom. Those freedoms must include the freedom to die. If astronauts want to risk their lives in space, they should have that right. They should be able to go to the only truly magical place they can imagine. They should be able to approach their mystical land of dreams. For they have spent their lives trying to reach it.
That mysticism is balanced by the extremely technological nature of space travel. The space shuttle was a supreme piece of technology, something that pushed at the borders of science to break records and make the impossible possible. Enriched baby food, in-ear thermometers, artificial limbs, freeze drying, and water purifiers exist. (NASA Technologies Benefit Our Lives) Space exploration affects our lives in myriad ways, ways that are impossible to quantify. Space travel has made our world safer and more efficient. Computers are drastically better because of space travel. They needed to be compressed, they needed to be faster, they needed to communicate more effectively. Many of the Google services, such as Google Earth, exist solely because the astronauts needed something to run the shuttle. Without space travel, we would be living on a vastly different Earth, perhaps one in which computers did nothing more than math and still filled entire rooms. Medicine would not be nearly so advanced, and many commonplace things we take for granted would not exist. Memory foam beds would be a dream, as well as basic food safety systems. (“A Brief History of NASA”) Many of the modern conveniences that we enjoy and take for granted exist because of the space program. Without it, the world would be lesser.
The United States needs space exploration because countries around the world are developing space programs that are superior to ours. (Tyson) China, India, and the European Union are creating capsules to take their citizens to the moon, and beyond. The United States has seemingly given up on space exploration, and, in the process, its place as the world superpower. Even more drastic than that, the United States is giving up on the ability to explore the universe around us, to find new and exciting natural phenomena. Supernovae, asteroids, dark matter, habitable planets… no one knows which discovery will unlock the secrets of the universe, or show how to contain stars, or explain what happened at the beginning and what will happen at the end. Blink for a second, and humanity might miss the greatest discovery of this generation. For instance, NASA recently saw a flare erupting from a black hole. Shortly after, gravitational waves were detected by a sensor on Earth. Without the technology developed by the space program, we would not have noticed either of these phenomena. The stars are trying to share their secrets. We need to be ready to listen.
Space exploration is a necessity. Not only are there people willing to risk their lives for the chance to touch space, space helps everyone here, not only those that go to space. And, the chance to touch the stars, even if only through one’s countrymen is irresistible. No one can hold themselves against it. No one can deny that they want to know that man has touched space. Thousands of people around the world enjoy pictures taken by rovers and telescopes. A picture taken by human hands would be worth even more, have a larger impact. The pictures that Neil Armstrong took on the moon touch so many people, so many children. We need to go in space for our children, so they have something to believe in.
Works Cited
"A Brief History of NASA." A Brief History of NASA. Web. 17 May 2016.
<http://history.nasa.gov/factsheet.htm>.
Clavin, Whitney. "Black Hole Has Major Flare." Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA, 27 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 May 2016. <http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4753>.
"Gravitational Waves Detected 100 Years After Einstein's Prediction." LIGO Lab. Web. 17 May 2016. <https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20160211>.
Jones, Chris. Too Far from Home: A Story of Life and Death in Space. New York: Doubleday, 2007. Print.
Kauffman, James. "Adding Fuel to the Fire: NASA's Crisis Communications Regarding Apollo 1." Public Relations Review Winter 1999: 421. Academic OneFile. Web. 13 Apr. 2016. http://goo.gl/fqyv2k
Lovell, Jim, and Jeffrey Kluger. Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. Print.
MailOnline, David Derbyshire for. "Why Blasting off in a Space Shuttle Is Safer than Walking." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 14 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
"NASA Technologies Benefit Our Lives." NASA Technologies Benefit Our Lives. Web. 17 May 2016. <https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2008/tech_benefits.html>.
NASA: Triumph and Tragedy. By Alisdair Simpson. Prod. Anabelle Marshall. Dir. Anabelle Marshall. Dir. John Dunton-Downer. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), 2010. TV Episodes.
"The Real Reasons We Explore Space." Air & Space Magazine. Web. 17 May 2016.
<http://www.airspacemag.com/space/the-real-reasons-we-explore-space-18816871/?no-ist>.
Tyson, Neil DeGrasse. "Why America Needs to Explore Space." Hayden Planetarium. Web. 17 May 2016. <http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/read/2007/08/05/why-america-needs-to-explore-space>.