Rather than just look to our country's past accomplishments as
justification for continuing the space program, I'd like to take some
time to explain why I think our future depends on it.
Science & Engineering
In the present day and more immediate future, scientific research on the International Space Station is greatly expanding now that assembly is largely complete. On the ground, we can only escape the pervasive acceleration of gravity for very brief periods of time, either in aircraft on parabolic flights or drop towers. Because the ISS is in constant free-fall, experiments in physics, chemistry, biology, materials development, and other areas can remove that factor for the duration of their study.
For example, the National Lab Pathfinder experiments are advancing microbiological research with the goal of developing new vaccines and treatments here on Earth. Bacteria like Salmonella and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) actually become more virulent in microgravity, allowing the researchers to better isolate and understand the processes involved.
With the designation of the US portion of the ISS as a National Laboratory by Congress, the Station has been opened up to research by other government agencies and commercial partners in space-based manufacturing, small satellite development, communications, microbiology, Earth observations, remote sensing, and even advanced propulsion technologies.
There is simply nowhere else that we can do all this research simultaneously. The amount of time devoted to science on the Station will grow exponentially in the coming years and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment (that I wrote about earlier this month) promises to help tackle some of our fundamental questions about the universe.
If you have a few hours to burn (serious), I suggest you take a look at the ISS Program Scientist's website. There's a lot to read about what's already been done, what we're doing now, and what is to come.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/Summary.html
NASA engineers at Langley Research Center also recently developed an electron beam fabrication system that could revolutionize part manufacturing. Where traditional manufacturing techniques for a 300-lb part would require thousands of pounds of metal, their 3D-manufacturing system only uses 350 pounds by building it one layer at a time. The electron beam system can even create alloys or embed materials while manufacturing the part, by using different feed stocks at the same time.
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/electron_beam.html
Imagine being able to run fiber-optics through a part without even having to drill any holes. You could also build large parts in one run with variable properties that depend on the relative concentrations of the feed stock. Say you need to strengthen an attachment point for your part. With the electron beam manufacturing, you could specify exactly where to use the stronger alloy without increasing the mass elsewhere. It's also a common practice to put voids in structural parts to reduce weight. With an electron beam-made part, you could introduce those voids without even having to cut metal.
Energy Independence
One of the most significant problems with solar power on the ground is the weather. It's not much good on overcast, rainy, or snowy days. The Sun is the ultimate source of energy for all life on Earth, except those few forms that have adapted to the deep oceans and darkest caves. If we can harness that power and shift it to support an all-electric infrastructure, we wouldn't need oil or coal for energy. There's certainly more than enough of it out there. The problem has been figuring out how to get it from the sky and into your toaster efficiently.
The Space Station and many other satellites rely on solar power to do their work. The Sun always shines in space (unless you're behind something bigger than you are) and all you have to do is catch it. Building space-based solar power to beam to the ground is an engineering problem to solve, not science fiction. Unlike fusion power, which always seems to be twenty years on the horizon, the technology already exists, just not this particular implementation.
Noted science fiction author and space advocate, Ben Bova, wrote last October that the United States should lead the way on developing this technology. By chartering NASA to partner with the Department of Energy to build and demonstrate a testbed on the International Space Station and, then, licensing it out to commercial interests, we could jumpstart interest in the nascent commercial space launch industry and provide a real solution to America's energy needs that is not dependent on foreign imports. Bova also recommends backing the commercial space solar providers with low-interest government loans, as this practice was successful in the construction of the massive hydroelectric dams in the American West.
Imagine how different our world would be if we could tell Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia, and Iran that we didn't need them any more. Imagine if we only needed oil for pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, and plastics. Energy independence is the key to our future political and social leadership. It's only a few hundred kilometers over our heads, if we want it bad enough and are willing to work for it.
The Big One
If you look hard enough, the evidence of the solar system's violent past is all around us. We have the Odessa and Sierra Madera craters in Texas. Meteor Crater in Arizona is notably picturesque. The aftermath of the Tunguska explosion in 1908 shows us how lucky humanity has been thus far. The Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico marks the end of the dinosaurs. Even the Chesapeake Bay is home to an enormous impact crater nearly 35 million years old, the largest such in North America. Twice in recent history, we've even seen massive Jupiter take the blows from cometary fragments.
History and physics tell us that the Earth has been hit by objects in space big enough to trigger extinction events and that it will probably happen again. Even if we're "lucky" enough to face an impact "just" large enough to destroy a city or region, it's only a matter of time. Our planet is hurtling through a cosmic shooting gallery.
We are the first species on this world, though, to have the intelligence and technology to not only foresee this danger, but to also counter it. Our ability to send a vehicle to change the trajectory of an object threatening the planet must be developed before it is needed. Even more importantly, we must invest in our ability to track the skies and identify those threats with enough time to actually do something about it. Contrary to Hollywood films, stopping comets and asteroids from destroying our civilization won't be about rushing out there with nukes. It will require careful, deliberate action with years of advance warning.
This capability does not yet exist.
The Far Future
Assuming that we do make the investment to protect the Earth from cataclysmic impacts, there are still threats from space that we can do nothing about. Gamma-ray bursts, solar flares, and the like all present existential threats to our planet. There is also the certainty that the Sun will eventually die and take the Earth with it, when it expands into the red giant phase of its life.
This is where it becomes essential that humanity be a truly space-faring species. To ensure our continued survival and evolution, we have to learn how to live without depending on the Earth. We must learn to colonize Mars and the moons around the Outer Planets. Eventually, our far off descendants - possibly even the species that evolves from us - will have to learn how to go to the other stars.
All of this starts with what we decide now. Physicist Gerard O'Neill called space the "High Frontier." Russian rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky famously said, in the early 1900s, that "Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot remain in the cradle forever."
Space is the frontier that we must explore and we must conquer. Our future as a nation and as a species depends on it.
Science & Engineering
In the present day and more immediate future, scientific research on the International Space Station is greatly expanding now that assembly is largely complete. On the ground, we can only escape the pervasive acceleration of gravity for very brief periods of time, either in aircraft on parabolic flights or drop towers. Because the ISS is in constant free-fall, experiments in physics, chemistry, biology, materials development, and other areas can remove that factor for the duration of their study.
For example, the National Lab Pathfinder experiments are advancing microbiological research with the goal of developing new vaccines and treatments here on Earth. Bacteria like Salmonella and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) actually become more virulent in microgravity, allowing the researchers to better isolate and understand the processes involved.
With the designation of the US portion of the ISS as a National Laboratory by Congress, the Station has been opened up to research by other government agencies and commercial partners in space-based manufacturing, small satellite development, communications, microbiology, Earth observations, remote sensing, and even advanced propulsion technologies.
There is simply nowhere else that we can do all this research simultaneously. The amount of time devoted to science on the Station will grow exponentially in the coming years and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment (that I wrote about earlier this month) promises to help tackle some of our fundamental questions about the universe.
If you have a few hours to burn (serious), I suggest you take a look at the ISS Program Scientist's website. There's a lot to read about what's already been done, what we're doing now, and what is to come.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/Summary.html
NASA engineers at Langley Research Center also recently developed an electron beam fabrication system that could revolutionize part manufacturing. Where traditional manufacturing techniques for a 300-lb part would require thousands of pounds of metal, their 3D-manufacturing system only uses 350 pounds by building it one layer at a time. The electron beam system can even create alloys or embed materials while manufacturing the part, by using different feed stocks at the same time.
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/electron_beam.html
Imagine being able to run fiber-optics through a part without even having to drill any holes. You could also build large parts in one run with variable properties that depend on the relative concentrations of the feed stock. Say you need to strengthen an attachment point for your part. With the electron beam manufacturing, you could specify exactly where to use the stronger alloy without increasing the mass elsewhere. It's also a common practice to put voids in structural parts to reduce weight. With an electron beam-made part, you could introduce those voids without even having to cut metal.
Energy Independence
One of the most significant problems with solar power on the ground is the weather. It's not much good on overcast, rainy, or snowy days. The Sun is the ultimate source of energy for all life on Earth, except those few forms that have adapted to the deep oceans and darkest caves. If we can harness that power and shift it to support an all-electric infrastructure, we wouldn't need oil or coal for energy. There's certainly more than enough of it out there. The problem has been figuring out how to get it from the sky and into your toaster efficiently.
The Space Station and many other satellites rely on solar power to do their work. The Sun always shines in space (unless you're behind something bigger than you are) and all you have to do is catch it. Building space-based solar power to beam to the ground is an engineering problem to solve, not science fiction. Unlike fusion power, which always seems to be twenty years on the horizon, the technology already exists, just not this particular implementation.
Noted science fiction author and space advocate, Ben Bova, wrote last October that the United States should lead the way on developing this technology. By chartering NASA to partner with the Department of Energy to build and demonstrate a testbed on the International Space Station and, then, licensing it out to commercial interests, we could jumpstart interest in the nascent commercial space launch industry and provide a real solution to America's energy needs that is not dependent on foreign imports. Bova also recommends backing the commercial space solar providers with low-interest government loans, as this practice was successful in the construction of the massive hydroelectric dams in the American West.
Imagine how different our world would be if we could tell Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia, and Iran that we didn't need them any more. Imagine if we only needed oil for pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, and plastics. Energy independence is the key to our future political and social leadership. It's only a few hundred kilometers over our heads, if we want it bad enough and are willing to work for it.
The Big One
If you look hard enough, the evidence of the solar system's violent past is all around us. We have the Odessa and Sierra Madera craters in Texas. Meteor Crater in Arizona is notably picturesque. The aftermath of the Tunguska explosion in 1908 shows us how lucky humanity has been thus far. The Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico marks the end of the dinosaurs. Even the Chesapeake Bay is home to an enormous impact crater nearly 35 million years old, the largest such in North America. Twice in recent history, we've even seen massive Jupiter take the blows from cometary fragments.
History and physics tell us that the Earth has been hit by objects in space big enough to trigger extinction events and that it will probably happen again. Even if we're "lucky" enough to face an impact "just" large enough to destroy a city or region, it's only a matter of time. Our planet is hurtling through a cosmic shooting gallery.
We are the first species on this world, though, to have the intelligence and technology to not only foresee this danger, but to also counter it. Our ability to send a vehicle to change the trajectory of an object threatening the planet must be developed before it is needed. Even more importantly, we must invest in our ability to track the skies and identify those threats with enough time to actually do something about it. Contrary to Hollywood films, stopping comets and asteroids from destroying our civilization won't be about rushing out there with nukes. It will require careful, deliberate action with years of advance warning.
This capability does not yet exist.
The Far Future
Assuming that we do make the investment to protect the Earth from cataclysmic impacts, there are still threats from space that we can do nothing about. Gamma-ray bursts, solar flares, and the like all present existential threats to our planet. There is also the certainty that the Sun will eventually die and take the Earth with it, when it expands into the red giant phase of its life.
This is where it becomes essential that humanity be a truly space-faring species. To ensure our continued survival and evolution, we have to learn how to live without depending on the Earth. We must learn to colonize Mars and the moons around the Outer Planets. Eventually, our far off descendants - possibly even the species that evolves from us - will have to learn how to go to the other stars.
All of this starts with what we decide now. Physicist Gerard O'Neill called space the "High Frontier." Russian rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky famously said, in the early 1900s, that "Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot remain in the cradle forever."
Space is the frontier that we must explore and we must conquer. Our future as a nation and as a species depends on it.
One of the things I think I am most looking forward to when I become a father is teaching my children how to use a telescope. :)
I still remember vividly the first time I saw the night sky without light pollution. It was in the foothills of the Ozarks and I was in fifth grade. We went out to an amateur observatory for a night-time field trip.
Ever since then, I've understood why our ancestors thought the stars represented the supernatural. Anyone who can see the Milky Way like that and not be touched is someone I don't think I want to know. :)
JKugler that was really interesting. I especially liked the "electron beam system" I think we should invest more in research from space.
Space has always fascinated me. As a child I always read astronomy books and was thrilled when I was 6 when my dad bought me a telescope. When people would as what I wanted to be when I grew up I would say and astronomer...well.. later on I learned that girls just didn't do that.. sucks when people mess with your aspirations..
You know I most adamantly concur JKugler. However, this is what most want space for.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/higher_ground_040222.html
Just a better way to slaughter each other...