By Rich Rowland
Report originally written November 1999
Modified and reposted November 2009
“Space, the final frontier…” Just about everyone can recite these words from the intro to Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, but not many realize the similarities between it and real-life space exploration. If it was not for exploration, America as U.S. citizens know it, would not be here. Exploring new frontiers led to the expansion of the United States. Manifest destiny was in the minds of those who wanted to expand to the western coast and seek out a new life and create new civilizations. Many people feel that it is a waste of money to keep paying for NASA’s search in the stars when Earth has its own problems, such as poverty and sickness, that need to be taken care of first. However, space exploration is important to continue because of its profound effect on many aspects of modern civilization.
When John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president, announced, “This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth. No single space project in this period will be more exciting or more impressive to mankind or more important to the long-range exploration of space”, many Americans united to support him and worked to achieve this goal. This achievement boosted American pride and belief that space travel is important. Kennedy set this goal because of the competition with Russia during the cold war. However, the competition ended, and Americans and Russians have now collaborated to further develop space station technology on MIR. When NASA used the Rover to send pictures of Mars down to Earth and put them on the internet, many people were proud of this advancement in technology to be able to research Mars without sending men. John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, now over 80 years old, has been sent up in a shuttle with a team to study the effects of space on aging. This event has caught the attention and pride of other elderly Americans. Pride and unity has been a positive effect from the space program.
In addition to that, modern civilization, today, is centered around new technology. Before the 19th century, people did not believe man would ever fly. Going to the moon or another planet was even more unbelievable. However, man has not only done this but many new inventions have come to the world because of NASA’s effort in developing instruments for flight. The invention of the personal computer came from NASA’s need for many individual stations used to monitor separate areas of the launch at the same time. The microchip was developed because of the need for smaller parts. McDonnell Douglas and other business partners are producing chemicals and drugs in space both faster and purer than they could on earth because of the microgravity of space. The critics of the space program will eventually realize that the research done in space will help cure many sicknesses here on Earth. They may even find the cure for the common cold. “Peter Glazer once said, ‘Space in the 21st century will probably be what aviation, electronics, and computers were . . . in this [the 20th] century’ ” . In other words, this world’s technology is advancing so rapidly, that the space programs will only lead to more and better technology.
Furthermore, this advancement leads to many new jobs. Some of these jobs are scientists, astronauts, mechanical technicians, electrical technicians, medical technicians, researchers and many more. These men create new technology which expand new businesses that lead to more jobs. If this need continues the unemployment rate will drop, and this helps with the Earth’s poverty problems. Over 80% of the jobs men and women have today did not exist in the 19th century. In the future, if more space stations are created for these workers, transportation between them will require more workers and space tourism could lead to many more jobs. When businesses manufacture products in space there will be a need for employees. There may also be miners in space, working to extract natural resources from asteroids. Continuing space exploration will increase employment by creating a variety of totally new jobs.
Likewise, if it was not for the space program, the daily newscast would not be able to give out an accurate weather forecast. The satellites that have been placed in outer space give mankind unquestionable value, such as “worldwide telephone communications, sports and news programming from other nations, weather forecasting, crop monitoring, earth-resources programs, and navigation satellites that have improved air transport, shipping, and trucking. There are satellites to monitor arms treaties and to guard against surprise attack; satellites that track the geological tensions that lead to earthquakes; satellites that locate airplane and shipwrecks within minutes, and the list goes on” (Stern). NASA has just started a thirty year project called ‘Mission to Earth’ to study the effect of man-made pollution on Earth. Alissa Rubin states this in her Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report reprinted in the 1998 SIRS database, “The goal is to learn enough about how man-made pollution is changing the face of the Earth to help lawmakers decide what legislative steps are needed to slow… and perhaps reverse–the damage”. This is the largest science program NASA has ever started and the cost is high. In the February, 1998 edition of Science News, J. Travis explains this in his article. “Still, Daniel S. Goldin, head of the space agency, remains upbeat. ‘The 21st-century NASA does better and more with less,’ he asserts”. The more man learns about the Earth, the more he may be able to predict and possibly prevent future problems or disasters.
Equally important is the exploration to search for extra-terrestrial life and possible space migration. There have been many people reporting sightings of UFO’s or abductions by aliens and these people feel the need to search for other life outside of Earth. Many science-fiction stories tell of evil aliens, still others speak of friendly aliens and people want to be prepared for the possibility of meeting either one. In 1991, a program was started by NASA to send out satellites that were to pick up possible signals from outer space. This program called SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) is now funded by private businesses. “There has been a revival in the serious search for life,” Stanford University scientist Chris Chyba said. ‘There is a substantial higher optimism for the existence of life beyond the Earth.” If humans migrate into space in the future, they will need a road map. So now scientists are exploring space trying to map the galaxy. The whole concept of manifest destiny applies to the idea of space expansion. Men believe that there will be a need for new places to live. Space station colonization and the search for life are mankind’s hope for the future.
In other words, if the critics get their way, and the space programs are canceled, it will have a major negative effect on American civilization. Man’s unity of working towards a common goal, and pride in accomplishing missions in space would be gone. New technology would not advance as fast because NASA would no longer be creating new devices for flight that end up as useful technology for others. Unemployment would still be a major problem and would take longer to resolve. All of the plans to study Earth and predict and prevent natural disasters would be forgotten. There would be no hope of finding out if there is anything else in the universe besides the people on Earth and lonesome planets. Man-kind’s plan to colonize space, because of overpopulation on Earth and new employment opportunities, would be diminished. So it is easy to see the importance of fulfilling the mission, “To boldly go where no one has gone before!”
3.5 days till Mission Sunday 2009. Will we have the presentation ready? 2 of 6 videos done. I have to redo the Nigeria video, ugh! David Lusk is having a multitude of computer problems and will not have Ghana video done in time, so I have to throw one together. I have South East Asia and Guyana done. Tonight I will be getting the voiceover track recorded for Costa Rica, and will finish the video tomorrow. So I still have to redo Nigeria, Create a Ghana video and finish Costa Rica, plus do a Year in review slideshow containing pictures from all mission areas to the Light the fire song.