Real space exploration began after WW2, building upon the German V-2 rocket missile, which was a weapon used by the German Wehrmacht to bomb European targets. In the late 1940s the United States and the Soviet Union began their “space race” by sending experimental rockets into space, loaded with scientific instruments to learn about space travel and what was possible. In 1952 the Soviets launched the Luna 02 rocket to the moon, which was the first successful landing of a spacecraft on the moon. The Luna 02 sent back to Earth rudimentary information of the moon’s radiation fields, solar wind flux and magnetic fields. As time went on, “space exploration” had more various purposes including military, scientific, propaganda, business opportunities and engineering bravado. With each reason for space exploration also came the public’s opinion of its usefulness, especially because of the extremely high costs involved with research and development, launching and safety, and the use of taxpayers’ money.
NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is a US government organization, and although funded by our tax dollars, it provides jobs for over 17,000 people and tens of thousands more by way of contracts in all 50 states. A small state like Maryland actually receives close to 2 billion dollars in business income a year from NASA. Besides NASA, there are a few others in the field of space exploration, such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Orbital, which are privately funded by investors and have helped move the science of space travel forward and brought the costs considerably lower.
“Okay, enough of the history! So why is space exploration so important, and how does it affect me?”
NASA as well as the other space companies are coming under more scrutiny to use their funding on projects that will have a lasting positive impact on our present and future by trickling down those discoveries to help us in our everyday world. One of the top reasons for current space exploration is to possibly mine celestial bodies for minerals and metals that are limited here on Earth. Cobalt, for instance, is a necessary element for making batteries that we use in phones and electric cars. Much of the cobalt that is used comes from mines in poor countries where the workers, sometimes children (Apple and Google have been named in a lawsuit over child labor in cobalt mines), are forced to mine with low pay and work in extremely dangerous conditions. The state of California has made an executive order mandating that by 2035, all new cars and trucks must have zero emissions. Electric cars are what we have now to replace fuel-burning cars. This means the need for cobalt as well as other minerals and metals that are mined for batteries will be greater. In 2021 researchers discovered two asteroids that will pass by our solar system that have the potential to have enough nickel and cobalt to exceed Earth’s reserves. In August 2022, NASA will be launching a spacecraft to go to one of those asteroids (16 Psyche) to understand the feasibility of mining asteroids in the future. Although the spacecraft will be made by NASA, the launch rocket will be provided by the independently owned SpaceX.
As a result of our research into space exploration, our science of satellites has also improved. This includes satellites that can monitor weather and provide global communications and give us mapping imagery that we use all the time on our phones. Check out this link for an article about all the science breakthroughs as a result of just the International Space Station alone. Some of these are medical breakthroughs that affect many of us. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/iss-20-years-20-breakthroughs
Space exploration provides many jobs, and all 50 states’ economies depend on the work and industries that support those explorations. 43 states benefit economically of $1 billion or more from NASA. Just the NASA Artemis program alone supports 69,000 jobs, $14 billion in economic output, and $1.5 billion in tax revenue. Other countries that participate in space exploration employ thousands of workers and contractors as well.
Satellites can currently measure and analyze crop yields of small farms, which helps small farms increase production. This is one tool in poverty reduction and food security in Africa and elsewhere.
Imagine if the budgets to all space research and exploration ended today. Our cell phones and GPS would never be updated and over time would stop working all together. Our weather satellites would do the same. We would not be able to monitor any ecological or military threat. Important research into Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, asthma and heart disease would cease. Without the ability to monitor the Earth, we are left unprepared for potential celestial or global catastrophe. Certain materials we use in our everyday lives would be cost prohibitive to continue using or could disappear outright. Hundreds of thousands of jobs worldwide would be eliminated and state budgets would lose billions in income. We would lose decades of progress.
As we move forward into the future, we will need to be more precise on how we manage the planet, finding the balance between advancing the technology we love and rely on yet doing so in a way that impacts the Earth less. Space exploration and the science and research that come out of that will help to keep us in that balance. The budget of NASA is approx. 0.48% (2020) of the total federal budget, and this in fact has steadily been declining over the past 20 years. A small price to pay when you consider the consequences if we ended all of our space science and maintenance programs. Every single one of us would feel the negative impact and imagine how you feel now when you can’t use your phone. Imagine not being able to use it all. I’m getting anxiety just writing about it.
Space exploration is more than a 90-year-old actor going into space. You benefit every day from it and may even know someone that has contract work directly through the space industries. It makes your life easier and safer and with continued support, our lives will only get better as a result.
One added bonus, space exploration will let us know if we should hide our Reece’s Pieces from an ET visit.
https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/nasa-budget
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyche_(spacecraft)
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-report-details-how-agency-significantly-benefits-us-economy