Benefits of space exploration

Jan 05, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – While mankind in general is battling the COVID 19 pandemic, waging local wars, formulating policies to address climate change, contesting elections to win political power, exerting efforts to end hunger and malnutrition, challenged by the ever growing number migrants, and facing a myriad of economic and social problems at the national level, scientists in collaboration with astrophysicists, and astronomers in the USA, China and the European Union are developing and launching satellites, rockets and stations into outer space.

In the midst of a vast sea of 689 million people living in poverty; 1.6 billion homeless; 811 million hungry and nearly 1 billion unemployed on planet earth, governments in 2020, spent US$423.8 billion in space programmes including solar system and outer space explorations, while US$357 billion was expended on commercial space activity including satellites for navigation, TV and imagery.

Man’s interest and curiosity in the solar system and outer space resulted in the commencement in the late 1950’s of a race into outer space. The exploits are legend.

Since then, apart from the generation of scientific knowledge and inspiration to people around the world, there has been numerous direct benefits from space exploration and commercial space activity. These include; improved fisheries management, advances in farming equipment, faster communication, aerial mapping, introduction of the Global Positioning System (GPS), tracking weather patterns, environmental protection, better home appliances, introduction of the internet, including broadband coverage, e-banking and much more.

Suffice it to say, developing countries too have benefited, one way or another from previous outer space exploits. According to a panel of distinguished Nobel prize scientists at a World Science Festival held late last year in the US, ‘Mankind can look forward to a very exciting period ahead; great things are coming… we are heading into the golden age of astronomy ‘

We are told that the search for life is the search for water on other planets. And the search continues to determine whether Earth is the only planet in the solar system where life exists.

According to Natalie Batalha, Professor in astronomy and astrophysics at University of California Santa Cruz; “There are billions of earth like planets out there and since it took two billion years for life to be formed on planet Earth there are systems in our galaxy that took eleven to twelve billion years to be formed, thus the question; whether the Earth and its solar system is an anomaly and unique insofar as the existence of life is concerned.”
Batalha went on to say; “We only know five percent of the universe.

Are we alone? It’s a question humans have asked for generations and the answer is central to determining our cosmic loneliness. Searching for life on other planets help us understand how much we appreciate life on planet earth and why we must protect it” said Batalha. The recent launch of the US$10 billion James Webb space telescope that took twenty-five years to build is to to be followed in 2027 by the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope.

Ewine van Dishoeck, lead scientist for the James Webb telescope disclosed that; “The Nancy Grace space telescope will enhance mankind’s ability to peer into what scientists describe as ‘Dark Energy,’ a mysterious force that is causing the rate of expansion of our universe to accelerate over time rather than to slow down.”

According to John Mather, Joint Nobel prize awardee and senior project scientist for the James Webb telescope; “The telescope will help us understand where we humans came from and whether we are alone. By taking pictures one million miles away from Earth, the telescope will help us see things we’ve never seen before’.
January 29th is the date set for receiving the first pictures.

In the meanwhile, Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos have helped accelerate the fast growing private space industry with their Space X, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin spacecrafts respectively. Thus far, Musk has launched 900 Broadband satellites and is aiming to build-out its Starlink broadband Internet system. He plans to build a self-sustaining colony on Mars.

And Branson intends to expand his space tourism brand with his VSS Unity space plane in eleven countries with capabilities to send objects into orbit. Come to think of it, it appears that Guyana was way ahead in time when it decided to accommodate private space industry on its national territory. It is to be recalled that in 1999, Beal Aerospace Technologies, a privately-owned, US-based company, had agreed to invest US$50 million to establish a satellite launching site in the Barima-Waini region. Regrettably, the project was torpedoed, not so much because of Venezuela’s objection, but more-so, because of ‘competitive financial developments in the US space industry and after receiving unhelpful signals from the US State Department,’ according to BEAL.

Five years later, the private space industry was not only legalized in the USA, it entered into
partnership with government ushering in private space flights and launching of commercial satellites into space.

Amazingly, individuals with deep pockets began booking seats on flights to outer space with tickets ranging from US$55 million per seat on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon to the International Space Station; US$28 million per seat on Blue Origin’s New Shepard and $450,000 on Virgin Galactic’s Spaceship 2. All toll, bookings have increased from ten to 600 persons.

And just in case it went unnoticed, China has no intentions of being left behind.
It will launch six missions in 2022 to expand its Jiangong space station for long-term living. And its Long March 9 rocket is in the making for deep space investigation. A lunar research station is envisaged for moon landing in 2027, while three missions will be heading to the moon’s South Pole. While these outer space activities are rather esoteric and far removed from the rumble and tumble of our day to day lives, at the end of the day, the results of its investigation help us appreciate life on planet earth and what must be done to protect it. Just as humanity can do amazing things to advance space exploration when they come together, in the same way humanity can come together to solve problems on Earth such as poverty, hunger, homelessness and unemployment as well as climate change.

Yours faithfully,
Clement J. Rohee