Importance of SpaceMankind's presence in space stands as the single most impressive achievement of this species. With our leap into the vacuum that surrounds our small blue marble, we proclaimed boldly that we would not be held down to one planet. We proceeded to launch countless probes, satellites, telescopes, and even manned spaceships into one of the most extreme environments known to man. This marked a paradigm shift in our social evolution.
No more could we look at ourselves, or our planet, as a closed, singular system. We had to acknowledge that our planet was a single player in a mind-boggling ballet carried out on the cosmological stage. With each new mission to the stars, we were inundated with more data about the current state, as well as the origin, of our planet. We learned more and more with each passing year; refining our physics models, confirming some scientific theories, and casting aside others. Slowly, but surely, we've awakened to the reality that this universe is truly limitless, and the opportunities presented to our species are countless. |
With this huge influx of data, we are presented with the astounding realization of just how important space exploration is. Space affords us access to infinite resources. All we have to do is find a way to gather them. It is important to note that these resources don't simply include metals like nickel, iron, copper, or tin. Rather, space travel gives our species the ability to move closer to huge energy sources (stars) in order to gather more power from them. Space has an abundance of gaseous elements like oxygen, helium, and hydrogen which can be used for everything from water production to fusion energy reactions. The most important resource of all, however, might be the amount information that can be collected from space. We can view our own planet as an entire system. We can chart the leftover radiation from the big bang. We can learn more about our species and our reality by deciphering the puzzles provided by the scientific data gathered in space.
Finally, space gives us another frontier to explore. As humans and other animals continue to reproduce and compete, resources on this planet will eventually dwindle. With each successive step humans take into space, we come closer to the goal of setting up colonies on other worlds or other orbital bodies (asteroids, moons, space stations) and unlocking their resources for our needs. An added benefit of such colonization is species-redundancy. If something goes terribly awry on Earth (nuclear war, asteroidal impact, super volcano, etc.), having secondary colonies gives our species a better chance of survival.
For these reasons, I consider human advancement into space to be one of the single most important undertakings ever.
Finally, space gives us another frontier to explore. As humans and other animals continue to reproduce and compete, resources on this planet will eventually dwindle. With each successive step humans take into space, we come closer to the goal of setting up colonies on other worlds or other orbital bodies (asteroids, moons, space stations) and unlocking their resources for our needs. An added benefit of such colonization is species-redundancy. If something goes terribly awry on Earth (nuclear war, asteroidal impact, super volcano, etc.), having secondary colonies gives our species a better chance of survival.
For these reasons, I consider human advancement into space to be one of the single most important undertakings ever.
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The Space IndustryThe present space industry landscape is, perhaps, one of the most exciting aspects of space exploration. The space industry is currently undergoing a massive, yet somewhat subtle revolution. There was a time when access to space could only be gained by the world's largest and richest governments. Today, however, we have numerous commercial companies launching payloads into space on a near monthly basis.
Even more important, however, is the current push to expand the space industry beyond wealthy, established players. Numerous companies are involved in trying to reduce the cost of access to space. Some are trying to entice such gains via prizes while others are building their own infrastructure from the ground up. Even the single most active space entity today, the United States government, is attempting to stimulate an expansion of commercial endeavors in space. |
The expansion of more companies, governments, and private endeavors into space will benefit us all. If space tourism starts to take off, we could start employing suborbital ballistic trajectories to travel from Tokyo to New York in a matter of hours. The science gathered from dozens of scientific missions, both small and large, will spin off unheard of technologies that will be adopted in civilian markets. One day, we may even be able to build and tinker on our own spacecraft the same way that some folks tinker on cars or electronics nowadays. It is a very exciting time to pay attention to what is happening in the space industry around the world.
I have gathered together some of my favorite resources for studying and tracking both space and the space industry below. I encourage you all to take a look at those resources (and recommend any others). Who knows, perhaps the knowledge found here will be applicable to every day life in a couple decades the same way knowledge of computers is applicable to today's life, but was esoteric only a couple dozen years ago.
I have gathered together some of my favorite resources for studying and tracking both space and the space industry below. I encourage you all to take a look at those resources (and recommend any others). Who knows, perhaps the knowledge found here will be applicable to every day life in a couple decades the same way knowledge of computers is applicable to today's life, but was esoteric only a couple dozen years ago.
Coming Soon: My Thoughts on Space
Space Reference Materials
Websites The Space Environment MIT Open Courseware on Aerospace Engineering U.S. Airforce Space Reference Material U.S. Army Space Reference Material U.S. Government Space Exploration Archives Space Reference Materials Directory The Develop Space Project Books I Use SMAD - Wertz, Larson Fundamentals of Space Systems -Pisacane Orbital Mechanics for Engineering Students - Curtis Fundamentals of Astrodynamics - Bate, Mueller, White Spacecraft Dynamics and Control - Sidi Control Systems Engineering - Nise |