Space: The Final Frontier?
Last July was a sad day for many as NASA shut down its 30 year long space shuttle mission. President Obama announced he wanted to open up the industry to private companies in the hope that this great enterprise would continue without spending tax payer money in continuing to support the industry. Thankfully, the private industry has stepped up to the plate.
Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Space X, plans to put out a manned mission eventually. So far, Space X is the only one of the four, the other three being the United States,Russia and China to successfully put a shuttle in space. Musk is currently working on signing a contract with NASA that would allow him to launch his own rockets so NASA doesn’t have to go pay expensive fees to Russia for use of their rockets. Part of this contract states that his company would also be responsible for shipping supplies up to the International Space Station, which he scheduled to do last February but was delayed to underdeveloped software.
Like many pioneers and innovators, things have not been easy for Musk who started his company with only a degree in physics and business and the $100 million he made from selling Pay-Pal to Ebay. The first three flights were unsuccessful and if it weren’t for the success of his fourth launch Musk said that “Death [of the company], I think, would’ve been inevitable. We did not have the resources for a fifth launch”. Plus, besides the slim resources and competition from other companies such as Boeing Space X, it has not been welcomed by all.
Famed retired Astronauts like Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan of the Apollo missions feel that allowing Musk and others in the private industry to take over the shuttle program could compromise safety. Both agree that Obama’s plan should be repealed to avoid what they believe as mediocrity. Yet, Musk holds onto his “never give up” attitude. He wants that low cost space exploration is necessary in making it available to everyone. “I believe it is important that humanity become a multi-planet species”. As he explained to the long term benefits of his company and that he wants people to get “excited about space exploration again”.
Though, Musk is not the only ambitious multi-millionaire with his eyes to the stars. Famous director James Cameron of Avatar, Titanic and the Terminator movies plans to fund asteroid mining. The director along with Larry Paige and Eric Schmidt of Google hope to mine valuable minerals and metals, like gold and platinum from near-earth asteroids. Interestingly, water would be a valuable resource obtained from the asteroids. In planning to save space and fuel the millionaires plan to have their un-manned ships convert any water they find on the space rocks into oxygen and hydrogen, both to act as fuel which can be returned to earth and used for further satellite and space missions. Eric Anderson, a successful entrepreneur from hosting “weightless” flights to tourists, believes that about 10% of the near 1,500 asteroids around earth will have water.
Unfortunately, Cameron and the others plan to launch through Anderson’s company, Planetary Resources Inc, and not through Musk’s Space X. Though, like Musk, the team plans to save much more than NASA and is scheduled to launch within the next two years and expect to “make money from the beginning”.
So ends with the first era of space exploration and births a new one and new possibilities. There is no guarantee of success or finding a demand for space trips but as Musk and many others strive for, we may find new homes someday, ones that wouldn’t necessarily be on earth or in a shuttle orbiting around it.