While campaigning in Florida, Newt Gringich dropped yet another bombshell. He claimed to be able to create a moon base by the end of his second term, in 2020. While most engineers might tell you that this goal is impractical, Gringich makes a valid point: Funding for space exploration has been low priority for far too long. It is time that we recognize the benefits of manned space exploration, and make it the highest priority for our country.
Between global warming and nuclear weapons, it is likely that human beings will either render the planet inhospitable or bring about our extinction within the next several centuries. Space exploration allows for humanity to take out an insurance policy on the continued existence of our species: When we do mess up for the final time, we will at least have humans on the moon that will continue to survive.
Manned space flight may move all of our eggs to other baskets, but it will also make our basket much better to live within. Manned space exploration catalyzes the future development of technologies essential to our economic prosperity.
Think of the thousands of technological innovations that the Apollo missions propagated. Not only did they advance our society forward by an immeasurable amount, they also gave American businesses a distinct competitive advantage. Manned space exploration will only allow for continued American dominance in the global economy.
The economic benefits are furthered by the raw amount of resources available in our solar system. Many elements and minerals that are hard to find on earth are available without much effort in the surrounding space. Take Palladium for example – an element that is extremely valuable on earth for its ability to make nuclear reactors safer and more efficient. It is freely available in space.
We can mine resources out there without concern for destroying the environment, for which there is none. Moreover, solar energy is much more available in outer space. Despite the current inefficiencies with our solar panels, if we made them even more massive and put them into space, we may never face another energy crisis.
Moving humanity into space also allows for several other problems we face on our planet. Due to the vast amount of resources available, we won’t have to fight wars over limited resource anymore.
Differing social groups will no longer have to compete over a place where they want to live; there is enough room for everyone to have enough space equivalent to the size of the planet earth.
Due to the vast amount of economic opportunities, people will no longer have to live in relative poverty. Buckminster Fuller estimates that there are enough resources in our solar system for everyone to be trillionaires. Without poverty or competition, we will all be able to consider each other equals.
However, the greatest impact will be the cooperation that it forces our species to have. Developing a heliospheric economy is not a task that a single nation can achieve, even one with vast resources such as ours.
It will promote cooperation on a grand scale, as the greatest minds and various terrestrial resources are pooled. When we succeed, it will be an accomplishment that we as a species can appreciate. It is certainly my hope that this will also bring peace between the nations of earth.
