Humankind Needs to Aim for the Stars
I was one of those 2,3 million people who watched the live broadcast of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch on Tuesday. I had been sharing information about the event in social media for a few days to make sure that those around me would at least be reminded to witness a moment in history that the humankind was going to be looking back as a turning-point leading to larger scale space exploration. We were witnessing history. All those times feeling jealous of my parents for having watched the moon landing didn't feel bad at all any longer: I was living in the time of history when even more amazing things were happening and we owe it to people like Elon Musk.
The Falcon Heavy was a test that Musk personally gave a 50-50 chance of success. Mostly on test launches the rocket is loaded with steel blocks or concrete to simulate the mass, but Musk wanted to do something more interesting, so instead he decided to send a Tesla Roadster in space. A sexy cherry-red Roadster is a product of his personal vision from a long time ago that he has all the reasons to be proud of. Now he was sending it to space with a company he has been building up from nothing. The bottom line is that no one else should've made the choice for cargo, but Musk himself.
To my and many other fans' surprise Musk's choice of cargo got a lot of people annoyed. On Twitter, people were saying (in Finnish) that sending a car into space with a rocket was the most redneck guy thing ever. The Guardian published an opinion of a guy saying it was a waste of resources and that we should first solve all the problems on Earth before expanding to the stars.
Space exploration is important for multiple reasons:
1) So we don't die on this planet. It gives humanity hope. Everyone and nearly everything we know is on this planet. Why haven't we seen any aliens out there? A plausible explanation could be that they all die before they get off their rock and expand to their solar system and beyond. This is a sad scenario for all of us, but we might be able to change the course, thanks to people like Elon Musk.
2) So we don't destroy this planet and then die on it. Resources. Although sending a rocket into space is a waste of resources, it also opens a possible way of getting some.
3) So we don't just sing kumbaya and forget to push technological innovations and eventually die on this planet when the Sun expands. Space exploration speeds up technological innovations. Thanks to space race, we have things like reliable smoke detectors, satellite TVs, laptops, 3D graphics, VR and satellite navigation.
4) So we don't die on this planet of boredom. Most importantly to satisfy the ever growing human curiosity.
Sure, we have a lot of issues on Earth as well. There's malaria and suicide bombers. There's earthquakes and genital mutilation. There's the hunger and the thirst of little children and the children who get cancer, diarrhea or parents who are against vaccinations. The violent nature of a human, the neglect, the greed. There's the Jarrett Walker articles and sexist YA romance novels. Yes, there are a lot of things needing to be fixed on Earth as well. I have often heard a similar opinion from the mouths of nationalists, who are always saying this Nordic country where I live shouldn't accept any refugees, because we have so much work to do to better the lives of the Finns. Yet by almost any standard, Finland is a great country and even the poorest of its citizens are in average richer than a person earning an average Earth income. In other words, we will always find things that need fixing. The good thing is that there are a lot of wonderful people constantly working for a better Finland as well as for a better Earth. We can spare some wonderful people to shoot for the stars as well...
The Falcon Heavy was a test that Musk personally gave a 50-50 chance of success. Mostly on test launches the rocket is loaded with steel blocks or concrete to simulate the mass, but Musk wanted to do something more interesting, so instead he decided to send a Tesla Roadster in space. A sexy cherry-red Roadster is a product of his personal vision from a long time ago that he has all the reasons to be proud of. Now he was sending it to space with a company he has been building up from nothing. The bottom line is that no one else should've made the choice for cargo, but Musk himself.
To my and many other fans' surprise Musk's choice of cargo got a lot of people annoyed. On Twitter, people were saying (in Finnish) that sending a car into space with a rocket was the most redneck guy thing ever. The Guardian published an opinion of a guy saying it was a waste of resources and that we should first solve all the problems on Earth before expanding to the stars.
Space exploration is important for multiple reasons:
1) So we don't die on this planet. It gives humanity hope. Everyone and nearly everything we know is on this planet. Why haven't we seen any aliens out there? A plausible explanation could be that they all die before they get off their rock and expand to their solar system and beyond. This is a sad scenario for all of us, but we might be able to change the course, thanks to people like Elon Musk.
2) So we don't destroy this planet and then die on it. Resources. Although sending a rocket into space is a waste of resources, it also opens a possible way of getting some.
3) So we don't just sing kumbaya and forget to push technological innovations and eventually die on this planet when the Sun expands. Space exploration speeds up technological innovations. Thanks to space race, we have things like reliable smoke detectors, satellite TVs, laptops, 3D graphics, VR and satellite navigation.
4) So we don't die on this planet of boredom. Most importantly to satisfy the ever growing human curiosity.
Sure, we have a lot of issues on Earth as well. There's malaria and suicide bombers. There's earthquakes and genital mutilation. There's the hunger and the thirst of little children and the children who get cancer, diarrhea or parents who are against vaccinations. The violent nature of a human, the neglect, the greed. There's the Jarrett Walker articles and sexist YA romance novels. Yes, there are a lot of things needing to be fixed on Earth as well. I have often heard a similar opinion from the mouths of nationalists, who are always saying this Nordic country where I live shouldn't accept any refugees, because we have so much work to do to better the lives of the Finns. Yet by almost any standard, Finland is a great country and even the poorest of its citizens are in average richer than a person earning an average Earth income. In other words, we will always find things that need fixing. The good thing is that there are a lot of wonderful people constantly working for a better Finland as well as for a better Earth. We can spare some wonderful people to shoot for the stars as well...
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| image: pixabay.com |
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