A Gift for Earth, Part 3
Why
Today we stand on the brink of a new era of exploration and expansion into the solar system and there remain only two significant questions to be answered. Do we have the will to do it, and how can it be made affordable? Shall we maintain the current status quo of space travel, so expensive that only the military or a few select government employees may ever go using are hard earned tax dollars, or shall we look for a means that puts it within reach of just about anyone on a commercial basis? Will we choose to build a new "transcontinential railroad" to the edge of space, where we can build the new "clipper ships" to travel the solar system, or will we choose to stay home?
In the starting of any long term project, long term development thinking is necessary. For example, should you have to pay someone to raise your child from birth until the time it takes for that child to begin paying a return on your investment, no child would be economically feasible. The same is true of space: the building of a railroad into orbit won't make sense unless we take into account all the other things such a railroad make possible. Just like the Transcontinental Railroad and the Panama Canal, to big for even the richest private interests, it took the people of this country, through their government, to choose to forgo any immediate return on their investment in exchange for all the other things those investments made possible. The bill that was passed by Congress authorizing the Transcontinental Railroad stated, "its primary purpose to open up the country." Today this country needs to make a similar commitment to build a railroad into space, a railroad that will open up the solar system for all mankind.
I have read reports and articles quoting some of the leaders of this country as stating that NASA is a government agency without a constituency, that nobody cares what it does, that the Space Shuttle is a vehicle on a journey to nowhere, that "science" is the only reason for our civil space program, and that robots can do it better then men. Personaly, I think the people making these statements have missed the boat.
Looking back, I find it very easy to remember those times when, as a nation, we were working towards going to the Moon. The wonder, the excitement, the pushing through of old limits and the setting of new records that permeated that era were unforgettable. There were the incredible mind-opening experiences of spending Christmas 1968 in orbit around the Moon, as seen and heard through the television eye and ear of the Apollo 8 astronauts, followed by the Lunar landings of 1969 and the early '70s. There were all the robot probes sent to the other planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. It was the best of all possible times as far as space was concerned. It was the opening up of the solar system for ourselves and those who would come after us.
So what happened? What happened to the dream that so many of us grew up with? Where did it go? I've spent a lot of time asking people that question, and almost always the answer is the same: "I'll never be able to go, nor will any of my children, its just too expensive." The truth in a nutshell.
How could any of those wonderful dreams we all hear about; cities in space, the terraforming of asteroids and planets, colonies on the Moon and Mars, or the solving of our energy problems and the end of pollution here on Earth via satellite solar power stations or the mining of Helium 3 on the Moon for pollution free fusion power, how can any of these dreams ever come true if we can't even get into orbit for a price we can afford?
In my opinion, it's not the support that is missing, it's the failure of our leaders, both elected and at NASA, to understand the basic discontent and disillusionment of so many Americans in regards to all those wonderful space dreams they have been hearing about for the last 30 years. Dreams that cannot possibly be made to happen on a scale large enough to modify, let alone solve, our problems here on Earth, due to the current high cost of getting into orbit.
When Christopher Columbus first set sail to the west in 1492, he sought a new, faster, and safer route to the Oriental spice trade. An economic goal of sufficient magnitude that it persuaded a Queen to hock her jewels in order to finance him. It was a high risk investment of major proportions to say the least.
Initially the investment was a flop. A previously unknown land mass was found that blocked the way to the Orient. Fortunately for the investment, it was found that this new land was inhabited by a technologically inferior people who also happened to have acquired a liking for gold. Gold that was easily taken through trade and force of arms with the superior technology of the Europeans. Gold in sufficient quantities and of sufficient value to justify the establishment of further expeditions, the building of colonies, and the development of larger, faster, and more economical ships for traveling to and from this new world. In other words, the big flop became a big success.
Eventually the gold ran out, but by then other items of economic value had been found that justified the continued existence of the colonies and the ocean traveling ships, items that wouldn't have paid for themselves earlier in the venture due to the higher cost of transportation on the initial ocean traveling ships.
Thirty years ago the primary 'gold' of the US Space Program was prestige. We were in a space race with the Soviets, the winning of which would prove to the international community that the democratic form of government and the free enterprse system were superior to the communist form of government with its attending state capitalism. We won that race with such a big lead that the Russians tried to pretend that they hadn't even been in the race. But that race is now over and the Soviet Union no longer exists. Sure the spinoffs and the science are great, but can we really afford a continuing series of manned stunts and space spectaculars that have no imediate future? Look at the problems we have right here on the Earth today; how can manned flights to the Moon or Mars help with those problems when it costs over $5,000 a pound just to get to low Earth orbit? In other words, the 'gold' ran out.
Oddly enough though, as a result of both the new space technology we developed for the Moon landings and all the planetary probes, plus the information they sent home, we discovered a number of potential new gold mines and dangers in the form of space based manufacturing of electronics and pharmaceuticals, pollution free space based solar power, new sources of raw materials and rare metals, Helium 3, global warming and large asteroid strikes. Now, 30 years later, it is beginning to appear that we cannot afford not to mine those new gold mines if we want to maintain our current standard of living for ourselves and our descendants. It also appears that we will need to learn how to protect ourselves from global warming and a large asteroid strike if the human race is to have a future that lasts at least as long as the dinosaurs did. Who knows what the truth is regarding how long the world's oil supply will last or when an asteroid large enough to kill off all the higher life forms on Earth will arrive. Over population, global warming and environmental collapse could definitly knock us back to the Stone Age just as easily and much sooner.
So what do we do? While there is definitely a certain amount of entertainment value in observing the process, similar to watching a disaster movie on TV, do we really want to live through it? Is it a legacy that we want to leave behind for our children should we be able to stretch out the conclusion until after we are all gone?
None of this should be new information to you. Undoubtedly you've also read about all kinds of solutions to the problems, solutions that all tend to fall into one of four basic groups: ignore it, conserve what we have to make it last as long as possible, reduce our numbers and return to a simpler life style, or improve our technology so we can continue to grow and prosper. As you have probably already noticed, this article falls under the last category, also known as 'Another Space Solution'. Actually, it's not even that. It's a solution to the problem that has made all the other space solutions unworkable: affordability. An example is the space mirrors for reflecting extra sunlight on the solar cells that some people want to cover the wastelands of America with. The extra sunlight added by these mirrors twenty-four hours a day, every day, would reduce the invested dollar per watt of power generated by the solar cells to such an extent that it would make solar power cheaper then coal, oil, gas or nuclear power. Unfortunately, lifting the materials for the space mirrors up from Earth to Earth orbit costs so much as to make the idea unaffordable. The same is true for space-based solar power stations and mining the Moon for Helium 3. All unaffordable with today's space transportation costs.
This is the problem that the Spaceplane and the Earth Orbiting Elevator solves. For a one time investment that is less then what we are spending to build the International Space Station, we can build a space transportation system that makes all of these dreams affordable. It would make possible the beginning of large scale commercial operations in Earth orbit just as the transcontinental railroad opened up the heartland of America for development a little over a hundred years ago. It is an idea that would eventually allow us to control and manage the environmental balance of the Earth, making it into a garden for all of us.
Back around the beginning of this century,
Konstantin
E. Tsiolkovski
, the man considered by many to be the father of the Space Age, said;
"The murky views which some scientists advocate as to the inevitable end of every living thing on Earth . . . should not be regarded as axiomatic.
The finer part of mankind will, in all likelihood, never perish - they will migrate from sun to sun as they go out.
And so there is no end to life, to intellect and the perfection of humanity.
Its progress is everlasting."
Not so long ago, another visionary who was also the governor of Alaska,
Walter J. Hickel
, said;
"We need to remember that we are not here on this Earth just to be users.
We were made in the image of the Creator, and we are here to create.
For use to create we must first acknowledge and explore the limits of our mind and soul.
Limits that must be expanded before we can expand any physical ones.
So it is as with any endeavor, that the greatest distance to be crossed is that which lies within us."
A way to make space affordable now exists. It is up to us to choose whether or not to do it, to explore our minds and souls to find out if we are willing to go through what it will take to make it real. Shall we keep the exploration of space the way it is now, or shall we open it up for all mankind? Do we want to be a Portugal and Spain, or a China? Is the dream still alive within us that we are willing to take on a project of this magnitude, or have we died inside? Are the limits to growth people right? Are we doomed as a species to return to a Stone Age life-style due to overpopulation, pollution and the greenhouse effect? Its time to choose; things are most likely going to get a lot worse before they get better.
It's like buying a house in a high growth area, the longer we wait the more expensive it will get. If we wait too long, all of our problems will eventually make the Spaceplane and Elevator something that even the United States can't afford. With the Spaceplane and Earth Orbiting Elevator we can solve our energy problems. With cheap afforable non-polluting power we could reforest the deserts using desalinized sea water and stop the burning of fossil fuels, which are adding the majority of the CO2 to the greenhouse effect. With affordable access to space we can begin to consider such projects as space cities, making Mars into a new home for man, and redirecting asteroids away from the Earth or mining them for their resources. With the resources of the solar system we can end, just about forever, any thoughts or fears of ever running out of anything.
Our great-grandparents invested their tax dollars in the Transcontinental Railroad and gave us a continent. Our tax dollars, and the Earth Orbiting Elevator, can give us, our children, and the world, a clean environment, unlimited affordable energy, and an entire solar system. The Universe is calling, it's time to choose.