Space The Final Frontier is as much a journey of the mind as it is of distance and the mysteries of black holes, time and space.
While it was just a TV show, that little speech at the beginning of the original Star Trek show did an excellent job of capturing our feelings about space.
It is those feelings that drive our love of astronomy and our desire to learn more and more about it.
The most exciting thing about studying the universe is also the most frustrating. No matter how expert we get, we are always just getting started. But if it’s any consolation, some of the most advanced minds in science and from history always felt that way about space. Even the greats such as Copernicus and Einstein looked up into space as they were just a spec in the presence of such infinity.
Of course, space is not infinite, and it has to be finite. Which means somehow there must be an end to it. The only thing that has brought us to “the end of the universe” is our limited ability to see deeper into space.
Space more than just seeing more stars and planets
However conquering the final frontier of space means more than just seeing more stars and planets and building the giant telescope we can. There are some mind-blowing concepts about how space works that we have to conquer.
The big bang and the expanding universe alone were enough to set your mind to spinning. But then Einstein and the theory of relativity means space is not just three dimensions. The dimension of time becomes exportable, and maybe even traveling through time seems impossible.
The frontier of space is as much a journey of the mind as it is of distance. When Steven Hawking showed us the mysteries of black holes, time and space. It could suddenly collapse and change in those intergalactic pressure cookers. If not for the wonders of radio astronomy, these theories would remain just theories.
But the brilliance of mathematicians and genius minds like Hawking and Einstein continue to stretch our concepts of space. Now we have the string theory that could revolutionize everything we know about space, time, and how the universe relates to itself. It’s the final frontier. The Starship Enterprise would not stop exploring, so neither can we.
The Unified Field Theory, and those that know it tells us that when the Einsteins and Hawkings of our day crack that theory, every other idea will fall into place.
These exciting concepts are tools to put space’s enormity in context.
That is also the value of science fiction. Not only are science fiction writers often the visionaries of what comes to be in the future, but they give us the idea that space is knowable, that despite how big it is and how small we are, we can conquer this frontier like we have conquered others before us.
For humanity, that is often enough. If we can get the vision that we can conquer something, even if it is so massive or impossibly huge, it seems that we can do anything. And the love of astronomy, unlike any other force on Earth, has brought together humanity toward that common goal of conquering the universe. The quest to establish an international space station and cooperate on spreading our reach of this planet finds commonality between nations that otherwise cannot get along on the surface of the Earth.
That alone may be why we must continue to support astronomy locally and the space program nationally. It brings peace rather than war and makes us better people.
But more than that, it is as though this is what we were created to do. Reaching out to the stars may be our destiny. If so, our love of astronomy is more than a hobby; it’s a calling.
In the United States Space The Final Frontier
In the United States, NASA has already begun planning a new habitation platform around the Moon. Moving beyond the International Space Station (ISS), NASA is working to commercialize spaceflight in low Earth orbit (LEO) to go into deep space. This shift, like space exploration: from a government-directed presence in LEO to a public-private ecosystem, ignites a fully-fledged space economy. According to Merrill Lynch, this space economy will be worth a staggering $3 trillion by 2050.
Commercial pioneers like Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Orion Span, SpaceX, SNC, OneWeb, and Boeing are pouring enormous resources into frontier industries crisscrossing satellite infrastructure, communications, solar energy, reusable rockets, asteroid mining, and space tourism. Indeed, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has already begun deploying over 12,000 LEO satellites to provide low-latency broadband internet infrastructure on a planetary scale.
While satellite broadband is expected to drive the lion’s share of wealth creation, near-Earth asteroid mining is forecast to become a multi-trillion-dollar industry eventually. Venture interest is growing in mining asteroids for scarce commercial resources, including cobalt, iron, nickel, precious metals—gold, silver, platinum— and even water. Meanwhile, space tourism is expected to generate $850 billion by 2030.
Becoming a Planetary Species
The United States is one of many countries with plans for space. Russia, the European Union, India, Japan, and China are all investing in advanced space programs. It includes planned missions to the Moon and Mars and designs for deep space exploration. China’s ambitions include a permanent Chinese space station by 2022 and crewed expeditions to the Moon by 2024.
As new mission-driven organizations compete to develop a commercial presence in space. The proliferation of space-based industries will mean a substantially larger global innovation ecosystem. Access to abundant resources and space-based technologies could drive frontier industries on Earth and off-planet.
In the context of energy generation, researchers at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) are exploring the design of an LEO solar power station for 2035. China’s ambitious plans for a 200-tonne space-based solar power station will be designed to capture the Sun’s energy and beam it back to Earth as electricity. The solar power station could generate some 2GW of power. (More energy output than the Hoover Dam).
Space the final frontier competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s inspired the development of revolutionary technologies that shaped generations. The internet, telecommunications, advanced transistors, GPS, weather forecasting, and rocket technologies all led to what we now call the “digital age.” Questions have become unavoidable given the scope of innovation shaping the coming decades.
