Earth, the only known planet that harbors life in the entire universe. The human race the so-called “intelligent species” have been wondering about the night sky from the day when the first of their kind roamed on this planet. It is basic human nature to explore things, and the advancement made by the human race has been possible only because of its incessant drive for exploring the unknown. Man has always been fascinated with the sky, the stars, the sun, and space. The constant search for knowledge, curiosity, the ideas have fetched humans to this current time of advancements. But there has been a continuous debate regarding the investment done into space programs. When half of the people in the world are dying due to poverty, hunger, diseases, and lack of basic facilities do the exploration of space matter? So, for common people, it is important to know why the exploration of space matters.
Space is a fantastic “playground” for scientists — an endless source of knowledge and learning that’s helping answer some of the key existential questions about Earth’s origins and our place in the Universe. Space exploration allows us to prove or disprove scientific theories developed on Earth. Studying the solar system, for example, has brought us insights into such phenomena as gravity, the magnetosphere, the atmosphere, fluid dynamics, and the geological evolution of other planets. Saying about Our planet, it has limited resources and thanks to the plundering of those resources we may run out of those resources shortly so we have to search for other sources which would be the heavenly objects that we see on regular basis in the night sky. The resources may be in plain sight but reaching them is hard. So, we may have to try and experiment with the idea to reach it and it cost much. The cost may seem higher in the current evaluation but in the long run, all the costs would be covered. Recently the flights into space by billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos are not anything greater than more than one billionaire boy gambling with their toys. Branson made it to space on July 1. He and his Virgin Galactic crew were in orbit for approximately a dozen minutes earlier than returning to earth safely.
Three weeks later, Bezos, the billionaire of Amazon and the richest man within the world, flew 62 miles above the earth aboard the New Shepard spacecraft. Both events have been blanketed widely via country-wide media and proclaimed as mind-blowing achievements. Many mentioned the destiny of space tourism wherein perhaps in the future common folks ought to take a journey into the area for a hefty price. When we go back half a century during the cold-war era these same questions were raised when the two most powerful nations at that time Soviet Union and the USA poured their resources into the space race. They were scrutinized until the result. Yuri Gagarin became the first to spacewalk, Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. But after a few more moon missions, area exploration took a one-of-a-kind course. The consciousness was on reusable area shuttles and missions to manned area stations. Space became packed with satellites and telescopes, and clever minds looked for methods to take gain of and create new opportunities out of the brand-new frontier. Thus, we have such things as Global Positioning Systems or GPS, that assist us to find our way every day. It is one of these inventions that we wonder how we ever lived without. Every technological advancement that we use in the present we are thankful for the explorations in the past.
Space exploration maintains those state-of-the-art flights through Bezos and Branson are a part of that who is aware of what discoveries can be made by way of those quickly that make it into space. As for the space tourism thing, the habitual area journey has to begin somewhere. I quote from Goethe: “If you want to reach the infinite, then explore every aspect of the finite.” Imagine what it was like at the beginning of the twentieth Century whilst airlines have been first being fashioned. People, in reality, scoffed at the concept that we may want to fly at will across the country or around the world for a charge. It must be looked upon as folly for the wealthy like many accept as true with Bezos and Branson’s journeys have been. But appearance what has passed off to air travel inside the beyond one hundred years or so. Today, we think not anything of hopping on an aircraft and journeying anywhere we want in an affordable amount of time for an affordable amount. One hundred years from now human beings will be able to fly to Mars at a moment’s note, however no doubt, space travel will grow exceptionally. And human beings will mirror just like Wright Brothers did, a well-known flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903.
Another thing that is scrutinized after space tourism is alien life exploration. What could people gain from finding extraterrestrial life and how would it benefit our society? We have been sending probes to planet mars since the 70s and found no trace of life. Our definition of life was different back then. However, the most important ‘exobiology’ discoveries were made right here on Earth. Biologists had discovered that life is far more resilient than most scientists thought. Microorganisms have been discovered living in some of the world’s most inhospitable conditions. Some microorganisms grow and multiply at temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit, possibly as high as 170 degrees Fahrenheit, deep beneath the waters, for example, near volcanic vents. Some of them live in cold beneath the Antarctic, others thrive in acidic conditions. The existence of these so-called extremophile organisms changed our perspective on what we might call “the necessities of life.” Extremophiles can live happily without sunlight, moderate warmth, organic molecules to feed on, or photosynthesis – many digests raw minerals and fuel themselves with basic chemical reactions. This change of definition fueled the Astro-biology field and exploration began for the habitable world and life forms. The possibility of meeting an intelligent advanced civilization was high and probes with messages were shot into space such as voyager missions with golden records. Famous scientist of all time Carl Sagan believed that we would make contact with a form of life that might respond to the contents in it.
In the present scenario, not just alien life exploration, the habitable world is also important as life, as we know, might be in danger. Population increase, limited resources, climatic changes due to human intervention is causing damage and meteor strike, CME strike, etc. any event like these could cause immediate destruction of humanity from the earth as we know. As said in the movie Interstellar “Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here.” We always seek a solution and it takes time to be better. Humanity may fly to other planets for shelter or resources. Either way, we have to start somewhere and it’s just the beginning of all of it. Today’s baby steps might be our huge leap for tomorrow. In the vast arena of space, possibilities should be explored, life must thrive, life must survive.
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Written by Chithanyakumar Acharya D.G.
M. Sc. Space science and technology
Poetry of Reality 