OUR NEW WORLD

 

3^rd world space race

In the 20th century the space race was between the USA and Russia.                                                                
 

This is no longer the case.   

                                                                                                                                                                                        The two superpowers have made peace and have collaborated in space since late 1980’s glasnost -- working on the international space station and now rely totally on Russian rockets to shuttle US supplies and personnel -- and those from other nations --  to the space station since the U.S. shutdown of its own shuttle program last year. 
 
Even the countries of Europe work together as one in space.

However, as noted in Time magazine Nov. 18, 2013, pages 10-11, Iran, Brazil, India and China are pursuing outer space independently. 

India has just launched a probe to Mars to check for signs of methane and water needed for future human habitation.

China is planning to launch a manned mission to the moon within the next few months and have its own space station in orbit by 2015. 
 

And as of December 14, 2013, China has just safely landed a state-of-the-art rover on the moon for soil analysis and site exploration for – probably – the upcoming manned landing. (See for details and pictures  http://www.dailytech.com/Chinas+Moon+Rover+Lands+Safe+and+Sound+Starts+Snapping+Pics/article33942.htm).

So what does this all mean?

Space exploration is a mix of scientific inquiry, proof of one's technological development and a source of international prestige and status – just like a first world 'super' power.

But going it alone also reminds me of the great 15th century explorations that discovered the new world of North and South America and led to decades of war for supremacy and control of land and its valuable resources.

 

Today, Antarctica and the Arctic are subject to dispute and “land/mineral rights claims”.  Canada in fact is seeking to claim the North Pole according to recent Globe and Mail reports in a challenge to Russia and Greenland.

So far, such competition and claims have been muted and asserted under “international law” and subject to international court final arbitration.

But outer space is another ball game with no rules and laws yet.

 
Will we be facing such deadly confrontations as the new world created in space in the near future?

I hope not, but China’s solo ventures to the moon and plans for a separate space station do  not bode well.

 

Neither does India's exploration of Mars.

 

As for Brazil and Iran, their buccaneer and as yet unclear plans only increase uncertainty and the prospects of competition leading to conflict.

 

And the final unknown variable is private enterprise.  At least 3 U.S. companies are building their own rockets or high atmosphere tourist planes, Virgin airlines is also touting a tourist round-trip to our Moon.


PS:  Mars Human mission  

Private, non-profit and governmental organizations have for over a decade been planning and training for this. Prefabricated, isolated ‘biospheres’ have been built in various locations and ‘crews’ left there for over a year to test the psychological impacts of isolation and limited, but intense, human crew contact, and the ability to grow hothouse foods and recycle/create water.

The non-profit Mars Society expects to have 6 suitable volunteers spend a year living in the Arctic on a simulated Mars mission at the society's Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Canada's Devon Island starting in July 2014. (http://www.space.com/23401-mock-mars-mission-arctic-volunteers.html)

 The goal, to send humans to Mars, will be unlike any previous human exploration.

Unlike small satellites and mini-rovers which can reach Mars in about 7 months, a space ship with a human crew of 8 to 12 (minimum) would take 3 years to reach the red planet with our current level of propulsion technology.

 

And these volunteers would not just be exploring the planet but be consigned to live the rest of their lives there – as colonists, because we have no way to get them back to earth!

 The spaceship would consequently dwarf America’s space shuttles as it would need to hold not only a diverse male and female ‘settler’ crew, but enough food, water, machinery and prefabricated materials for them to build an artificial settlement in the absence of an atmosphere that we can breathe, and soil that is currently lifeless.

If successful, it will be the greatest achievement in human history, a giant leap forward for mankind’s dream of reaching the stars.