With space developments, it seems as if the question is not if we will get to other planets, but when. The costs involved are huge and the research that has to go into any possible operation is similarly as intensive. Most frustratingly, at this point in time, we most likely have the capabilities to go to a planet like Mars. We have the materials, the designs, and the people who can command such a mission but refuse to do so because of economic constraints or lack of any support from government or the public. Regardless, if we were to travel to other planet, would we need to set boundaries. Would countries set up new colonies and repeat the events of the colonial period of history like when Europe discovered the Americas? Or will we be better than the past and work together to move towards the future?
Recently, in my Science class, we had the fortune of beginning our unit on space. Naturally, the whole class was excited. Space was a place that was the backdrop of so many movies and video games and probably the one that held the most mysteries yet to be discovered. Compared to how big it is, we have barely scratched the surface of what there is to be learned about the observable universe. While it sounds very repetitive or typical, it cannot be understated how little we actually know about how things work. Using our most advanced telescopes we can see far into the cosmos and peer at faraway galaxies, yet we cannot send a probe to the other worlds in our Solar System any faster than what we could in the 70s. Perhaps that is the most interesting aspect of it. Everything in space is stretched over such a long time. We can launch a probe today and have to wait some forty years for it to even reach its destination with some year left to wait for any transmissions to reach us again. Expanding upon this idea, we talked about the movie Interstellar and its ideas about the theory of relativity and the bending of space time. How every object in the universe makes an imprint into the fabric of space time and when something with enough mass, such as a black hole is formed, the fabric tears. This raises the question of if there are things in the universe that we can never observe. After all, not even light can escape the event horizon of a black hole, so how can we even see such a thing? Study it? No matter how advanced our technology becomes, will it matter? Can we overcome the limits of the fastest thing in the universe? Probably not, but we can still strive to use the tools that we do have. For example, wormholes, even if hypothetical offer up some hope as to the feasibility of long distance space travel. Many scientists today even state outright that humanity must expand its interstellar options and learn how to colonize other habitable planets such as Mars so that the species may go on.
With space developments, it seems as if the question is not if we will get to other planets, but when. The costs involved are huge and the research that has to go into any possible operation is similarly as intensive. Most frustratingly, at this point in time, we most likely have the capabilities to go to a planet like Mars. We have the materials, the designs, and the people who can command such a mission but refuse to do so because of economic constraints or lack of any support from government or the public. Regardless, if we were to travel to other planet, would we need to set boundaries. Would countries set up new colonies and repeat the events of the colonial period of history like when Europe discovered the Americas? Or will we be better than the past and work together to move towards the future?
3 Comments
3/6/2015 12:34:17 am
I believe that history will defintely repeat itself. Colonies will be formed and will possibly rebel like in the 1770s. This will most likely happen because the world is always at war. We can't seem to find peace amongst ourselves. We can't even decide what country owns the North Pole. So I believe that it will take a long time until the world comes together as one.
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Kawika A.
3/6/2015 12:37:16 am
Very interesting. I loved how you raised the questions about what would happen with the boundaries of other countries.
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Ms. Gunter
3/8/2015 11:55:55 am
You bring up the pragmatic aspects of space exploration. Do you think there are other reasons to study space? One of my favorites comes from Neil Degrasse Tyson about inspiration, the urge to dream, and shaping culture. This, for me, is the most compelling: "But there remains hope for us. You can learn something deep about a nation when you look at what it accomplishes as a culture. Do you know the most popular museum in the world over the past decade? It's not the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Uffizi in Florence or the Louvre in Paris. At a running average of nearly 9 million visitors per year, it's the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., which contains everything from the Wright Brothers' original 1903 airplane to the Apollo 11 command module. Visitors value the air and space artifacts this museum contains. Why? It's an American legacy to the world. But, more important, it represents the urge to dream and the will to enable it. These traits are fundamental to being human and have coincided with what it is to be American." from http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/read/2007/08/05/why-america-needs-to-explore-space
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