Our legacy - Part 3 (Space 2.0)

It's been 49 years since our last moon mission. 49 years! Imagine had we taken a break from building cars for 49 years - we would be driving boat like cars that are 22 feet long that brake down regularly. Or had we taken a 49 year hiatus from making TVs. They would still be so large an obtrusive you'd need a crane to lift a 70" TV, which today can be done by one person. So why is it we have left moon travel on the shelf for over 49 years?

My dad was a rocket scientist. We had rocket fuel in the garage, which is not advisable. He had it in a thick plastic tube that was somewhat impenetrable. And like any somewhat defiant kid, I tried to break it open, which I'm happy to report I failed at. The fuel came from testing that my dad was a part of for the Canadian aerospace industry. Canada was ahead of the USA in space science in the 1950s, building satellites, rockets and advanced jet fighters. Many of Canada's top engineers were aggressively recruited by NASA and many of those engineers went on to do great things with NASA in the 1960s.

The exodus of Canadian space pioneers to the USA opened with flood gates in 1959 when infamous then Prime Minister Diefenbaker cancelled the Avro Arrow fighter jet program - a program that was light years ahead of other programs at the time. He cited cost over-runs, and funding issues, which by today's standards of debt accumulation now seems laughable.

And instead of just cancelling the program he took it upon himself to chop up all of the remaining Avro Arrow jets. A very sad day for all the people who had put their heart and soul into the program and bled red and white. And a symbol of his contempt for scientific discovery in space science. Many cite this change in Canadian history as a major turning point, and one many regret.

Russia was the first country successful in sending a man to orbit the earth. In April 1961 the Russians achieved that milestone, creating what became a reflection of the cold war in space between the USA and Russia. For the entire decade of the 1960s the USSR and the USA fought to better each other in the race for dominance in space. In July 1969 the USA successfully landed astronauts on the moon, showing Russia they had some space game too.

The battle between the two dominant nations extended through nuclear proliferation as well as the space race. The 1970s and 1980s were met with the satellite age, where the focus shifted from landing on the moon or pursuing mars, to the goal of controlling the signals and information that is monitored and provided by orbiting satellites. This era saw the advent of the space shuttle, and the commercial satellite among other things.

Why then did space travel science slow? Two reasons: one is that space science costs a significant amount of money, and secondly, the cold war ended in late 1989. With it came a lesser focus on competing in the space race, and spending money at all costs to win. Following the end of the cold war, the USSR had to rebuild as it faced significant economic and social unrest, and the USA got busy fighting other wars that brought their focus to oil and the middle east. Space had become less important to explore, but control over space continued to be a strategic focus and one that the USA, Russia and China continued to invest in.

In 2000 the International Space Station took on its first occupants and has been hosting astronauts ever since. It had a price tag of $150 billion, and does not even have a pool or hot tub. Go figure. But has given us great insights into what weightlessness does to the human body, and how to better manage space travel for humans. It has also created a collaborative platform from which to work together on.

In 2011 the Space shuttle program, which was originally designed to make space travel more affordable, was cancelled. When the original designs were made each flight was supposed to cost tens of millions of dollars - in the end all tallied each flight of the space shuttle actually cost approximately $1.6 billion. Still, when we compare to today's deficits, it seems like chump change. But at the time it was considered a lot and clearly the political sentiment did not allow for continued spending. It was the end of an era for NASA, and a very sad time for NASA scientists given the accidents, deaths and missed thresholds.

In 2002 however, what began as a competitor to NASA, Space X set out to make space travel affordable. It was founded by Elon Musk and has continued to develop innovations in rocket technology and most notably reusable rockets - which is a major milestone in rocketry - a far cry from the plastic tube of space glue in our garage.

Musk takes on a "first principle" approach to design and manufacturing and is constantly testing against assumptions. He uses a foundation of truth based on physics that then gets built into a set of checks and balances for any item, process or technology that is being used. This allows him and his team to constantly check back on whether they are breaking any laws in their production, design or assumptions of outcomes. He has gone on record multiple times on the difficulty of manufacturing versus a prototype - the real work, he says, is in building a reusable rocket, not in designing it. Much like with Tesla, his other company he's best known for - Musk admires the difficulty and complexity of building things that are hard to build, and he takes on the full responsibility as Space X's Chief Engineer - which leaves him liable for mistakes. So say he's ambitious is the understatement of the century!

In 2000, a similar company by the name of Blue Origin. Founded by another billionaire, Jeff Bezos from Amazon. Similar to Musk, Blue Origin aims to commercialize space travel into space tourism, allowing access for anyone with a few hundred thousand dollars hanging around. The initial research took years, much like Space X. Trial flights began in the 2010s, and the first flight of humans into space was recently achieved.

Criticized and teased for the shape of the spaceship, Blue Origin successfully completed its first human flight in July 2021. Lots of "billionaire compensating for something" remarks on this one. But nonetheless a record breaking flight with civilians at the helm. Another milestone, but this time with a space fare attached.

And where does it go from here? Well if the recent auction for a seat on Blue Origin's first crewed spacecraft is any indication, it looks like space travel is the new playground for billionaires. Justin Sun, founder of blockchain platform Tron, successfully bid $28 million for a seat on the long, tubular ship with a distinctive head (sorry had to). Brings new meaning to the word cockpit, doesn't it? Ok I will stop, I promise.

A third entrant to the space toursim game is Richard Branson with his Virgin Galactic. This company has a different way of launching people into space - it does so from a plane that carries the rocket ship to altitude where it is released and climbs into space from there. Branson's approach is purely commercial. And should be more affordable than the alternatives given the methods used.

What's Next

Now that we have fully developed reusable rockets, have started on the commercialization of space, and are aggressively competing in the arena of space science I expect great things ahead. Competition always breeds advancement - that is essentially what the cold war achieved. And that competition will spur a 2.0 advancement in space science. One that will surely bring us back to the moon, and beyond.

When asked how long it will be to land a person on Mars, Elon Musk claims it to be within reach between 5 and 10 years from now. How exciting will that be? To finally witness a milestone that has not been achieved, in space travel. It's been 49 years since we landed on the moon, and I think it's long overdue to continue exploration. I am happy we are again pursuing space travel and exploration, as it will surely bring technology innovations we cannot currently comprehend, which could be applied to other things. Climate change? Propulsion? Material creation? Energy use? The possibilities are endless - much like space.

Space science is not just about space. It's about doing things that are hard, which can create benefits to multiple spin off functions, disciplines and technologies. As John F Kennedy once said:

Space science is about that exactly. We pursue it because it is hard, not because it is easy. And that is the essence of science itself - to continue to explore and learn. And we need more of that thinking now more than ever, in my mind. Because too many of us today take the easy route, or comfortable way, and that is not where magic happens. That is not where greatness lay.