This is something I wrote waaaayyyyy back in college, but it is even more timely today. It has been updated to keep up with the times. Let me tell you up front that it is a bit long.
Why Space Exploration is Essential
Domestic Policy
by
Lawrence Thornbury II
For continued survival of the human race, we must discover how to obtain the limitless treasure chest of raw materials in space. A high proportion of the bodies in our solar system are so minerally rich, that the earth is a destitute rock by comparison. Important raw materials such as iron, copper, and nickel are sprinkled throughout observable space in unimaginable quantities and purities. As members of the human race, we must abandon the old, half effort space research policy, and undertake a crash program devoted to acquiring these minerals. Space prophets like Isaac Asimov, Ben Bova, Tom McCord, and Arthur C. Clarke have been expounding on this idea for decades, and it is time we heeded their often-plaintive admonitions. We must now realize that when our space pioneers cross the bridge of enlightenment that extends from the tiny atom of earth to the indescribable vastness of space, these pioneers can recross the bridge back to earth, bringing with them wealth for everyone.
To be truthful, space exploration is currently very, very expensive, but the astronomical benefits of space compare to the expense of obtaining them as the horrendous American national debt compares to the medium annual income of a family of four. These claims may seem like propaganda style exaggerations, but substantiation of them is the essence of this paper. For validity, I am relying on currently amassed data on earth and space, consisting of scientifically provable facts, and educated projections.
For the first rock to be put in the foundation of proof, Dr. Clark R. Chapman, in his book, 'The Inner planets,' speaks of a great possibility of there being 'millions of billions of tons of nickel-iron alloy in the asteroid belt.' That source was written years ago, and it only makes a postulative conclusion.
Much more evidence has been catalogued since then through such means as spectroscopic analysis. Smithsonian magazine reported on provable facts of this type. It revealed that there are thousands of asteroids so full of minerals, that each could furnish earth for years, decades, and even millenniums with vitally important raw materials.
Renowned astronomer Tom McCord talks about a class of asteroid of a specific chemical composition and size, which I will call an A-type. An A-type could supply earth's total demand of copper for 10 years, 15 years for iron, 1,250 years for nickel, and a 3,000-year supply of cobalt.
An A-class has a total volume of 1 cubic kilometer, which is very tiny when an asteroid 3 km in diameter is considered to be modest sized. If an A-class 3 km in diameter exists, it would have 14.13 times the mineral supply and value of the little asteroid. Multiplying these figures by 14.13 and rounding them to the nearest 1's place gives us the following numbers: 141 years worth of copper, a 212 year iron lode, a 17,663 year storehouse of nickel, and an astronomical 42,390 year surplus of cobalt! Division of the cobalt supply by 75, the typical human life span, equals 565! A super-A like this would have a monetary value of ten trillion eight hundred billion dollars! Former President Ronald Reagan said that one trillion dollars is equal to a pile of $1,000 bills more than 67 miles high! That figure dwarfs even the awful American national debt.
Invariably, one must come to the inevitable question of how to procure this limitless storehouse. We obviously must have science 'fiction" style transportation to subdue space and put it on the shelf of other conquered frontiers like the oceans, air, and the so-called New World. The old New World doesn't even compare with our new New World. The old New World is a pale, minuscule juxtaposition beside space.
Moreover, the expense of space travel is rapidly becoming cheaper. The first space shuttle cost ten billion dollars, but the second cost only two billion. It could be said that the second shuttle was on an eighty percent sale. Let's not, for the sake of humanity, let these shuttles be a closeout sale on space. A flight to Mars is conceivable by the second decade of this century, if, through both public opinion and legislative actions, the necessary cash can be appropriated. And the necessary cash estimates are now much lower than they were only a few years ago. We must begin now! The earth has no other choice; we are the earth. What must be done must be done soon. Plasma-ion engines that could reach Mars in 113 days are under development now! Because of space's gravity free perpetual motion axiom, the engines of a spacecraft on an ore mining and colonization mission could be turned off to save fuel once the ship bursts the strong fetters of gravity that have held us captive for untold millenniums in an ever shrinking planetary jail. Some scientists have failed trying to invent perpetual motion. It's already there for our possession.
I said 'colonization,' because an ore mining and processing base, including mandatory living quarters for the astrominers, is necessary in order to mine space. This would be a prototype for the future emigration there. Yes, many people will one day make their main homes off earth. There is much evidence to support this.
The ever-shrinking planetary jail is the most obvious reason for colonization. In the well-researched volume, 'The Limits to Growth,' four prestigious writers concluded that the limits to all types of resource growth will be reached in far less than one hundred years. Fourteen years earlier, in 'Brave New World Revisited,' Briton Aldous Huxley reached the same conclusion, and added an interesting observation. He tells us that from 1 AD to around 1600 AD, the world population doubled only once. Agreeing with the Club of Rome scientists, just mentioned, he says that at our present rate, we will double the population in less than one hundred years! Remember, that book is now several decades old. We must begin the colonization of space now!
The idea of space colonization is not ridiculous. It is not even incredible, but one hundred percent credible and achievable. Not many years ago, a flight to the moon was ridiculous. In fact, up until forty some years ago, 'sane' society laughed at anyone who seriously predicted a moon trip. Before that, people scoffed as Jules Verne and his hysterical idea of going 'Around the World in Eighty Days.' Now, we can do that in eighty minutes. As advanced as Huxley's 'Brave New World' is, it contains no mention of space travel. In the aforementioned sequel, 'Brave New world Revisited,' which was published one year after Sputnik shattered the atmospheric barrier and made the globe aware of an exciting new frontier, Huxley states that space missions, especiall
Copy & paste to friend: (Click inside box; Ctrl + C to copy; Ctrl + V to paste)
|
|
read more blogs!
Blogs by Toric:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| We Must Explore Space for Survival!!!!!!!!!! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Monsterboy
|
Mar 14 @ 9:23PM
|
|
I'd point out that space colonization will also open up opportunities for dozens of new TV shows, reality and otherwise. The drama between multiple Lunar pioneer families of "Spaceward, Ho!" will duke it out for ratings points with the sexual partnerings of the hot young stationsmates of "Zero G". Many late-night jokes will be made that the latter should have been named "Spaceward Hoes" (ignoring the studio execs' attempt at entendre with "Zero-G (Spot)").
Seriously, things should start moving if they ever get the space elevator built.
|
|
|