Keep space ambitions sensible, ethical

While I was still asleep this morning, the space shuttle Atlantis touched down at the Kennedy Space Center and ended NASA’s space shuttle program. Having seen the live coverage of its lift off about two weeks ago, I was not at all upset for missing the final shuttle return. No excitement building countdown, no roar or flames, no smoke trail from the heavens. Just a parachute and runway landing.

So what next? Rely on the Russians to ferry astronauts back and forth from the International Space Station? Let the Chinese or private industry take the lead in space exploration? Or dilly-dally with NASA and let our politicians make empty campaign promises about manned missions to the moon or asteroids to garner votes in Florida and Texas?

Last night on HardDrive XL, the syndicated rock show that Rock 108 shamefully uses to fill its evening timeslot, host Lou Brutus lyrically lament the demise of the shuttle program and the mounting cynicism regarding NASA funding. We need to invest in space exploration, he said, because, down the line, the fate of our species will depend on it. Then he went on a fanciful rant about colonizing other planets. I had to roll my eyes.

The terraforming of Mars and the colonization of extra-solar planets is the focus for a lot of science fiction, and has been proposed by scientists as a way the human race can secure its long-term survival. As the sun warms and brightens with age, our solar system’s habitable zone will be pushed beyond Earth’s orbit; the planet will become uninhabitable and eventually be burnt to a crisp, so it would be advantageous to move elsewhere before then. (Way down the line — like 4.5 billion years or so — the sun is predicted to expand and swallow the three inner planets, so it would be best to leave the solar system altogether.) It’s fascinating and sexy stuff — huge transport ships, veritable ark’s flying through the cosmos, carrying us and the floral and fauna of Earth to distant worlds. But is it possible? Is it even worth contemplating? And since we are such poor stewards of our own planet, how can we justify ravaging another?

Bobblehead suggested I read Kim Stanley Robinson’s fictional trilogy about the colonization of Mars: Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars. Each book details a different stage of the planet’s preparation for life. After Bobblehead explained it to me one night over beers, I, the immovable realist, pointed out that terraforming Mars and making it habitable for humans is apparently impossible. Since Mars is half the size of Earth, its gravitational pull is so weak that oxygen molecules escape into space; it would probably never sustain a breathable environment. Plus, Mars has no magnetic field and only a thin atmosphere, so there is very little protection from the sun’s radiation. Stack on a host of other obstacles and the whole idea becomes ridiculous. It makes for great science fiction, but in reality it is a whole different story. At least that’s what I learned in astronomy class.

What about extra-solar planets, those orbiting other stars? They could be habitable and already harbor the basic building blocks we need. Sure, but how would we get there? Even at the speed of light, which may be impossible to attain, it would take over four years to reach the closest set of stars, all of which do not have planets.

And if we do reach extra-solar planets with ideal conditions via worm holes or centuries of interstellar travel (talk about cabin fever), what would we do? Could we survive there on the native environment, or would it be too hostile? Would Earth’s native species dominate or die? Would we conquer and subjugate less technologically advanced civilizations? (Poor little Ewoks.) Would we plunder the planet for all it was worth, as we are doing to our own; and then, when time or materials run out there, jump elsewhere and do the same thing? Would we gladly accept the role of space invader? Would we be a cosmic contagion?

Perhaps terraforming Mars and colonizing extra-solar planets or their moons is possible; perhaps when the demand arises to do so, the fabulous free market will spur the development of technology to capitalize on it. (That is one major obstacle for private space flight and exploration: a lack of demand.) But right now I am unsure if we as a species deserve to survive. Maybe in the future we will redeem ourselves, and we have done beautiful and incredible things. But the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and the complex engineering it took to walk on the moon does not hide the fact we are advanced and egoistic animals trying to survive however we can. We were born here and I think we should die here, exactly where we belong.

So what should our future goals in space be? Our scientific curiosity will not end with the shuttle program; it will only transition to another vehicle for research. I have always been a huge fan of deep space probes, orbiting satellites and telescopes, and robotic rovers, and I believe we should throw our full support behind those. In regards to space, it is obviously much cheaper to look and not touch.

While visiting and colonizing other worlds may remain the stuff of science fiction, we can and should still explore and study space sensibly.