The New Space Race, a Giant Footrace for Humanity

In my last blog, I used the platform of nanotechnology to answer the climate crisis issue in a manner that restores our home planet. Yet this same issue yields solutions that require that we leave our home planet, too. 

[1] Ambitions such as Elon Musk's determination to start settling Mars in 2025 have given rise not only to sci-fi like discourse, but dope shirts like this one!

In the past decade or two, private companies have reinvigorated the pursuit of space exploration, with companies like SpaceX creating reusable rockets in order to reduce the cost of transportation to space stations and planets [ibid]. Blue Origin moved into the orbital spaceflight technology development business in 2014 initially as a contractual rocket engine supplier, but is now also in the business of creating entire reusable rockets and operating businesses from space [2]. The commercial side of such technological companies is also present in Virgin Galactic's aim to provide suborbital spaceflights to high-paying public tourists [3]. 

[4] To some this, this may seem like a competition for which human gets the largest claim of space-related milestones, yet, to me, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson are placeholders who represent the continuing leaps of humanity towards moving beyond Earth.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) arguably represents the pinacle of advanced human technology [5]. It may have seemed to the public a sign of failure and cowardice when NASA had shut down many of its space travel programs by 2011, yet behind the scenes were the huge upfront investments, obstacles in certification, and slow rise to fame of these private companies during the 1990s and 2000s [6]. Since then, NASA has continued to produce grounded breakthroughs in technology [7]. 

[Ibid] Along with operable land rovers, projects that map solar systems, and imaging sensors, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other technological divisions at NASA have kept busy observing the universe from afar, without having to send anybody into space.

Yet NASA and company have done more than inspire technologists, but artists as well. Space/  astronomical artists stoked the excitement for the moon landing and maintained enthusiasm for humanity's exploration of space [8]. Charioteered by the International Association of Astronomical Artists, digital artists, photographers, painters, sculptors and the like base their work in research in order to create not fictive works of the imagination, but the most accurate and agreed upon portrayals of celestial objects [9]. The novelty of this intersection is so promising that billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has even offered funding to bring seven artists to space in order to catapult this collaboration between artists and scientists [10]!

[11] Alexei Leonov was the first man to ever do a spacewalk, yet he was also an avid artist.

[1] SpaceX - Mission. SpaceX, 2022, https://www.spacex.com/mission/.

[2] About Blue Origin. Blue Origin, 2022, https://www.blueorigin.com/about-blue/.

[3] “Welcome to Virgin Galactic.” Home | Virgin Galactic, 2022, https://www.virgingalactic.com/.

[4] Murphy, Bill. “Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk: Here's the Real Winner in the Race for Space.” Inc.com, Mansueto Ventures, 11 July 2021, https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/jeff-bezos-richard-branson-elon-musk-heres-winner-in-billionaires-race-for-space.html.

[5] Loff, Sarah. “About NASA.” NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 28 Jan. 2015, https://www.nasa.gov/about/index.html.

[6] Gambacorta, David. “The New Space Race.” Wharton Magazine, University of Pennsylvania, 19 Oct. 2021, https://magazine.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/spring-summer-2019/the-new-space-race/.

[7] Landau, Elizabeth. “The Future Is Now: Concepts Chosen for Study.” NASA, National Aeronautic and Space Administration, 6 Aug. 2014, https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/the-future-is-now-concepts-chosen-for-study.

[8] Dacic, Anika. Space Art - The Beauty of the Universe. Widewalls, 1 Dec. 2015, https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/space-art.

[9] What Is Space Art? International Association of Astronomical Artists, 2022, https://iaaa.org/what-is-space-art/.

[10] Wall, Mike. “SpaceX Will Fly a Japanese Billionaire (and Artists, Too!) around the Moon in 2023.” Space.com, FutureUSInc, 18 Sept. 2018, https://www.space.com/41854-spacex-unveils-1st-private-moon-flight-passenger.html.

[11] Shevchenko, Nikolay. “Space Oddity: 8 Paintings by the First Man in Outer Space.” Russia Beyond, 22 Oct. 2019, https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/331169-alexei-leonov-paintings-art.