Palcic 1

Sean Palcic
Mr. Hall
Honors English II
26 February 2016
Future of Human Space Exploration
Since, in the long run, every planetary civilization will be endangered
by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obligated to become
spacefaring- not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most
practical reason imaginable: staying alive If our long-term survival is at
stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other
worlds. This quote by Carl Sagan further proves that the human race will
one day need to be able to permanently leave its home planet. In the words
of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot
live in a cradle forever. Humanity has come so far from the first time leaving
Earths atmosphere, but right now mankind is still an infant race in a much
larger universe. Humanity has an amazing ability for spacefaring ability
development, from looking at the history of human spaceflight, to amazing
theories and technologies, and possible technologies and research
developments for future needs. With the rate of development in theories in
physics, and developments in spacefaring technologies, the human race
might be able to expand and live on other celestial bodies than just the Earth
and her moon in just the next few generations.

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The beginning of human spaceflight was one of the fastest

technological advancements in human history. The space race helped to
push humanity past the confines of its own atmosphere. On October 4, 1957,
The Soviet Union launched the first man-made object into space, which was
called dubbed Sputnik 1. The creation of NASA was a direct result of the
Soviet Unions launch of Sputnik 1, as a way to prove The United States
technological superiority over the Soviets. The pinnacle of the space race
was the when in July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in the Sea
of Tranquility and became the first men to step foot on the moon (Dick).
Sending Americans to the moon was originally a mission with political
backings. Evidence had existed that the Soviets were going to try for a lunar
landing, and after decades of being behind the USSR in the space race, the
US could afford to let them get there first (Miller). After decades of
international competition and cold war, The United States and The Soviet
Union began to work together to achieve the first internationally manned
human space flight, dubbed the Apollo-Soyuz project (Dick).
The Shuttle Program was the next huge advancement in humanitys
voyaging to space. One of the reasons that the shuttle program was so
beneficial to the United States space program was because it demonstrated
that a spacecraft could take off vertically, then coast into an unpowered,
horizontal landing, similar to an airplane. The shuttle program began in April
of 1981 with the launch of the shuttle Columbia (Dick). After more than two
decades of use, The United States began to move away from its use of the

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shuttle. The shuttle, it turned out was neither cheap, nor easily operable.
Even with top scientists and engineers running constant overtime, they were
only prepped for a mission once every two months. Another thing that
pushed America away from the shuttle program and back to disposable
rockets was when on January 28, 1986, disaster struck. On the day of its
tenth mission, the space shuttle challenger exploded only 73 seconds into its
flight, killing all seven of its passengers (Grant 360-363).
The satellite era was the next phase in humanitys journey past its
atmosphere. The satellite era started as a branch of the shuttle program. It
was originally dubbed Freedom by president Raegan, later on it was
renamed the International Space Station (Dick). Assembly of the ISS began
on November 20, 1998 when Russia launched a Proton rocket, lifting the
Zarya module into orbit, which would be the first of hundreds of individual
modules that eventually would make up the completed ISS (Grant 370). The
first permanent habitation outside of Earth began with the arrival of the crew
of the Expedition 1 on November 1, 2000. The nations aboard the ISS
included Russia, Japan, Canada, the United States, and the European Space
Agency. The ISSs target date for completion was originally scheduled for
2006, but was later pushed back to 2012. (Grant 370) On January 14, 2004,
following the continuation of the ISSs construction, President George W.
Bush called for humanitys return to the mood and began a long term push
for a manned mission to mars (Dick).

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Currently, the scientific world is advancing its knowledge of the

universe and the technologies that it uses to study and explore it. The
advance of science in this age is moving faster than ever before. At the
cutting edge of science (including astronomy), work of only five years old, or
even just a few months old may be totally outdated Kidger. The NASA
spacecraft dubbed Dawn has spent over 7 years travelling the solar system
using an ion energy powered by electricity instead of conventional rockets,
but even to this very moment technologies are being developed to far
surpass the Dawns speed and lifetime (Gabriel).
Next, one of the greatest advancements in the push to explore the
cosmos was the development of unmanned probes. Over the past 50 years,
NASA has launched a variety of probes for the purpose to assist in the further
research of habitable celestial bodies (Dick). The biggest event to come from
the use of unmanned probes is when Voyager 1 became the first man-made
object to leave the solar system, and on its journey away, taking detailed
pictures of the other planets and taking measurements to send back data
that will help further the understanding of the world outside the atmosphere
of earth (Greicius).
After sending out probes to study the solar system for us, scientists
turned their attention to putting people on mars. For almost 50 years the
theories of what the surface of mars is like has changed back and forth
between theories. At first it was believed that Mars was much like Earth,
covered in dense vegetation. Then the theories changed to mars being

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sterile, barren waste, much like the Earths moon. The theories have
changed many times, and have not been settled until machines were sent
there to prove that nothing lives there, but some scientists believe that it
was once a planet perfect for life (Kidger 107-108). Mars was then proven to
be much like Earth in the fact that it has active volcanoes, proving a still
active tectonic system, and frozen icecaps of water at both its poles, proving
that it may have been host to life once, and might be hospitable for humans
in the future (Kidger 114).
Another thing that will further drive humanity to leave its cradle is the
possible new research and technological developments that it might make in
the future and the need for new resources. As the human population
continues to grow, and continues to strip the Earth of its resources, it will
eventually need to find a new source of resources. Over the last 100 years,
the population of humanity has grown from just over 1 billion to more than 7,
causing an ever increasing need for a new source of resources. If the
technological and financial barriers can be overcome, then the asteroids of
the solar system could be a vast new resource of scarce material
(Steigerwald).
In response to talks of manned missions to mars and the possibility of
mining asteroids for resources, NASA began working on the Orion project.
The Orion spacecrafts purpose is to send astronauts to such deep space
destinations as far off asteroids, Mars and other celestial bodies. (Garcia)
Early November in 2015, a test prototype of the Orion spacecraft was sent to

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Cleveland, Ohio to be put through various tests at Plum Brook Station. NASA
hopes to use the Orion spacecraft for long-term manned missions in the very
near future (Heidman).
One of the things that has peaked curiosity and made people want to
move into the scientific field is science fiction literature, shows and movies.
One of the most recognized pieces

of science

fiction technologies is the warp drive, and after years of people dreaming of
one existing, they have been proved theoretically, and possibly practically,
possible. A warp drive allows a ship to travel faster than the speed of light,
which is not technically possible. It does this by compressing the space in
front of a ship and stretching it behind the ship, so the spacecraft does not
actually move, but it moves the universe around it. The practical form of the
warp drive was proposed by a Mexican scientist by the name of Miguel
Alcubierre in 1994, and was dubbed the Alcubierre warp space drive. The
design of the Alcubierre drive was later improved, causing the new design to
use less energy than the original to function, and NASA later drew a design
for what such a craft would look like (Anderson).
In conclusion, with the rate that humanity has expanded its knowledge
of the universe and the physics within it, and the continued rate of
development of new technologies to help send manned spacecraft off planet,
humanity might expand to set up colonies off-planet within the next few
generations. This will be possible by mankinds history of spaceflight, the
technologies and theories that it currently possesses, and the possible future

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research and technological developments along with the need for new
resources. Through looking at how far humanity has come since the
beginning of flight and the current continuing rate of research and applicable
technological development, humanity should be an interstellar, spacefaring
race within the next few generations.

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Works Cited
Anderson, David. Alcubierre Warp Drive. andersoninstitute.com. Alcubierre
Institute, Web.

20 December 2015.

<http://www.andersoninstitute.com/alcubierre-warp-drive.html>
Dick, Steven. 50 Years of NASA History. NASA.gov. The National Aeronautics
and Space Administration. 28 May 2008. Web. 20 December 2015.
<http://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/historyLetter.html>
Gabriel, Steve. Step Aside, Rockets Ion Engines Are the Future of Space
Travel.

discovermagazine.com. Discover. 10 March 2015. Web. 25

January 2016.

<http://discovermagazine.com/crux/2015/03/10/ion-

engine-dawn-

ceres/#.VspIyFKgvVK>

Garcia, Mark. NASAs Orion Marks Progress With Design Review. NASA.gov.
The National

Aeronautics and Space Administration. 26 October 2015.

Web. 20 December 2015

<http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-orion-

marks-progress-with-design-review>
Grant, R.G. Flight- The Complete History. New York: DK Publishing, 2002. Print
Heidman, Kelly. Test Version of European Powerhouse for Orion Arrives
Stateside. NASA.gov.

The National Aeronautics and Space

Administration. 9 November 2015. Web. 29

November 2015

<https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/test-version-of-europeanpowerhouse-for-orion-arrives-stateside>

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Kidger, Mark. Astronomical Enigmas. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University

Press, 2005.

Print.

Miller, Ron. Space Exploration. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books,

2008. Print.
Steigerwald, Bill. New NASA Mission to Help Us Learn How to Mine
Asteroids. NASA.gov. The

National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

8 August 2013. Web. 9 November 2015.

<https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/new-nasa-mission-to-help-uslearn-how-to-

mine-asteroids>