The 2020s: Space Odyssey
Humanity is currently on the verge of colonising our solar system. We are the only lifeforms in Earth’s history that have ever been capable of doing so. If one looks at every accomplishment our civilisation has achieved, nothing comes close to landing on the moon in 1969. It has been fifty years since the first people stepped foot on a separate celestial body. Fifty years since any species ever known has purposely left its home planet to traverse another. Fifty years since there was a brief moment where all of the people on planet Earth, for a single moment, felt united.
To get to the moon and back with the technology of the 1960s was undoubtedly the hardest feat humankind has ever faced. In John F. Kennedy’s speech at Rice Stadium on the 12th of September 1962, he said, ‘We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.’ He acknowledged the nearly impossible task of landing on the Moon for the sake of human progress. Explorers throughout history have pushed the boundaries of what is possible to achieve what is great. Amelia Earhart in 1937 when she flew across the Atlantic Ocean, or James Cook when he landed in Australia in 1770, and Leif Erikson in the year 1001 when he made landfall in North America are just a few examples. The way Kennedy spoke about outer space is the way explorers and visionaries speak about the unknown and what it can achieve: ‘We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people.’
Those who lived and grew up in the 1960s and 1970s believed that, by the twenty-first century, mankind would be a space-faring civilisation. People had a fascination with the unknown. It was embedded in pop culture, in movies like 2001: Space Odyssey, Alien, and the Star Trek series. But the unfortunate truth is that after Apollo 17 on the 19th of December 1972, mankind has not left low-earth orbit. The American public lost interest, the government cut funding, and the Saturn V rockets were dismantled and replaced by space shuttles — vessels not even built to leave low-earth orbit — in the 1980s.
The desire to unravel the mysteries of the universe is now again filling the hearts of everyday people. The technology is becoming more advanced and cheaper. The future is looking bright. We currently live in an era of mass information. One of the hardest aspects of life in the early twenty-first century is learning how to filter all of this information. The news of the accomplishments of SpaceX, Blue Origin, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), and the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) is lost in the large volume of collective data.
When historians look back onto this time period, they might postulate that the second Space Race began on the 6th of February 2018 at 20:45 UTC, the day SpaceX performed the Falcon Heavy Test Flight. Historically, a rocket could only be launched into space once and thus getting to space has been extremely costly and inefficient. SpaceX, run by the visionary tech mogul Elon Musk, launched two Falcon Heavy Rockets side-by-side, showcasing the world’s most powerful rockets in operation. After placing a Tesla Roadster, owned by Musk, into space, the two Rocket boosters landed back onto the same platform from which they took off, the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39. One year later, the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) launched Chang’e 4, landing a Lunar Rover onto the far side of the Moon. The rover was carrying a mini greenhouse to test how plants will grow on the moon. As China is preparing to build a moon base, it is also testing the soil to learn how water is distributed and produced on the Lunar surface.
In May 2019, NASA announced to the world that the United States plans on going back to the moon — and this time, to stay. Outlined in a very detailed process and for the public to see, the new NASA plan has funding and is determined. In the early 2020s, the Gateway Space Station will be built in orbit of Luna. It will be used as a base to allow cargo and people to pass between the moon and Earth. The first people will then step foot onto the lunar surface in 2024, fifty-two years after the last Moon landing. The base constructed will become humanity’s first off-world settlement. The legacy left behind by the Apollo missions is only now becoming a reality. Perhaps best of all, Luna is merely a stepping stone to Mars.
I challenge you to step outside tonight, to look up at the Moon and the stars and know that one day there will be human beings living out there, thriving among the stars. For the generations of today will bring life to lifeless distant planets and allow our civilisation to flourish. As the ancient Greek proverb says, ‘a society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.’