E
xactly 50 years ago this month, Neil Armstrong,
a 39-year-old US astronaut, took a ‘giant leap for
mankind’ when he became the first man to set foot
on the moon. Since that fateful mission – Apollo 11 –
the quest to explore the cosmos has been unceasing.
Already, unmanned spacecrafts have passed beyond
our solar system, transmitting astonishing images
earthwards as they go, while the ever-changing crew of
the International Space Station has seen the endurance
record for living among the stars in zero-G continuously
increased. Now, though, if the experts are to be believed,
we stand on the brink of a bold new phase, as a whole
new generation looks to build on the half-century-old
achievements of Armstrong and his colleagues.
The first phase of this could see permanent
manned bases established on the moon and Mars as
early as the 2030s. Already, NASA has plans for a
manned expedition to the moon in 2024 – the first
since 1972 – and then to put its first man on Mars
in 2033. China and a number of European nations,
meanwhile, are also considering establishing a lunar
base, while Russia expects to stake its own bit of
lunar real estate by 2030.
Unlike 50 years ago, this time, the private
sector is also keen to join the space race. Heading
the pack is serial entrepreneur Elon Musk, whose
SpaceX programme has its first manned Mars mission
ambitiously scheduled for 2024. This gives him an eight-
year lead on Mars One, a Dutch venture that has pencilled
in 2032 for its rendezvous with the Red Planet. Waiting
in the wings – and yet to set a date – is Amazon founder
Jeff Bezos, whose Blue Origin aerospace company hopes to
realise affordable trips to the moon.
While the PR of the private sector and their national
counterparts go heavy on nobility and selfless venturing
forth, in reality, space exploration is all about money and
politics. Any sustained moonbase, for instance, would allow the
government or private company that maintained it to potentially
exploit lucrative lunar deposits of gold, platinum or helium-3.
It could be more than just minerals that humanity
needs from its astral neighbours though. It could also need
sanctuary. The late astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, a man
not known to be overly-alarmist, urged: “The human race
only has 100 years before it needs to colonise another planet
or face extinction. We are running out of space and the only
places to go to are other worlds.”
Taking Hawking at his word – and only a fool wouldn’t –
where, though, should we be going first?
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The Moon
Located 384,000km from our planet, its
proximity and the fact that we’ve already
successfully landed there make the moon
an obvious first destination for human
colonisation. It’s an idea given extra credence
by the fact that water – essential for human
survival – was discovered at the lunar poles
by India’s Chandrayaan-1 probe back in 2009.
Taking just a few days to reach, the
moon’s proximity would allow near-instant
communication with earth, while its lower
gravity field – just one-sixth of earth’s- would make it the ideal launch pad for
missions to Mars and beyond. And let’s not
forget those rare mineral deposits that are
just waiting there to be mined.
In addition, following US President
Donald Trump’s public commitment to
“return to space in a BIG WAY”, NASA
announced it would be heading back to the
moon in 2024. This would see the Gateway
space station enter permanent lunar orbit
and act as the mothership for regular
expeditions to the surface.
Despite its attractions, though, the moon
is far from an ideal second home for humanity.
Its lack of an atmosphere means potentially
lethal space radiation and high-intensity solar
UV reach its surface unfiltered, while its
lack of gravity may adversely affect human
physiology in the long term. On top of that,
its extreme temperature range – 121°C in
sunlight and -156°C in the dark – makes it a
far-from-desirable holiday location.
“ The human race only has
100 years before it needs
to colonise another planet
or face extinction”