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AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COMAPRIL 2015 | 11
THE STUDENT
ENGINEERING CULTURE
Space has traditionally been the jewel in the crown of
the aerospace testing world – the ultimate showcase for
a nation’s technological prowess. But has the public lost
its appetite for extraterrestrial achievements?In 1969, coverage of the Apollo
11 moon landing was watched
by an estimated 125 million TV
viewers, representing 93% of the
possible audience. The fact that
this figure has not been surpassed
in the following 46 years
demonstrates that the public’s
interest in space exploration has
been in decline ever since.
One of the key issues is the
lack of milestones to get excited
about that are both tangible and
significant. Many would question
the value of returning to the
moon, and a manned mission to
Mars may be decades away. Of
the spacefaring nations, the USA
is certainly the most credible
hope for manned interplanetary
travel; however, NASA’s current
activities appear to be laying the
groundwork for potential future
missions rather than aiming for
specific, near-term goals. The
level of support for the US space
program ultimately stems from
the electorate – if the appetite for
space exploration is still present,
why isn’t this a more significant
campaigning point for politicians?
Discounting a manned mission
to Mars in the near future, are
there any other milestones that
would ignite public interest? The
main focus of many current space
programs is to achieve existing
capability for less money; while
eminently sensible, this is unlikely
to set pulses racing. Robotic
exploration is technologically
astonishing, but simply doesn’t
inspire the same emotional
response as a manned mission;
this is potentially due to the lack
of risk involved. Additionally,
while robotic probes can send
back incredible images of their
adventures, advances in computer-
generated imagery means that
comparable vistas can be simulated
on a modest home computer, while
films such as Gravity are all but
indistinguishable from the reality.
In short, people are a lot harder to
impress than they were in 1969.
Looking to broader horizons,
while the departure of the
Voyager spacecraft from the solar
system does inspire an emotional
response, it also reminds us of
the immensity of astronomical
distances. These machines have
been hurtling through space for
a generation, yet have completed
only a tiny fraction of their
interstellar journey. While this is
certainly thought-provoking, it is
hardly the edge-of-seat, flag-waving
excitement of the Apollo era.
So, is the future of space
exploration entirely bleak? Not
necessarily, if we see a resurgence
of a key element of the Apollo era
that’s currently absent: competition.
Emerging nations are keen to
demonstrate their aerospace
industries on the world stage,
and are choosing space for this
purpose. Imagine, for example,
if China was to announce an
intention to set foot on Mars within
10 years. Would other nations with
prodigious spacefaring pedigrees
be content to sit back and watch?The Space Age is far from over;
if anything, we’re entering a
bold new era of testing and
exploration in which commercial
companies, alongside government-
funded bodies, will take us
outside of our terrestrial confines.
Companies such as SpaceX,
headed by Paypal founder and
playboy scientist Elon Musk, and
Blue Origin, run by billionaire
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, are at
the forefront of this revolution in
the commercial sector. Both
companies seek to develop fully
reusable spacecraft, which could
reduce the cost of getting into
space by as much as a factor of- SpaceX first successfully
docked its Dragon spacecraft with
the International Space Station in
2012, and recent test activities as
they tried (and failed, but only
just) to recover their Falcon 9
reusable launch vehicle to a
floating platform known as the
autonomous spaceport drone
ship have generated headlines
across the world.
Now private companies are well
on the way to commercializing
the low-Earth orbits, attention is
turning further out into our solar
system. Privately run projects
such as Mars One, the Dutch
organization intending to
establish a permanent human
colony on Mars by 2025, have
been criticized for their
outlandish goals and unrealistic
timescales, but they are pressing
on with their mission. Even
NASA is starting to prepare a
path to send astronauts to Mars,
recently carrying out a study
involving 55 participants staying
in bed for 70 days to study the
effects of long periods in space
on muscular and skeletal atrophy.
Perhaps Elon Musk’s intention to
retire to Mars isn’t so unrealistic.
Looking closer to home (for
me here in the UK anyway),
Major Tim Peake will become
the first Briton in space for
more than 20 years, and the UK’sfirst official astronaut, when he
boards a Soyuz rocket for a six-
month trip to the International
Space Station in November 2015.
Peake’s appointment has
coincided with a renaissance
in the British space industry,
and has garnered much attention
through the use of social media
to engage with and excite both
the next and the current
generations of engineers.
The absence of the element of
competition and the excitement
it brings, which is so lamented
by my co-author, is still present
in the space race, but it now
comes from private companies,
rather than governments and
politicians. Imagine how much
we will achieve now we are
liberated from years of
bureaucratic dogma. Space is
only becoming more exciting
and more enthralling.GARNET
RIDGWAYSOPHIE
ROBINSONGarnet Ridgway has a PhD
from the University of
Liverpool. He has designed
cockpit instruments for Airbus
and currently works for a
leading UK-based aircraft test
and evaluation organizationSophie Robinson works at
the front line of aerospace
testing as a rotary-wing
performance and flying
qualities engineer for a
leading UK-based aircraft
test organization.
She also holds a PhD in
aerospace engineering from
the University of Liverpool