Ascension to Space
Troy Morris, Director of Operations
4 minute read
As the least technical among my co-founders, I am often given, and other times take on myself, the opportunity to explain scientific principles or engineering processes in an approachable way. This works in numerous experiences, but in select examples answering things in an “easier” way is the harder task. Paramount among these is a large question, often looming over energetic discussions of space, from the merely interested to those most expert: “Why should we go to space?”
For many the answer varies based on your perspective or discipline. Those of a traditional intellectual occupation or perspective see space as a challenge, a boundary for the possible, and a playground for testing to the limit. These are the physicists and engineers that design new vehicles to get to space and new ways to complete tasks once we get there. These are the chemists and biologists who devise new propellants and test the way life can persist in the inhospitable. These are the mathematicians and many others, that calculate humans into the heavens and give support every step of the way. These traditional views are correct. As will be explored in later columns on the endeavor of humans going into space, there are abundant technical answers to that sizable question, but some find that these technical answers are missing something.
To the mechanics, the office managers, the mothers and fathers at home, this push of technology is performative and fails to answer a question that wasn’t implicitly asked, yet implied. Often when one is asking, “Why should we go to space,” there is an unstated addition, “instead of doing something else?” That something else might be a specific issue impacting the questioning critic, or just a vague sense of other priorities. In all, it’s often a question that might be more properly phrased as, “Is space worth it?” Is it worth the scientific attention that could be focused on making our world better, such as keeping babies healthier and treating disease? Is it worth the financial funds that could instead be spent on medical improvements here on Earth? Is it worth the physical space, explosive launches, and thundering liftoffs that force fellow humans far from the activity?
Thankfully space has shown tangible success to these questions, as detailed in the previous column “Space Front & the Home Front.” To speed along those who might have missed that previous reading, there is a resounding, repeatable answer to those questioning space on the basis of tangible gains: “Yes, space is worth it.” Whether you measure in the quantity of lives improved by infant formula, the quality of lives improved by LASIK, or the merit of limited human interference as made possible by the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, the answer to a myriad of tangible critiques is found in the return given many times over by space development.
However, the pragmatics of science and the realists of the world don’t cover enough of the spectrum. Whether through a younger phase, a later enjoyment, or a permanent placement, often fans of exploring beyond our atmosphere find themselves in a third category: idealists. From this perspective we approach the same initial question, “Why should we go to space?” The idealists exist as artists that decorate our collective imaginations through science fiction and dreamy depictions of what life can become. The idealists exist as historians and sociologists, studying how a collection of humans manipulate the physical world to project themselves into the ether. The idealists exist as politicians and common people who see what we can do and push what can be done.
A standard bearer of this idealistic thought is John F. Kennedy. Those familiar might champion a multitude of actions and speeches that support this proposition, with none greater to the point than his famous address at Rice University in 1962. In the oft-repeated delivery, the 35th President rallied listeners on the answer that brought pragmatists and realists into the ranks of idealists, and found common ground in outer space. “We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon...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; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.”
As can be seen, the answers for our dedication to space pursuits are numerous. Heaps of ideas are added on by an innumerable collection of humans who dream and look into the distance above our heads. I say this as one with a lifelong infatuation with space, as an observer taking in the amazing updates available on contemporary missions, and as a member of the aerospace community looking to help shape our shared future. Humanity heads into space for reasons held within, lifted on banners, or debated aloud. We explore that unknown outside our world in the same tradition as upright-humans expanded outside their cave-bound communities. We go to space, because to go above our world and beyond our atmosphere requires and provides in wonderful repetition the call across our human history, that we go above and beyond in all our efforts.
Recommended column to read next: Looking Up Into Space, or Down Into the Ether?