Humans and their Growth

By : Shivam Panda

Sometimes I think...

I think how we are one of the most widely distributed higher order organisms in this world. I think of how we have managed to survived in the most extreme climates, how we have managed to extend our influence to a larger part of the world than any other higher order organism. I wonder how we started off with travelling land then water, then air, then even space. And then I wonder...

Why did it stop?

In 1969, Neil Armstrong got the prestigious title of first man on the moon. The Apollo Missions were a series of missions commissioned by NASA to take a crew to the moon and bring them back to earth safely. Prior to this were the Gemini missions conducted by NASA to see how space and life would react. Before this was when the Russians sent up a dog, a man AND a woman into space. All of these unimaginable feats, happened in the span of one decade. So why did it stop? Why did we stop sending people to the moon, why did we not take the next step to human sustainability off the planet? 

The Russians were falling into political ruin, the Americans had supposedly “won” the space race. After that people became concerned with the financial struggles that came with it. But I ask, what financial struggle?

During the years in which space exploration was at its highest was when the GDP growth was highest for America. The first explorers did not see such beautiful statics to support their cause. The first around the world journey made by Ferdinand Magellan had 3 ships and 270 sailors but the crew that returned was one ship and 18 people. The solar system is a treasure trove yet to be harvested. Full of minerals, precious stones, radioactive elements (for clean energy), space foragers are bound to be the first trillionaires.

Along with expansion into space, there is a plethora of ‘new’ jobs that open up. In 1958, when NASA first opened, the best of almost every field was called in and they had either ‘astro’ or ‘ aerospace’ slapped in front of their title.  Astrophysics, astrobiologist, aerospace engineering, aerospace communications, one can't even imagine if commercial and industrial occupations grew into the aerospace industry. Just imagine introducing yourself as an ASTRO-ECONOMIST!!!!

How did we get there?

Did you know that the first evidence of maritime travel was seen 2 millennia ago in Austronesian regions like Polynesia and Micronesia? That means overseas travel has existed just about as long as Jesus (no intentions to offend religious readers, apologize for the disrespect I may or may not have shown). Maritime travel wouldn’t have become profitable till the first international traders of pre-colonial India, battle thirsty Vikings and the imperialistic Romans, approximately a seven to eight centuries later.

In 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright were credited with the first human flight ever. Barely over a decade later, in 1914, the first commercial flight took was recorded to travel over Tampa Bay reducing a 2-hour ferry ride to a commute of 23 minutes. Profitable returns of the risk of flying came 11 years after the first risk was taken. Think about it, we conquered land, seas and air, when are we going to go beyond? Clearly out efforts to venture out into space has not maintained its previously remarkable pace...

How does one predict the future?

In the late 19th century and on the cusp of the 20th century, the world was relishing on the massive technological and scientific breakthroughs post-industrial revolution.  during this time propaganda and general public opinion was bold enough to make predictions of the next century, a “what would it look like” for the future.

As seen above, these predictions were quite ridiculous. Ships would sail right off the shore and onto railway tracks, which can be thought to be because the world was hopped on the invention of the steam engine. Wilbur and Orville Wright first flew in 1903, so by direct thought, the advanced form of that would be humans simply flying. As you can see, throughout history predictions and educated guesses have always been just projections of what we already know, failing to assume the creation of something new out of the left field. The way science and technology progresses (exponentially) makes it hard to predict what the future of science would look like. Still, let’s look at the facts...

The facts:

Excluding USA, the global average of space funding by recognized governments is a wimpy 1.5 Billion USD.  This means that one of the top 2095 richest people could single-handedly fun almost half of the aerospace industry. That’s right, you read that correctly, and no, it's not a typo. There are 2,095 billionaires on the little blue planet of ours.

The funding that goes into actual space exploration missions is less than half of a half of the entire money put into space activity. 38% is spent on supporting ISS, and another 38% is spent on maintaining all of the satellites already up there.

Demographics show that the top three fields of study for young entrants were ‘Business, Law, Administration”, “Engineering, Manufacturing and Constriction” and “Social Sciences, Journalism and Information”. I would say this was poor distribution of labor. 

A personal mentor of mine, Niel DeGrasse Tyson, spoke of the inspiration, the wonder, and the curiosity of the environment he was born into. He talked of the world science fair in 1964, the launches that took place in Hutson, the moon landings, and he said something that stuck with me, and it's something I'd like to share with my readers. He said that he didn’t see that any more. And I agree. 

“It wasn’t just the drugs that people took that made them think this way, it was a real surge of enthusiasm for what a future would bring. You don’t get this by just hoping, you turn hope into reality. That’s what has become rarified!” -Neil DeGrasse Tyson, World Government Summit

I think that the important people have become accustomed to a way of life. The people with power don’t empower change and exploration like that anymore. And it's totally understandable. If you bring a certain group of investors into a room and pitch a project requiring hundreds of millions of dollars, having high risk, having not much of profitable returns in the short-term foreseeable future, no one in their right mind would invest; especially if when questioned why you want to do it, you'll say, “to explore?”

But that’s my point, why is that so bogus today? Christopher Columbus adventured under the thrones funding, Louis and Clark’s expedition was commissioned by the queen, why can we have the people in power support this simply for the heck of it? There was more disease then, less security then, higher threat of war then, so I ask again, where did all the inspiration, the dreams, and the hope go. Are we all so accustomed to our cushy chairs that we no longer audaciously get up and have the gall to go where none have gone before and define new horizons to our little world? The musical composition that is the future, depends in how we, the youth, choose our notes, so I implore you, find inspiration in everything you do, have the audacity to dream and hope, have the determination to turn that into reality and think not of what can go wrong, but rather of how much can go right.