The Economist's Digest 32

Leaders

The end of the Space Age

Originally from The Economist June 30th, 2011

Summary:

The realm of the Earth is enlarged by man-made satellites, which expand the Earth by 36,000 km diameter. On the other hand, technology has been revolutionized in many aspects such as agriculture, telecommunications, weather forecasting...etc. However, people who dreams about space travel in the past now start to perceive the limit of human in space exploration. There are three traits to see this:

First, those who supported development in space before now oppose commercialization of space travel because it is not cost effective. Second, this year, 2011, there is the last space mission launched by US, which represents the end of America’s space-shuttle program. Third, the ISS (International Space Station) will be de-orbited in 2020.

In short, the passion for space has gone, at least for America and Russia. China may inherit the passion, while the passion may fade after decades. Even though human will not go further in outer space, people still will develop inside the geostationary orbit.

Comments:

Why do people in US lose their space dream? It relates to the slowdown of US economy. In recent years, after 2008 financial crisis, even though US economy is recovering, it cannot grow as fast as it did before. On the other hand, China is on the stage of development that is the same as the US once experienced. Thus, it is China’s tern to pursue space dream now.

However, there are other important reasons for people to give up space dream. Most of them are economy, or even life maintenance problems such as food and energy crisis. Space projects seem to be donated by rich people and the government to fulfill space scientists’ dream, but it actually cost all the people’s money, through tax and transfer payments. As mentioned in the original article, these projects are paid by the public. We know these projects cost a lot.

If mankind can’t find a way to ensure sustainability, we can’t---and we shouldn’t go further because it will worse disparity problem and bring more turbulence.