Saturday morning, people all over the world turned on their television sets to learn that the Columbia disintegrated on re-entry. The entire crew lost their lives.
The disaster has caused many to question if the space program is worth the cost of resources and life. However, because of the amazing benefits of such programs, space flight and manned space flight in particular should continue apace.
The space program has greatly aided humanity’s search for knowledge and self-improvement. The program provides unique opportunities for the advancement of knowledge that can be found nowhere else. The planets and moons have been explored to great detail by probes such as Voyager.
Satellites provide excellent weather and cartographic data, allowing for near-instantaneous communication about the planet and provide extremely accurate navigational data making travel safer than ever before.
The Hubble Space Telescope and other orbital observatories provide detailed information about the history and deepest workings of the universe. Near-perfect protein crystals, essential for medical and biological science, can only be grown in the microgravity of space.
The space program is indirectly responsible for many of the developments and advancements in the quality of everyday life over the past 40 years. Unexpected discovery after discovery has come out of NASA ever since its inception in 1958. Material and mechanical science have been driven by the space program’s need for lighter, stronger and more reliable structures and machines.
As a result we have advancements like cordless power tools, smoke alarms and the minuscule DeBakey heart pump-based upon the Space Shuttle main engine’s turbo fuel pump.
The space program offers many economic benefits, even given the costly failures the program sometimes experiences. Improving the private sector has always been a primary goal of NASA. It is one of the few government programs to pay for itself by the growth it brings to the economy.
Space programs can only be handled at a national level. Governments are simply the only existing entities with enough money to afford the extraordinarily high capital costs of building and maintaining a space program.
Opponents of manned space flight may claim that most, if not all, of the benefits provided by space exploration come from unmanned research. However, most of the benefits listed above are specifically the result of the manned space program.
Furthermore, humans are a critical part in ensuring the success of many space missions. In Mercury 4, Gemini 8 and Apollo 13 the ability of the crews to react to unexpected situations salvaged the missions. With reusable launch vehicles like the shuttle-which are necessary for lowering the cost of space flight-the human element greatly increases the chance of successful return.
In the long term, a manned space program provides the experience needed for future expansion into space. Further in the future, the ever-expanding, ever-consuming human race may find it necessary to begin colonization and exploitation of the moons and planets. This requires a manned space program as its foundation. Manned space flight has been one of the most successful and beneficial endeavors of humankind. Because of the effort and sacrifice of countless men and women, including the crew of Columbia, we are all able to reap the many benefits of the space program and many benefits remain. To give up today would make their sacrifices in vain.
As Mercury 7 astronaut Gus Grissom said: “If we die, we want people to accept it. We’re in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.”
Nathan Alday is a senior aerospace engineering major.