April 12, 1961. History was made on this day. On this day, a man saw the Earth for the first time from space, that vast void that lies beyond the Earth. That man was Yuri Gagarin of the former Soviet Union. This historic event opened the way for space exploration for the benefit of all humanity.
On April 12, the world will mark the 56th anniversary of this momentous event, but there is another equally significant aspect to this day. The General Assembly, in its resolution 65/271 of 7 April 2011, declared 12 April as the International Day of Human Space Flight “to celebrate each year at international level the beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals and increasing the well-being of States and peoples, as well as, ensuring the realization of their aspiration to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes.”
The General Assembly has expressed its deep conviction of the common interest of mankind in promoting and expanding the exploration and use of outer space, as the province of all mankind, for peaceful purposes and in continuing efforts to extend to all States the benefits derived therefrom.
Although man first went into space in April 1961, it was on October 4, 1957 that the first human-made Earth satellite Sputnik I was launched into outer space, opening the way for space exploration. Thereafter, a dog named Laika was sent to space. On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth, opening a new chapter of human endeavour in outer space.
The General Assembly Declaration further recalls “the amazing history of human presence in outer space and the remarkable achievements since the first human spaceflight, in particular, Valentina Tereshkova becoming the first woman to orbit the Earth on 16 June 1963, Neil Armstrong becoming the first human to set foot upon the surface of the Moon on 20 July 1969, and the docking of the Apollo and Soyuz spacecrafts on 17 July 1975, being the first international human mission in space, and recall that for the past decade humanity has maintained a multinational permanent human presence in outer space aboard the International Space Station (ISS).”
In the ensuing 56 years, a lot of things have happened in the Universe and space, often referred to as the final frontier. The ISS has become a permanent fixture circling the Earth, with some astronauts spending more than a year at one stretch on the ISS. This gives scientists ample data on how our bodies react to space travel.
We have been to the Moon a few times, though sadly, the last trip was in the 1970s. Another significant development was the opening up of manned space flight to countries and nationalities other than the USA and Russia.
There is another equally significant development – the opening up of the final frontier to private companies such as, Virgin Galactic (led by Sir Richard Branson of Virgin fame) and Blue Origin (led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos) which have already drawn up plans to send fee-paying private citizens to space.
Blue Origin’s space tourism capsule is being readied for commercial use as early as next year. The first paying customers should hit the orbit late next year. Elon Musk’s SpaceX recently showed that reusable rockets could very much be a part of life in the next few years.
It too plans to send private citizens on tours around the moon. If you have crossed off almost every country in the world from your bucket list, here is one more thing you can do.
It will be enormously expensive (you are looking at around US$ 200,000 for a trip) but both Blue Origin and SpaceX plan to deploy reusable space rockets, which should bring the costs down.
Until now, rockets have almost all been single-use. Once the fuel is expended, a rocket stage plummets to Earth, a quick demise for a complex machine that cost tens of millions of dollars to build. Elon Musk has likened that to scrapping a 747 jet after one flight, which would make air travel impossibly expensive.
But the holy grail of manned space flight remains a mission to Mars. During last week, I watched two seminal fictionalized accounts of Mars landings.
“Mars” the National Geographic docu drama as well as Ridley Scott’s space drama The Martian (starring Matt Damon in the titular role) give the 2030-2040 time frame for a manned mission to Mars. This roughly tallies with NASA (National Aeronautical and Space Administration) estimates of a manned mission to Mars by 2033 with current technology.
This is a bipartisan, public-private partnership that will support the use of the international Space Station through 2024, enable a commercial space launch system, propel the Orion Space Craft, supply ongoing medical monitoring of astronauts, focus on deep space exploration, and do something that the human race has longed for since antiquity – reach Mars.
A manned trip to Mars will not be easy or inexpensive – but the foreknowledge that we have got from the numerous robotic Mars probes will be invaluable in planning for one. Several companies are already working on possible scenarios, including aerospace giant Boeing with its Space Launch System. There is already talk of “terraforming” Mars (making Mars more Earth like) following its colonization, which we dealt with in a previous column.
While Mars will be the first planet humans will explore (apart from the Moon which is not really a planet), many scientists have already started looking beyond the Red Planet for Earth 2.0.
There is no doubt that we will go in search of new places to inhabit, because the Earth may no longer be sustainable a few hundred years down the line. This is why scientists were very excited recently about the discovery of an exoplanet system with possibly Earth-like planets just 40 light years away.
Exploring such planets is virtually impossible with current technology – propulsion systems will have to be vastly improved. In the meantime, our robotic probes will continue to the do the legwork for us – at least two probes are headed into deep space with a message from Mankind to any aliens who may encounter them one day.
As astronaut Sally Ride put it: “Studying whether there’s life on Mars or studying how the universe began, there’s something magical about pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. That’s something that is almost part of being human, and I’m certain that will continue.”