Lateral Drift

You know times have changed when NASA’s launching of a rocket makes the back page of the paper.  It is just not big news anymore.  The new mission is to do some repairs to the Hubble telescope to extend it’s useful life for another 5-8 years.  What really stands out about the new launch is not the mission itself but the concerns.  Space around our planet has become riddled with junk.  The shooting down of a satellite by the Chinese and collisions of other satellites have created a deadly web of flying space debris.  NASA was so concerned about the consequences of debris hitting the shuttle that they have another one waiting one standby in case of an emergency.

I don’t think that this issue is getting as much attention as it should.  We must start thinking about the consequences of our actions in space and we need to start doing it as a global community.  I fear that the weaponization of space has already started; although, I cannot prove this because it would be all top secret.  Space is the ultimate high ground but I believe it comes at too great a cost.  To successfully expand and build on the moon and Mars and to further explore the solar system and beyond will be dependent on the fact that we don’t have a meteor field of debris to fly through.  Space junk if in high enough quantities could (my conjecture) halt or hinder our programs for years because of no clear take off points through our upper atmosphere.

I realize that in a world filled with local (Earth) problems it is hard to be too concerned about issues in space but we need to have the foresight to realize the consequences of the actions we are taking now.  Technology will reach a critical point where space travel will become relatively cheap and some private companies have already entered into the market (ie Virgin and Space X).  We need to begin thinking more broadly and less in terms of nation-states.  Space is open to everyone but if we become self-centred we could dramatically slow the exploration process, and if you want to get grandiose about it, the survival of our species is dependent on hedging our bets and colonizing multiple locations.