The next space race?

A lot of you may be oblivious to the fact that some truly awesome things have happened in the last few weeks, and I'm not talking about holidays for the lucky bunch of you still in high school or college. No, in the last few weeks my faith in going to space before I die, was restored.

I was pretty upset when I heard that the US government was cutting the budget of NASA to pretty much nothing, meaning that basically there would be no more space travel. I was wrong. I don't know if NASA being cut back inspired companies to come out of nowhere but in the small period of time since said cuts, there has been nothing but exciting announcement after exciting announcement. To begin with, many of you would be familiar with Virgin Galactic and their plan to fly people to the cusp of space in super cool aeroplanes. It was recently announced that Virgin are almost ready to begin these flights with tickets selling for a comfortable $200'000 each (that is return though). The price may seem ludicrous, but it can be almost guaranteed that this sort of thing will eventually lower in price and the technology being developed by Virgin will assist in the progression of space travel. This by itself is an exciting concept.

Following this we have the announcement of a new start-up company, being backed by people such as Google's two head honcho's and a vast array of smart ex-NASA people, called Planetary Resources. This companies express goal is to begin mining asteroids within the next 5 - 10 years. Asteroids! The CEO of Planetary Resources explains this venture as a trillion dollar industry, with the deposits of minerals within these asteroids being so rich that it could boost Earth’s economy enormously. More interestingly, the company seeks to also mine water from the rocks. This concept may seem silly as Earth has plenty of the stuff, but its primary purpose is to provide the technology and the water itself to operations in outer space. This process alone makes space exploration all the more viable as there is no need for continual restocking of water supplies, which is very costly.

Next we have Space X. This company made headlines in the last week or so, being the first ever privately owned space craft to dock with the International Space Station (ISS). I personally watched the whole thing live streamed on the Internet, because I found it cool, but more importantly I think this marks an important transition in space exploration from government run programs in to privately owned companies and corporations conducting missions. This concept of privatisation may not make much sense to you, but the main thing you need to know is that privatisation of space exploration is most likely the critical stepping stone toward the move into the public sphere, where people like you and I could one day have access to it. All this to me suggests that we are finally entering into a new space race and a new time of innovation and exploration. I look forward to this continuing with the hope that it will rally a similar globalised vision to that of the late 60's when we first pushed for the Moon. Even in the weeks after the Space X launch, more and more exciting news is unfolding, with Japan and Russia both in serious talks of establishing permanent Moon bases and a company called Mars One announcing that they are preparing to send 4 people to live one Mars permanently, with the hope of slowly building a colony.

These are exciting times. Most importantly because it might mean I get to go to space, but also because it is a new opportunity for a new generation to experience the excitement and sense of global unity that comes in the collective pursuit of the unknown and awe inspiring. (This video sums it up well). As can be seen at the end of the video, it was made to hopefully get more money for NASA because the cut backs are really hurting their programs. Just awhile ago NASA scientists had to hold a bake sale in an attempt to raise funds and that seems just a little crazy to me.

But I've said my bit so what are your thoughts? Do you think that Space exploration is as awesome as I do? Are we entering a new space age? Or is it all just a waste of time and money? Comment below.


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