Into the sunset
The final launch of the space shuttle brings to an end the dreams of the Apollo era
The space shuttle
Jun 30th 2011
Friday July 1st 2011
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There's no point in denying the fundamentals, at the present, there are no incentive for any large expedition beyond low earth orbit, the argument that humans are explorers are invalid, only some are, while most are just competent working 9 to 5 or just getting enough to eat, so at best we can only expect slow incremental missions or robotic ones (also very few).
On the other hand, just like no one in the 16th century could have predicted we now build ships hundreds of meters long to carry black fluids from Arabia to North America, you can never rule out a fundamental need for going beyond LEO will appear sometimes in the future.
The Space Shuttle was confined to Low Earth Orbit, roughly 200-250 miles in space--about the distance from NYC to Boston. The nearest planetary body is the Moon at 250,000 miles.
The shuttle could not do a left turn and head to the Moon, Sun or any other planet. It was a child's toy with training wheels. And it regressed from even the ancient Apollo Lunar Program.
We are farther away from the Moon today in 2011, than 50 years ago when President Kennedy made his Moon Speech in 1961. We are not going anywhere beyond this rock.
A child born today has more chance at playing a Spaceship Captain on a Hollywood Sci-Fi Franchise than to be an actual interplanetary astronaut. Cultivate the good looks, hair, and debonair charm and lose the physics and rocket science. Sigh.
While politics can drive short-term exploration and one-off adventures, it's always commerce and hope of gain that drives the fundamental changes. Until there's a compelling economic gain from sending people out beyond the bounds of LEO, we're unlikely to go boldly anywhere except to the office and the golf course. But, if no one goes out there, how can we determine if there's a compelling economic advantage to doing so? Perhaps robotic probes will uncover interesting things out there, or perhaps experiments back here on Earth will suggest gain to be had out in space. For now, though, it's difficult to argue with the conclusion of the article, which is that man's brief foray into the world beyond his home soil is to all intents and purposes concluded.