Recently, I’ve been getting really interested in the subject of space exploration. I think it all started with a Youtube video I watched featuring the astronomer and astrophysicist Carl Sagan. The subject of the video was a photograph called the Pale Blue Dot, and it featured excerpts from Carl Sagan’s book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, which he narrated. It is probably one of the most transformative and awe-inspiring videos I have ever watched (here is the link to the video).
The Pale Blue Dot photograph was taken by the spacecraft Voyager 1 in 1990. As it was leaving our solar system, Voyager 1 was instructed by NASA to rotate its camera, and it snapped a picture of Earth from a distance of 6 billion kilometers. In the picture, Earth, from which the Pale Blue Dot gets its name, is the size of a pixel. As the video showcases, it’s shocking to think that the entire human race and its collective experiences spanning millennia were lived out on the rock that is Earth, a mere speck of dust floating in the vast vacuum of space. To me, the video really helped put into perspective how petty and meaningless many of the problems and conflicts we face actually are. Ultimately, even after humans die out and vacate the Earth, space and the rest of the universe will continue to exist as if nothing changed.
Inspired by the video, I was determined to do some research on space exploration and where the field is headed. In the future, I think space exploration will play a much greater role in our lives than it has thus far. Several months ago, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk set forth a new mission: the colonization of Mars. As climate change and global warming continue to wreak havoc across various levels of Earth’s ecosystems, it is a depressing possibility that one day, Earth may no longer be habitable. To prepare for such a dire possibility, Elon Musk has proposed a radical new plan: terraforming Mars so that it is more habitable for humans. In an interview with Business Insider, Musk mentioned that as part of the hypothetical plan, thermonuclear bombs could be detonated at the poles to release CO2 frozen in ice caps. The released CO2 would then accumulate in the Martian atmosphere, heating the planet and creating a greenhouse effect. In turn, this would release more CO2 into the air, further densifying the atmosphere. Eventually, rising temperatures would melt the ice sheets trapped underneath Mars’s surface, creating liquid oceans.
Additionally, there is deep interest in the scientific community about exploring Europa, one of Jupiter’s 67 moons. Scientists have predicted that under the large ice-covered shell of the moon exists liquid water, a result of the immense gravitational energy imparted by Jupiter. A mission to Europa could search for life on the moon. If microorganisms are indeed found on Europa, it would be incredibly exciting to determine if they operate on the same basic molecular patterns that life on Earth does. It would answer the longstanding question: is DNA-based life, in which cellular activity is driven by transcription of RNA and translation of proteins, the only possible mechanism that can support life?
Considering the fact that humans achieved flight only 110 years ago, and in that span we have already sent man to the moon, it’s fascinating to imagine the worlds we will have explored in the upcoming 110 years. With the next generation of scientists and engineers beginning to enter the workforce, and the slew of modern technologies available to them, I have no doubt that humanity will continue exploring the final frontier that is space.
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