“Space: the final frontier.”
The phrase played in the introduction of every “Star Trek” episode brought out the space traveler in each of us. It encompasses the spirit of human curiosity, the very reason we ever considered space travel in the first place.
Though nationalistic influences were at play in the Cold War against Russia, President John F. Kennedy understood humankind’s lust for answers the universe outside our own planet could provide.
“We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people,” Kennedy said in a famous 1962 speech that’s come to be best known as “We choose to go to the moon.”
Less than seven years later, the United States delivered and put men on the moon.
The event was watched closely by some 600 million people, who shared in this intense notion that men could be propelled by a rocket to a bright spot in the sky we’d all become accustomed to. It’s arguably one of the most significant milestones in human history.
Flash forward to today, when interest in space travel has waned and government funding of NASA has declined in favor of other interests.
According to government data collected and published by The Guardian, NASA’s funding was 1.2 percent of the total federal budget when Kennedy delivered his speech in 1962. It rose as high as 4.4 percent in 1966, three years ahead of the moon landing. Other than a few instances, it’s declined ever since and now represents less than 0.5 percent. Manned space flights have been canceled entirely.
The argument, from what I can tell, seems to be: Why spend money on space exploration when we have plenty of problems here on Earth?
It’s a valid question. There are economic and social problems we have yet to conquer. War, poverty, discrimination of race and gender, and political infighting immediately come to my mind.
But with the decimation of NASA’s budget, we lose that sense of wonder that brought those 600 million people to their TV sets in the 1960s. Space represents hope and accomplishment. Without it, the world can seem a pretty small and depressing place.
In recent years, the lofty idea of space travel and exploration has fallen to private businesses.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and, very recently, Moon Express Inc. have given me hope.
These private American companies are delivering where the U.S. government has failed.
Musk, known on Earth for Tesla Motors, has a lofty goal of putting people on Mars by 2025. Successful SpaceX missions that sent unmanned rockets into the atmosphere and landed them back on the planet point to the notion that this executive could actually make his Mars dream happen.
Moon Express recently was given the green light by several government agencies to try for a moon shot in 2017 in order to win Google’s $25 million Lunar XPrize.
With business interest in space travel, so too will humankind’s curiosity be reawakened.
A problem is private companies could use the information they gather for the betterment of their bottom line, rather than the improvement of society and the advancement of knowledge.
As the new stewards of space travel, business leaders must realize the weight that burden carries. Humans have long-wondered about space. That knowledge belongs to all of us.
Where will you be for the next equivalent of the moon landing? I’ll be ready and watching as we “boldly go where no man has gone before.”
Springfield Business Journal Web Producer Geoff Pickle can be reached at gpickle@sbj.net.
