The Progress and the Future of Space Exploration

Humanity has come so far compared to its inception and previous states. As a race, we have built functioning societies that more or less co-exist with each other. We made huge medical and technological advancements, managing to create complex entertainment systems like media both in traditional and digital mediums – with casino platforms offering fun games like online roulette and streaming services dominating the broadcasting sector. So, technological advancements have something in store for risk-takers or fans of traditional entertainment alike. Besides, they boast of accessibility, where digital platforms supply the internet with the most exciting services.

Yet, with the sheer overwhelming scale of our universe, it sometimes seems like there are obstacles humanity simply cannot surpass. Nevertheless, exploring the unknown is at the core of our nature, and it is the very thing that allowed us to survive and progress through all the centuries.

Below I will be going over some of the more recent inventions in the big world of space exploration, as well as some of the reasons why it even is an important goal to so many companies.

Re-usable Rockets, Space X

First, it is important to establish why reusable rockets are even meaningful. One of the biggest downsides of space exploration is the fact that it is extremely expensive. Designing and building the spaceships can cost from hundreds of millions, to billions of dollars.

Naturally, when a rocket can perform more than one flight, it reduces the cost drastically. Cheaper launches would make the space exploration system more accessible to researchers, engineers, and might even potentially open up a new business of space tourism, where people will have the chance to observe our planet, as well as others in our solar system, from outer space.

Space x has already achieved success in landing ascended rockets back on the ground, all the way back in December 21, 2015. Since then the technology has only been improving, as the size of the reusable spaceships alongside with it.

Recently however, the newest space x project, an unmanned rocket called Starship, just exploded within 33 seconds from the launch. This is the same prototype that has a huge role to play in the future with the Artemis Project, and counterintuitively the company did not deem the explosion as a failure.

This is because space x was considering even ascending from the launch pad a success, since the sheer size and power of the Starship. Now they are confident that they will make necessary adjustments to take the rocket even further, and have it fulfill its role in the upcoming Artemis Project.

The Artemis Project

This is NASA’s 93-billion-dollar plan to get astronauts back on the moon, and beyond. Interestingly it is potentially an eleven step, highly ambitious plan, aiming to explore lunar surface a lot more than before during the Apollo missions, and establish the first long-term presence of humanity outside of earth.

After this, using the moon as the new stepping stone, future space exploration projects will become a lot easier. The potential to explore other planets in the solar system is more promising than ever. Whatever technology and life support systems would be needed to survive on harsh surfaces like Mars for example, will be tested thoroughly on the moon.

If in the relatively far future, the civilization establishes a bridge to Mars, the same way it intends to do so with the moon, Mars can also be used to explore the void of space even further, as a new stepping-stone.

But for now, NASA’s main goal is the first 6 steps of the Artemis campaign, Interestingly the first one being already complete with the successful launch of Artemis one, Delivering the space modulo Orion to the moon, and back on earth through complex launch systems.

Photon spaceships

Even with all the above-mentioned information in mind, the void of space is still so incredibly large that the light, which only takes minutes to get from the sun to our planet, takes years to travel to the next closest star Proxima Centauri.

Even with human spaceships absolutely shattering the sound barrier, the time it would take to even travel across the solar system are centuries. Voyager one, which has been wandering the space for around 50 years, is still within the sun-dominated area, considered our solar system.

It is precisely because of this, that the scientists have been thinking of ways to travel at higher speeds, thus reducing the time of space exploration. The most promising idea that is still in the earliest stages of development is the photon space ships.

Instead of using the traditional chemical acceleration, somewhat similarly to wind and sailboats, it would use electromagnetic radiation, or more specifically a thrust of momentum emitted by photons for its propulsion, to reach speeds equivalent to 10% of light. Even with the relatively small percentage, it would still be a drastic improvement, opening up new doors to space exploration.

Conclusion

While we are far from reaching all the levels of space exploration shown in some of the most popular sci-fi films, nothing is off the table when it comes to humanity. The most brilliant of minds have already shattered all the expectations of what would even be considered possible in the past.