The
Future of Space Travel
In the first week of February 2010, President Barack Obama proposed
abandoning NASA's program to return to the moon. I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about
this proposal. I watched the moon landings
as a child and grew up reading all the science fiction I could get my hands on
from Ray Bradbury to Robert Heinlein. I
went on to get a degree in physics and have worked at observatories most of my
adult life. Although I'm not an
astronaut, I help to explore the universe around us and I firmly believe that
space travel is part of humanity's future.
Unfortunately, NASA has been underfunded for decades. In 2004, when George W. Bush announced that NASA should work toward a return to the moon, it seemed there was little public enthusiasm for the effort. However, in 2006 I volunteered to help at the X Prize Competition in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The X Prize is a competition for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft. The atmosphere at the X Prize competition was electric. I hadn't seen that much enthusiasm for space travel in years. Even though enthusiasm seemed lacking for publicly funded space exploration, it was abundant for privately funded efforts.
In
2009, LBF Books released my novel The
Solar Sea. In the novel, I imagine a
future in which NASA has been disbanded and all space travel is in the hands of
private companies. Over the decades, I
think NASA has done great things. Not
only has the space agency sent people to the moon, they have sent probes to
most of the planets in our solar system.
Because of NASA we have learned more about our solar system in the years
I've been alive than we knew in all the centuries before I was born. Not only that, space research has given us
many valuable innovations ranging from cordless tools to kidney dialysis. In my opinion, losing NASA altogether would be
a tragedy. However, at the very least, I
suspect NASA's role will be changing in the years to come.
Working
at Kitt Peak National Observatory, I routinely look out into our universe. I have peered into the places where new stars
are born. I have the seen the shells of
stars, discarded in their death throes.
I have helped to observe entire galaxies of exotic dark matter and I
have pointed telescopes at the deepest reaches of intergalactic space. This universe of ours holds so much and the
potential for what we could learn is boundless.
I am doing my part to explore the universe remotely and I hope my kids
and their kids have the opportunity to explore it firsthand.
Is
Barrack Obama's proposal to abandon NASA's moon program the beginning of NASA's
demise? Even though I predicted it in The Solar Sea, I hope it's not
true. Do I present a plausible vision
for the future of space travel in The
Solar Sea? You'll have to read the
book to find out. You can find the book
at Amazon.com and Fictionwise.com. Get a
preview of the book and learn more at TheSolarSea.com
Thank
you, April, for hosting this blog and for all your hard work with Red River
Writers!
Thanks April and the Red River Writers for hosting this guest blog! It has been great to see the posts by all the writers so far and I look forward to those coming up.
If anyone would like to know more about solar sails or my novel, visit http://www.thesolarsea.com
Also, I'd love to hear what anyone else thinks about the future of NASA and space travel.
Posted by: David Summers | March 15, 2010 at 04:34 PM