NASA is about to send new lunar orbiters to the moon, in what NASA calls a “first step” in returning astronauts to the moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) along with the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) has a planned launch date of April 24th from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. LRO will orbit the moon, imaging its poles to look for potential geological resources, while the LCROSS will intentionally crash into one of the permanently dark craters to see if there’s any water ice hanging out there. (The debris from the impact should be visible through amateur telescopes here on Earth!)
The press release from NASA says:
Information gleaned from LRO will be used to select safe landing sites, determine locations for future lunar outposts and help mitigate radiation dangers to astronauts.
Separately, an international team of researchers announced today that they have constructed the most detailed lunar map ever, uncovering several new craters. This map, which is the first to image the Moon from pole to pole, will help future missions find safe landing zones. A lunar base is essential for future human exploration of the solar system, according to various researchers (see an MIT report here).
There are plenty of arguments against spending the vast amounts of money needed to get astronauts out to other planetary bodies. We certainly should put more effort into making sure most of our resources are focused on minimizing global disease and poverty until the human population is generally healthy, comfortable and well-fed. But one of the key trademarks of science is its serendipitous nature. Some of the very best breakthroughs came from completely unrelated intentions. (Wikipedia has a great list of serendipitous science and technology inventions here.) Science–and the human imagination–requires plenty of leeway; we never know where the next discovery will come from or how that will affect other areas of life.
One of the more elusive examples of how space exploration impacted people on Earth is the famous Earthrise photo. This first ‘self-portrait’ may have helped encourage environmental awareness, as the vision of our blue home suddenly seemed all the more fragile set against the immense background of space. The 2008 book Earthrise: How We First Saw Ourselves quotes astronaut Frank Borman on seeing the Earthrise:
It was the most beautiful, heart-catching sight of my life…It was the only thing in space that had any color to it.
Another astronaut, Bill Anders, who witnessed the sight from space adds:
When I looked up and saw the Earth coming up on this very stark, beat up lunar horizon…I was immediately almost overcome by the thought that here we came all this way to the moon, and yet the most significant thing we’re seeing is our own home planet, the Earth.
Astronomy –and space travel– is unlike other scientific endeavors; it evokes a bit more of the ‘starry-eyed’ romanticism and can make us feel tiny and insignificant, yet fortunate and grateful at the same time.
Who knows–the next breakthrough in space technology or discovery about another planet may also improve our lives on Earth, not just in the form of a hardware design or biological discovery, but in how we view ourselves.
I love your blog. Very topical and well written. Keep up the good work!