When people think about rocket ships and space exploration, they often imagine traveling across the Milky Way, landing on mysterious planets and even meeting alien life forms.
In reality, humans’ drive to get off Planet Earth has led to tremendous technological advances in our mundane daily lives — ones we use right here at home on terra firma.
I recently walked through Boston’s Logan International Airport; a NASA display reminded me that GPS navigation, anti-icing systems, memory foam and LED lights were all originally created for space travel. Other inventions NASA science has created include the pacemaker, scratch-resistant lenses and the solar panel.
These types of advancements are one of the most important reasons I am hoping our next U.S. president will try to jump-start the American space program — both privately and publicly. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear any of them are talking about the issue. But they should be. As we enter the transhumanist age — the era of bionic limbs, brain implants and artificial intelligence — space exploration might once again dramatically lead us forward in discovering the most our species can become.
Already SpaceX, led by CEO Elon Musk, has announced it will be tackling an unmanned trip to Mars in 2018. The hope, of course, is that within the next 10-15 years, astronauts will be stepping foot upon the red planet, too. If indeed, humans can make it to Mars — and I’m sure we will — much new tech would have to be developed for the mission. It’s safe to say much of that tech would likely be something useful for us eventually on Earth, as well.
For example, just to even live in space for the journey — it’ll take approximately six months to travel one-way to Mars — new ways of sleeping, recycling breathable air and preserving foods and drink would likely have to be developed.
Furthermore, the technology to withstand massive dust storms, freezing temperatures and a hostile environment on Mars would require new space suits and maybe even totally new materials. Innovation like this will benefit everyone — even if we don’t know all the uses yet for such radical tech.
Of course, there are other reasons for prompting a renewed and significantly larger space program in America. One of the fundamental goals of my own presidential campaign has been warning the world of the incredible threat of existential risk.
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