Contribution by Dr. Marco C. Bernasconi
The progress of the astronomical sciences has constantly opened new horizons to the humanity’s culture, not only by the discovery of new celestial objects, but mainly by showing the real dimensions of the Universe. In recent times, astronautical techniques have contributed substantially to the cosmic research effort, to the point that science has been advanced as the primary reason for spaceflight. In reality, although astronautics and astronomy have a common origin in the human drive to explore and to penetrate the mysteries of the heavens, this is not the case. The scientific research aimed at the basic understanding of the Universe is but one, if important, argument for space activities; the simple reflection on the dimensions of the Universe provides another, at least as powerful, theme in support of a real astronautical endeavour.
“Today the social and environmental frame of reference of nations and mankind
is still determined exclusively by the terrestrial scene.”
Krafft A. Ehricke, 1976
While most people do acknowledge – at least on an intellectual level – that the Universe is extremely large, they implicitly assume that the relevance of this same Universe for the human affairs is nil. Even the much smaller group which recognizes in some way the significance of human activities in space, tends to consider it to be very near to Earth, as a kind of ‘extended atmosphere’. As a consequence even this group attributes a very low relevance to astronautics, estimating this factor as a sort of product of current activities multiplied by the (perceived) availability of financial and material resources.
In truth, if we consider any sort of proportion between our planet and the Universe, or more modestly the inner Solar System, or even just geolunar space, it must become apparent that Earth is but a very small fragment of reality and that the astronautical technology, even the current one, opens a new arena of huge potential to human activities. For instance, the sphere centered on Earth with a 1.5-million km radius (the distance to the second Lagrange point of the Earth-Sun system) offers, e.g., 13 million times the whole volume of the Earth, and 30,000 times the amount of solar power available on Earth.
If astronomy opens new horizons to the humanity’s culture, then astronautics is necessary to make the environments within those horizons operative for the human prosperity and happiness. But for many – too many! – people space remains an irrelevant fragment of the ‘real world’: this condition applies to the general public, to politicians, to economic leaders, to environmentalists, and to cultural actors; only for scientists and military leaders is this perception tempered by the detail that this ‘fragment’ is seen as their ‘private playground’.
By considering the Universe, its size, age, and properties, one is led to wonder about the uniqueness of Earth’s life and human intelligence. Fermi’s question: “Where are they?” has then to be taken seriously, because its implications are not only philosophical, but also sociological. In any case, none of the possible answers is without impact on our future.
In conclusion, if one considers the Universe, there is no reason to question the need and the relevance of astronautics. Such a myopic attitude may be compared to that of a group of people, thrown by fate to live on a small isle, that argue against building a boat, one able to take the sea not only for fishing along the coast but also for reaching larger islands nearby, and that support their opposition by maintaining that such an endeavour is of secondary importance to the task of filling the cracks in their cabins’ walls with moss, to better keep out the coming winter wind.
This comment is an excerpt from “Implementing the Space Option: Elaboration and Dissemination of a New Rationale For Space. (Part 1 ) that was presented at the 44th International Astronautical Congress, Graz, Austria. October 16-22, 1993
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