Space, the necessary frontier

Norton Juster’s “The Phantom Tollbooth” begins with the protagonist Milo returning home from school. He simply can’t figure out the point of his education. When he gets to his house, he finds a giant package addressed mysteriously to him – though it’s not his birthday, nor a holiday, nor has he been particularly nice as of late. Upon opening the package, it magically transforms itself into a Tollbooth and what basically amounts to a Fisher-Price Power Wheel to take him around the universe of learning and enlightenment on the other side. \nDespite the critics who call the International Space Station a tremendous waste of taxpayer money, its purpose is identical to Milo’s tollbooth. The Station is a joint venture by NASA, the European Space Agency, the Russians, Canadians and the Japanese with the cost and responsibility diffused amongst the several partners. First proposed 23 years ago, it would serve as the replacement for the now-destroyed Mir space station built by the Soviet Union. \nThe International Space Station was envisaged as a place to perform cutting-edge biological experiments and produce new materials impossible to manufacture in Earth’s gravity environment, for a cost of $8 billion. Today, with 12 more components yet to be installed, the price tag has soared beyond $100 billion, forcing Time Magazine to articulate the question on so many Americans’ minds: “Why bother?” – especially considering the mortal danger the whole project was in just a few days ago. \nLast week, while astronauts were attempting to install a new solar panel to generate power, the computers controlling the attitude (pitch) of the 235-ton, 240-foot-long complex crashed with seven crewmen onboard. Their lives were not in immediate danger because they have a 56-day reserve air supply and water and food to keep everyone fed and hydrated until the problem could be solved; not to mention that the space shuttle Atlantis was also docked, fueled, and ready to depart. However, had astronauts not been able to restore the system, the station would not have been able to recharge its solar cells, and the orbit would have begun to deteriorate. \nThe astronauts did, however, repair the problem, installed the solar panel array, and fixed a piece of thermal foam dangling off of the Atlantis – all while hurtling through the space at 3500 miles per second 220 miles above Earth. Not something an unmanned craft could ever accomplish. \nTo be sure, the most technologically sophisticated remote control cars ever built, the Mars Rovers, are cheaper to produce and launch into the farthest reaches of the solar system, but they are both incapable of completing the range of activities as humans and completing what few tasks they can as quickly as real people. \nSome believe, however, that the entire space program should be scrapped, as it rarely uncovers anything that truly improves the quality of life for people on Earth. What they neglect to see is that science is a process of baby steps. To build the internal combustion engine, for example, humans first had to learn to use fire, to understand pressure and force, chemical reactivity and mechanization. Without thousands of years of researching, developing and perfecting the various interdependent parts, we would still be riding horses. \nOur space program is little more than 50 years-old, and in spite of the naysayers, has opened up the cosmos. We no longer guess about the heavens above; we discuss them frankly and credibly. And many years from now, when the world comes to an end, either by our own destructive tendencies or natural forces, we will look on our lunar and Martian colonies fondly, and thank the earliest explorers for their contributions to science and mankind. \nThe answer to “why bother?” is esoteric, I’ll admit, but when it comes to phenomenal wastes of taxpayers’ money, the International Space Station deserves a break; in fact, it deserves top financial priority. As Norton Juster wrote, “remember that many places you would like to see are just off the map and many things you want to know are just out of sight or a little beyond your reach. But someday you’ll reach them all, for what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow.”