It is my opinion that one of the most important aspects of human space operations will be asteroid mining. It could be even easier and more cost efficient to mine the plethora of floating rocks in our solar system rather than mining a planet. Chipping away at an asteroid in a zero gravity eliminates the need for atmospheric travel, which is time consuming and fuel exhausting. There are literally thousands of near Earth asteroids that translate into a gold mine of an industry. And because the solar system is littered with these objects, this will allow for more control and human dominance in space.
Just recently, China has become a space exploration nation. In 2003 they sent their first man into space and not even a day later they announced that they plan to build their own space station. Two months after their first manned space flight, they had announced that they plan reach the moon by 2010 with manned flights by 2020.
Just to the north of the Red Dragon, a long time space exploring nation, Russia, is planning to establish a permanent moon base by 2015 with Helium 3 mining operations by 2020. This old nation is sporting a First In Space record that almost put a permanent shiner on the eye of the Statue of Liberty, during its communist rule. The government's role has changed but the “Motherland” is still a prime contender in space flight.
In the past, many US Presidents have promised that we will go back to the moon and even beyond but it still needs to be determined if the American Dream is as alive today as it was when President John F. Kennedy promised that the USA would go to the moon. So far, the American involvement in space flight has uncovered more about space than has the involvement of any other nation in the world. Being an American citizen, I can only hope that we will be able to not only compete with China and Russia, but that we will continue to lead the world in space science for generations to come.
The decisions that we make and let our leaders make, will ultimately decide the fate of our human race. It is about time that we consider the “Final Frontier” as the Next Frontier.
To be continued...
Inspired by Space Race 2... a Payton Blog.
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