America needs another space race

Ayal Meyers

On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 launched atop a Saturn V rocket with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Four days later, 125 million Americans huddled around grainy television sets in patient anxiety as the module landed on the lunar surface and prepared for deployment. After sixand-a-half hours, as the world watched, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon.

The historical phenomenon took place more than eight years after Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard made independent voyages into space. Gagarin’s successful breach of the thermosphere terrified the United States. The Cold War was underway, and the Soviet Union’s technological achievement suggested the prospect of nuclear advancements.

In September 1962, President John F. Kennedy delivered his well-known speech promising American men on the moon by the end of the decade. Historians argue whether the Space Race ended when Aldrin planted the American flag into the dusty lunar regolith in the summer of 1969 or if the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which came to symbolize détente, is the more official conclusion. But, it is an unequivocal truth that the prodigious competition would leave more of a mark back on planet Earth for years to come.

A recent NBC poll found that America’s most significant problems today fall into four categories: the economy, education system, environment/climate change, and national unity. Space exploration could address these issues and deliver the benefits that we saw in the Space Race.

Sputnik’s successful launch kicked off the Space Race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The competition spurred a new zest for the sciences — particularly engineering — and led to a prolific increase in American investments in education. Inspired to raise a generation of young Americans more knowledgeable and capable than their Soviet counterparts, the U.S. Government established organizations like the National Science Foundation, which was credited with ushering in early education technology like overhead projectors and lab kits into U.S. classrooms.

In 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act, which infused more than $1 billion into education and became the first of a series of bills aimed at obsoleting the American school system of the 1940s. One of the series’s overarching goals was to reinstate America as the global leader in education. The space-inspired education reforms and academic programs produced stunning results: according to a study done between 1970, five years after Congress passed the Higher Education Act to assist postsecondary education, and 1983, college enrollment rose by 45%. The trend matched a steady and ambitious increase in education funding.

Today, according to Pew Research Center, the US is in 38th place out of 71 countries in math scores and 24th place in science. With a waning interest in these fields, America is set to slip in every measure of technological proficiency. National interest in something as fascinating and rewarding as space exploration would be a great solution for this issue.

Science and technology are the greatest agents of economic growth the world has ever seen. And while it can be an expensive investment, it is well worth it. In 1966, NASA received nearly 4.5% of the federal budget compared to 0.05% today. Some questioned if that was too much then and asked if returning to the moon today is worth the expense.

The answer is yes, unequivocally. Last year, NASA released an agency-wide economic impact report. The report showed that through all NASA activities,

the agency generated more than $64.3 billion during 2019, supported more than 312,000 jobs nationwide, and generated an additional $7 billion in taxes throughout the United States.

Beyond the raw economic output, money put towards space exploration acts as a catalyst for innovation. The Apollo program brought us an ocean of developments still in use today. For example, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors were developed for NASA in the 1970s. The polymers created for space suits laid the groundwork for modern firefighting equipment and shock absorbers, produced to protect equipment during launches now stabilize buildings in areas prone to earthquakes. The extraordinary combination of resources and scientists attained by and operating through NASA has benefits beyond everyday uses and even economic prosperity.

Critics argue that space exploration is pointless and cite our problems here on Earth, one of the most prominent being climate change. However, as ironic as it may seem, NASA and space programs are a huge contributor to protecting our world and environment. With increasing levels of fossil fuel supply and demand, rising global temperatures, melting glaciers, and an international crisis in energy and water, NASA’s capabilities and expertise put the agency in a unique position to play a critical role in saving our planet.

In the 1970s, NASA developed photovoltaic cells (solar panels) to power their spacecraft’s systems and telescopes as well as filtration systems to ensure that astronauts had safe drinking water. They shared their panels with the energy sector and a handful of private companies to hasten the technology’s advancement and use their equipment for public avail. NASA also published the design details for the filter, which has become standard and saved countless lives.

The filter and solar panels are two notable items on a long list of similar contributions from the Space Race era. Imagine the groundbreaking discoveries we could make towards healing our planet if NASA received 1960s and 1970s level funding today. Even with their current allowance, the United States’ space agency is still one of the leaders in fighting the climate crisis. And no, the 500,000 gallons of ready-to-burn fuel in rocket ships does not exactly scream climate warrior, but after all, NASA is an organization that draws from the ranks of biologists, chemists, engineers, and geologists whose collective efforts have the capacity to improve all that we have come to value in our society. The cross-pollination of ologies almost always leads to innovation and discovery, which is at the heart of progress, and nothing accomplishes this quite like space travel.

Shockingly enough, the climate crisis is a partisan debate. Space exploration, on the other hand, is not. Since NASA’s establishment in 1958, American space exploration has always been a bipartisan venture. President Kennedy, a Democrat, announced the goal of going to the moon, and President Nixon, a Republican, brought that goal to fruition. The mission united Americans under one common goal and empowered them as a people. It ignited a sense of hope and belief that is much needed in our heavily divided society.

Pursuing in interplanetary exploration and travel would require bipartisan support and a coalition of our leaders uniting under common goals — something that has remained largely unseen in the past couple of years but will hopefully begin to reappear. If it does, the United States will reap the significant rewards: improved education, economic prosperity, advancements in technology with a focus on fighting the climate crisis, and unity.

Amber Chia