“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.”

–Opening words to Star Trek: The Next Generation

“The first of these factors is the compelling urge of man to explore and to discover, the thrust of curiosity that leads men to try to go where no one has gone before. Most of the surface of the earth has now been explored and men now turn to the exploration of outer space as their next objective.”

–“Introduction to Outer Space”. The White House. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C., 26 March 1958

“The United States is a nation of explorers. America is the spirit of exploration distilled.”

–Elon Musk

September was an incredible month.  And by incredible I mean stunning in terms of thinking about our place on Earth, in the Solar System, and in the vastness of space beyond.

To get the worst news out of the way first, we likely have seen the last time atmospheric carbon was below 400 parts per million in our lifetime.  This nearly guarantees that we will exceed a two degree celsius increase in global average temperature, again, probably in our lifetime.  And we may blow right past that mark.  The consequences for our planet, our fellow creatures, our well being and way of life are frightening to think of.  http://www.climatecentral.org/news/world-passes-400-ppm-threshold-permanently-20738

Not all the news last month was horrible, however.  NASA confirmed through Hubble Telescope observations that Europa, moon of Jupiter, is expelling what is most likely ice plumes.  Since the planet has a liquid water ocean under it’s icy crust, the ice plumes are tantalizing.  Could we fly a probe through one?  Take samples?  Europa has jumped to position number one in likely candidates of locations off Earth to consider for life in our Solar System.  Priority # 1 on our exploratory agenda should be Europa.

Beyond the current slate of exploratory probes out there in the Solar System, the space industry was rocked in September by the release of two long term plans released by two business tycoons in the U.S.A.  Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Blue Origin, and Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, both announced plans for new rockets, spacecraft, and destinations.  These men are ambitious, and are locked in a personal space race that stands to benefit all of humankind.  They are also the type of people who when they say “long term”, the don’t mean decades.  They mean in their lifetime.

On the 12th, Bezos released plans for a new line of heavy lift rockets that dwarfed nearly anything on the drawing board at the time, and nearly as large as the old Saturn V.  The “Glenn” will be capable to launching beyond LEO.  Bezos has real business goals beyond Amazon, and many of them involve space. His Blue Origin line has already been testing a re-usable suborbital rocket that has several successful launches and landings.  They aim to take paying customers on short flights in only a few years.  Beyond astro-tourism, there is money to be made out there, and I am certain that he has more in mind than delivering Amazon orders to the ISS. Click on the rocket diagram for more info on his September announcement.

Not to be outdone, and with the even more impressive pedigree of SpaceX behind him, Elon Musk took the stage on Tuesday, September 27th, and made the boldest announcement involving space travel since John F. Kennedy’s 1962 Moon speech at Rice University.  Musk announced plans for a rocket bigger than his already in the works Falcon Heavy, one that would lift a Colonial Transporter spacecraft into orbit, return to Earth, then relaunch with a refueling craft.  After gassing up, the transporter would ferry 100 passengers to Mars, and eventually, beyond.  http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/27/13058990/mars-mission-spaceship-announced-elon-musk-spacex With their Falcon Heavy already slated to begin work next year, and possibly launch a smaller capsule mission to Mars as soon as 2018, Musk has laid out an ambitious time table for his new rocket and Colonial Transporter.  2024.  That’s right.  SpaceX has a goal to launch a heavy capacity lift vehicle to Mars, and start colonizing the planet in less than a decade.

Ambitious, yes.  Foolhardy, some might say. I don’t think so.  I think BOTH Bezos and Musk are the tip of the iceberg.  We need to back them up at every level, that includes government spending and participation by every level of our society.  I have some ideas, and we will talk more about those this coming week.