Continuing space exploration despite disaster

On October 28, the Antares rocket launched from Wallops Flight Facility Virginia, carrying the Cygnus CRS Orb-3. The first stage booster, a retrofitted 40-year-old soviet rocket, which Elon Musk has publicly called a joke in the past then exploded some seconds later.

Initially unexpected, Orbital Sciences Corporation later confirmed the rocket was detonated intentionally, as happens when an imminent failure to achieve orbit is found. The rocket was bound for the International Space Station, with fuel, supplies, scientific experiments and tools. one of the payloads was the Arkyd 3 first satellite for the asteroid mining endeavour Planetary Resources, funded in part by Google CEO Larry Page and Aliens Director James Cameron.

This was just the first of two very bad stories for the space industry.

On October 31, The Virgin Galactic launch vehicle VSS Enterprise exploded over the Mojave Desert, killing the pilot and seriously injuring the co-pilot, who managed to parachute away. Initial reports were that a new synthetic plastic propellant was to blame, and that the space tourism company Virgin Galactic – founded by billionaire Sir Richard Branson – was warned repeatedly about safety concerns.

A press release in the following days was very careful in the wording of this next piece of information.

“The National Transportation Safety Board indicated that the lock/unlock lever was pulled prematurely based on recorded speed at the time, and they have suggested that subsequent aerodynamic forces then deployed the feathering mechanism, which resulted in the inflight separation of the wings and vehicle.”

It’s terrible to see needless death, but this disaster will have the added effect of bringing out space travel detractors.

They will state the dangers of space travel, that Earth has too many problems to fix and that we should focus on this planet before we go to another.

These concerns have some validity, but using the death of a test pilot who knew these risks as fodder against their industry is shameful and disingenuous at best. Yes, rocket sciences are a tricky and sometimes dangerous pursuit, but so is car racing, war, high contact sports, and food eating contests-all things that are glorified instead.

Multiple students interviewed expressed these incidents should not stop space exploration, but further it.

Katie McDoutall a Culinary Management student thought that humans should continue space travel because what’s learned is interesting, while Hospitality Management student Sudhan Natarajan said, “Of course we have to invest, everything can’t work the first time, right? So we have to keep on investing, and keep on trying until it is successful, so I think that the government should keep on trying.”

Society has gained new technology from the space industry since the 1950’s; Velcro, GPS, micro-scaling electronics and literally thousands more inventions, innovations and discoveries have been made due to the exploration of space.

Yes it’s messy, yes it’s dangerous and yes it’s expensive – but it’s the future and society needs the benefits of these sacrifices to continue and thrive and grow into the 21st century.