About a week ago, NASA suffered a catastrophic failure during a rocket launch. On the evening of the 28th October, at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, we saw how dangerous rocket launches can be.
The planned mission was to send supplies up to the International Space Station (ISS). The rocket itself was an Antares rocket owned by Orbital Sciences Corp [NYSE:ORB].
Mission control detected an anomaly during the launch and subsequently self-destructed the rocket. This was within about the first 15 seconds of takeoff. It was quite a spectacle. If you watch the video of the launch, you can clearly see the second something goes wrong — what appears to be a massive failure with the propulsion system. It goes pear-shaped from there.
Source: NASA
Of course, there’s nothing ‘spectacular’ about the failure of a rocket. If anything, it reaffirms just how difficult and dangerous space missions can be. Importantly though, no one was injured in the failure.
However, just days after the failure at the Wallops, another space mission went horribly wrong. And this time a life was lost.
Virgin Galactic has been attempting to launch everyday people into ‘space’. Technically, it’s not space; it’s a sub-orbital flight reaching the very border of ‘space’, about 100km above the earth. And technically, it’s not for ‘everyday people’. A ticket on their rocket, SpaceShip Two (SS2), costs $200,000 for a two hour round trip.
Virginia Galactic hasn’t yet reached full commercialisation of their space program. They’re still testing. And last week they experienced a major setback.
On 31 October, SS2 also experienced a catastrophic failure. It’s believed that during the ascent one of the test pilots pulled an airbrake too early. The location of the rocket at the time caused the SS2 to break up mid flight and crash.
One of the test pilots died and the other is in a critical condition in hospital. For more than a year, Virgin Galactic has repeatedly pushed back the official commercial launch of SS2. Now, with such a catastrophic failure, it looks like it might take another year or two.
With two massive commercial space failures within just a few days of each other, an important question has been raised.
Is this the end of the commercialisation of space?
Some are suggesting government should retake control of space technology, that private industry is too ‘gung-ho’ in pushing new, untested space technologies.
If the conservative approach gets its way, then indeed this may be a huge setback for the new space race. But I’m telling you now, this won’t slow the new space race. If anything, it will resolve those involved to be better and achieve greater success.
You have to look at these two incidences in isolation. Neither is related to the other, and it’s sheer coincidence they took place within days of each other. As I mentioned before, it’s simply proof that space technology is a challenging industry.
But it’s precisely because of the difficulties that the payoff could be enormous. I’m not suggesting the loss of life in testing these technologies is acceptable. It is, however, an occupational hazard of a test pilot. And it’s a risk that many are willing to take.
It’s not the first time life has been lost in the development of space technologies. The Challenger Space Shuttle disaster offers a sobering example.
It’s also likely it won’t be the last time life is lost as we delve deeper into space exploration. You could argue life on earth is just as dangerous — especially for the brave explorers throughout history who’ve charted new territory — and that the risk of human life is necessary to further civilisation.
While these two catastrophes will dominate headlines about space for a while, there’s more going on that you should know about.
Another first for mankind coming soon
In the next few days, humanity will achieve something it’s never done before. It’s taken two decades to get to this point. And yes, it’s all happening in space.
The Rosetta spacecraft is a robotic space probe. In 2004, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched it to study comets in our solar system. Just a few months ago, on the 6th August, Rosetta reached its destination, 20km off the face of the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet.
In the next few days, Rosetta will position itself to start a new mission. Scientists will send a signal to Rosetta to release a little space ship, Philae, which will make the short trip and actually land on the comet.
Speaking about the comet, Mark McCaughrean, a senior adviser at the ESA said:
‘Essentially we are attempting a highly complex landing on an object we barely understand. Comet 67P weighs 10 billion tonnes and is the size of Mont Blanc. But if you were to drop it into an ocean it would float. It has the density of pinewood.’
This is a first for humanity. If successful, Philae and Rosetta could help us understand more about the composition of the universe. We know very little about comets, but this mission would dramatically accelerate scientific understanding of them.
The mission is risky. Philae has a one square kilometre target area. That’s tiny. Stephan Ulamec, manager of the Philae landing mission, explained:
‘You plan for 20 years and then, in the end, you realise the probe you have worked on may touch down on a nice flat area and you are fine or it could move 10 metres to one side and hit a boulder and everything is lost.’
But these are the risks that we must take to advance our civilisation. If successful, the Rosetta mission will be historic.
No doubt the space race has seen its fair share of failures and setbacks over the last 20 years. But thanks to the persistence and a laser-like focus of scientists, entrepreneurs, and explorers, the space race seems to be on the verge of a breakthrough that will make it all worthwhile.
All space missions and new space technologies will go through this process. It takes years of testing, exploration, successes and failures to get to the end point. But the end point is so worthwhile that no matter how difficult things may seems, you must press on.
Now is an exciting time for space exploration. Numerous space exploration programs — despite or perhaps because of recent setbacks — seem to be on the cusp of great success. And with better technology comes the next audacious project.
We must accept that there will be failures and expect these will lead to success. In the end though, it will all be for the greater good as we further our knowledge and understanding of space. And with success like the Rosetta mission we will once again believe that the benefits of space exploration are worth it.
So no, the new space race has not been pushed back another decade. If anything, we’ll see ever-more vigilant development of space technology, leading to the greatest achievements in the new space race.
Regards,
Sam Volkering +
Editor, Tech Insider
For Sam’s latest updates, follow him on Twitter.
Tech Extra
Patent agreements are a rarity in the tech world, so getting two tech giants to agree on patents is a big deal…but probably not a good deal for their rivals.
At least Amazon can accept failure. Well, kind of. They know the Fire Phone is a bit of a hack job. But they’re still going with it. I’m not sure why though. I’ve said it before, but companies should stick with what they’re good at. Clearly, Amazon is not good at phones.
The 3D printing industry is going gangbusters. There so many small start ups pushing the technology forward, it’s leading to great things. Everything from the hardware to the software to the materials is in the midst of innovation. This is just one more example of how competition and innovation can drive an industry forward.
And this…
One area off the coast of the Philippines contains up to 380 million barrels of oil. A hardened team of Aussie drillers holds exclusive rights to extract it…and they’re going for every last drop.
The post Has the Space Race Been Pushed Back Another Decade? appeared first on Sam Volkering's Tech Insider.