From Space Race to Space Travel

Although the study of astronomy has existed for many centuries, actual space travel has only really existed in the past fifty years or so, beginning with the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. At first, this was mainly a matter of pride, staking the two dissimilar governments against each other to see which one was better and could reach the farthest into space. There are many implications in today's world of space travel on the economy.

Space missions cost billions of dollars--NASA spent $40 billion on the Apollo missions, but the cost of these missions was borne as a matter of national pride and ambition during the space race to the moon, and it afterwards quickly became so unacceptable to spend such a large amount of money that the series was curtailed. Military possibilities and interests allowed the continuation of the Skylab program, and shuttles proved to be useful.

Now, as we look to the present and the future of space travel programs, it seems that space settlement is becoming a major goal, which may be in part due to the realization that Earth's resources are limited; the damage we're inflicting upon Earth, combined with the other impending damages from other causes, is highly difficult to reverse, and perhaps eventual settlements in space could help us to explore and find resources elsewhere in space. For example, it appears highly likely that there will be [manned] missions to Mars within the next twenty years (probably less).

Lots of progress is being made in space technology all the time, and it seems that the U.S. government will try to spend more in the NASA programs with the goal of reaching Mars, along with other important missions. Eastern countries such as China and India have also been recently contributing to the space travel efforts. It seems that the advantages of space travel are spreading around the world, and perhaps its usefulness will motivate us to find out more about our solar system, our galaxy, and our universe.