Exponential Technologies Taking Us Beyond Apollo

摘要

Forty-five years ago, Apollo 11 carried the first humans to land on the Moon. Today, many things about going to the Moon remain the same. In fact, our ability to send humans to the Moon through powerful human-rated rockets like the Saturn 5 no longer exists. Our ability to escape from Earth's gravitational well on a journey to our nearest neighbor died with the Apollo program. At best, the only potential way to get from Earth to the Moon is through a three-day launch on a modified Soyuz rocket - the same rocket that propelled Yuri Gagarin more than 50 years ago on the first human spaceflight. Why then does it feel like the space industry hasn't progressed much in almost half a century? For one, a major change has occurred in the motivation for the United States to marshal the resources for such an endeavor. It was the competition with the former Soviet Union that inspired the U.S. government to devote almost 5 percent of the federal budget to the space race. Today, NASA receives roughly 0.5 percent. Today, the same motivations would never pass Congress or find funding for another space race.