{"id":20792,"date":"2016-01-23T22:02:10","date_gmt":"2016-01-23T22:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yaabot.com\/?p=20792"},"modified":"2024-02-28T13:55:15","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T08:25:15","slug":"bringing-back-space-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/bringing-back-space-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Age Still Too Far: Bringing Back Space Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Ask anyone in their mid 30s to 50s what they thought of the future while growing up – space colonies, orbital vacations and a Mars base will likely figure on most lists. These were the expectations a generation growing up in the 60s and 70s had and always imagined the future would be the space age. What happened? <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Half a century after the Moon landing (which we managed to achieve starting from scratch in a little more than decade) – the furthest any human has gone is barely 400 kilometres off our planet\u2019s surface. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Where did humanity lose its way?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n We’re a flawed species. For a large part of our history, a significant portion of our technological or scientific progress has been an unintended consequence of war, not a pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. The rockets that propel our objects into orbit were initially designed as ballistic missiles to threaten nations across vast distances. Ships were meticulously crafted not for exploration, but for empires to expand their grasp across oceans. While the Wright brothers may have achieved the first sustained flight, it was the grim realization of their potential as bomb-carrying machines that truly propelled airplanes into the mainstream, ushering in the space age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ever thought about how our exploitation of nuclear energy did not come about with the intent to give \u2018clean energy to the masses\u2019, but only because \u2018the Germans would do it first\u2019? It\u2019s how humans work.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\nWar Works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n