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Voyaging
Editor's Note: This is the sixth in a series of
essays on exploration by Steven J. Dick.
How
best to frame historically the new Vision for
Space Exploration that NASA is now implementing? The Age of Space in general
is perhaps best viewed as a continuous story of voyages further and further from
the home planet. It is a process that has only begun, that goes in fits and
starts, and that has no end. It is the story of debates about the relative
benefits of human and robotic exploration, about expendable launch vehicles vs.
reusable launch vehicles, about the benefits of space exploration to society,
and numerous other contentious themes. But at its core, and in the end, it is
fundamentally a story of voyages and exploration.
The concept and
practice of voyaging is very old in human history. Members of homo
sapiensleaving Africa 50,000 years ago were on a voyage of sorts, an
exploration of the unknown that eventually led to their spread throughout the
world. Spencer Wells has vividly described this process in The Journey of
Man: A Genetic Odyssey. Maritime voyages have an ancient history, extending
from the mythological odyssey of Ulysses to the present. Ancient shipwrecks now
being uncovered testify to the strength of maritime trade and exploration among
early civilizations, as Bob Ballard records in his recent book Mystery of the
Ancient Seafarers.
| At its core, and in the end, it is fundamentally a
story of voyages and exploration. | But at a
particular time in human history, during the 15th and 16th centuries, discovery
became so frenetic that historians have termed it "the Age of Discovery." In a
classic work of historical interpretation, J. H. Parry more specifically labeled
it "The Age of Reconnaissance," since during this time large parts of the Earth
were visited for the first time, and entire continents were added to the map of
the world. Here is one framework, and in my view an enlightening one, for
understanding the historical meaning of the Age of Space.
The parallels
and differences between the Age of Discovery and the Age of Space are
instructive. Such parallels have, of course, been drawn before. Wernher von
Braun was fond of talking about Magellan, and concluded that his proposal for a
human mission to Mars was similar to that of Magellan. When Laurence Bergreen
was researching his book Voyage to Mars about the Pathfinder, Mars Global
Surveyor and the heartbreaking unsuccessful 1999 voyages to Mars, he found
references to the Age of Discovery and Magellan rampant within NASA. "After the
tenth or maybe the twentieth time the name Ferdinand Magellan was mentioned to
me," he recalled, "a dim light bulb eventually illuminated in my mind." The
experience led him to write a gripping account, Over the Edge of the World:
Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the World.
General
comparisons of ocean exploration and space exploration abound in a variety of
contexts. In the 1950s science fiction writers were fond of the metaphor, as
evidenced in book titles such as Arthur C. Clarke's Across the Sea of
Stars.
Image Left: President John F. Kennedy "setting sail
on a new sea" at Rice University in Houston, Texas, on September 12,
1962
A few months after setting the course for the Moon in 1961,
President Kennedy proclaimed that "We set sail on this new sea because there
is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won
and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science
and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force
for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a
position of preeminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea
of peace or a new, terrifying theater of war."
It is one thing when
the President of the United States draws such an analogy. And it is significant
when historians and journalists build on the analogy, as in the official history
of project Mercury entitled This New Ocean, or William Burrows' classic
history of the Space Age with the same title. But it is even more significant
when NASA workers see themselves in the tradition of the Age of Discovery, for
that idea, once internalized, becomes a powerful force in itself.
I do
not say that the Age of Discovery is the only interpretive framework for the Age
of Space. But it is a fertile and enlightening one. In future essays we will
examine further the similarities and differences between the Age of Discovery
and the Age of Space, including the voyages of exploration, their discoveries
and their consequences. Recalling those epic voyages are another way of
reminding us why we need to explore.
+ View More
'Why We Explore' Essays
Readings
Robert D. Ballard, Mystery of the Ancient Seafarers: Early
Maritime Civilizations (National Geographic: Washington, D.C.,
2004)
Laurence Bergreen, Voyage to Mars: NASA's Search for Life Beyond
Earth(Riverhead Books: New York, 2000).
Laurence Bergreen, Over the
Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe
(William Morrow: New York, 2003).
William E. Burrows, This New Ocean: The
Story of the First Space Age (The Modern Library: New York, 1998).
J. H.
Parry, The Age of Reconnaissance: Discovery, Exploration and Settlement,
1450-1650 (University of California Press: Berkeley, 1981; 1st edition,
London, 1963).
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