Atkinson 1

Silas Atkinson

Prof. Leonard

English 1201.513

26 February 2020

Research Paper

Space exploration masquerades under many different names, each one with a story behind

it. The final frontier. Waste of resources. Hoax. Political stunt. Even in small towns, opinions vary

as irregularly as cosmic afterglow, the radiation scattered throughout the universe in the aftermath

of the Big Bang. However, as the world exits the era of the space shuttle and moves forward,

space exploration has become less and less of a priority to the American people.

President Trump has made it a goal for humans to land on Mars, but there is a lot to be

done, especially since humans have not traveled to the moon in more than half a century (Baker).

Today's political and social climates are impatient regarding space travel, and many are

questioning why the space program finds it necessary to take so many steps and launch so many

probes before the United States can establish a human presence. And so it begs the question: Why

is extensive unmanned spaceflight such a necessary precursor to manned activities?

Extensive unmanned spaceflight is necessary prior to manned activities for multiple

reasons. The most prominent of these reasons are as follows: to ensure the safety of crew

members when manned activities are performed, to continue space exploration and discoveries

during the development period of manned systems, and to refine and develop methods and

materials critical to both manned and unmanned spaceflight. These reasons are important due to

the influence they have on the political, social, and financial state of the space program.
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As Michael D’Antonio summarizes in his book about the history of space exploration,

after the first German rockets reached the edge of space during World War II, nations poured

millions of dollars into research and development in a race for superiority. Two nations emerged

as the greatest powers on the globe: the United States of America and the Soviet Republic (31).

Fueled by cultural and militaristic tension, they competed for dominance in the field of space

travel and technology. The Soviet Union was focused on the spread of communist and socialist

ideas, while the United States fiercely fought the spread of communism in an effort to protect

capitalism and western society. In fact, much of this effort was made in order to protect and

maintain the prevalent consumer culture which was so crucial to the United State’s extreme

economic success experienced during this period.

Each nation was unified socially and politically against the other, education and

employment rates rose, and new scientific developments were made almost daily. The United

States reached space, then came back from it. It reached orbit, re-entered the atmosphere, and

rendezvoused high above the world.

Then, it set its sights on the stars. The United States built robotic space probes and landers,

engineered to explore foreign environments and go where humans had only dreamed of going. It

sent them to fly past the moon, then crash into it, and then land on it. The game was changing.

Engineers and scientists created technology that had never before existed, tested to the limit again

and again, and then, in what would end the race in a move of sheer dominance, the United States

landed humans on the moon.

The Soviet Republic had been beaten, but in a last-ditch effort they launched an unmanned

robotic Moon lander in an attempt to gather a lunar sample and return to the earth before the
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United States did. The Soviet craft malfunctioned and impacted the moon's surface just hours

after U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left the moon’s surface.

The United States had won the space race. Astronauts continued to visit the moon 10 more

times after Apollo 11, but there was no longer much of a political motive to continue space

exploration on a scale that involved humans. Politicians and political parties alike turned back to

arguing amongst themselves and focused on their personal images and agendas. The Soviet Union

canceled their programs for human spaceflight to the moon, instead focusing on scientific

advancements and unmanned missions to Venus and Mars.

The United States, once unified by a common cause, fell back to the normal ebb and flow

of disorganized efforts and battles for contracts and government funding. Since the end of the

space race, NASA has sent multiple probes through and even out of the solar system, and has

landed rovers and probes on Venus, Mars, the Moon, and even Titan, one of Saturn’s many

moons (Baker 244).

Since the ‘70s, U.S. public interest in space has declined sharply, and funding has

dramatically decreased for those types of activities. The National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA), which at one point had received “more than four percent of the federal

budget, now only receives about half of one percent” (Baker). This leaves the nation today with a

minimally functional space program, doing its best to continue exploration on a shoestring

budget. And now with pressure from the White House to put humans on Mars in the near future,

things are looking bleak.

Unlike during the space age, NASA does not have the budget to develop and fly manned

crafts within the very near future. Unmanned vehicles, however, can mostly accomplish the same
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missions as manned craft at only a fraction of the cost. This makes unmanned craft a much more

viable option for current exploration until manned expeditions become economically feasible.

Unmanned vehicles can be launched using already-existing methods and equipment, and

are much more cost-effective than manned vehicles because they do not necessitate

accomodations for crew members such as living quarters and life support systems. This means

unmanned craft are typically much lighter, much smaller, and much more resilient than manned

craft.

In addition, manned craft take many years to develop, as the systems needed to support

human life are very complicated and must be very reliable in order to ensure the safety of the

crew on board. Unmanned craft only need to be engineered to fulfill the mission and do so

reliably, whereas manned craft must fulfill the mission, do so within the healthy tolerances of the

human body, maintain a controlled climate, carry food, oxygen, and water, and have living

quarters and atmospheric re-entry capabilities.

Despite much difference of opinion, most scholarly articles agree on a couple mutual

points. Firstly, unmanned missions are necessary in order to work on already-existing technology

and develop new technology in order to refine operations and make manned missions less costly.

In a hearing before Congress on human space exploration, William Gerstenmaier, the associate

administrator of human exploration and operations for NASA stated that “technology

development is a critical enabler for cost-effective exploration” (United States 9). Unmanned

spaceflight is a necessary vehicle to conduct testing of new technologies in the environment they

are designed for.

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The Space, Policy, and Society Research Group of the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology concluded in 2008 that timelines for human missions are being hindered by the fact

that “critical technologies for long-duration missions and Mars landings are not being actively

investigated” (Mindell et al 12). This essentially means that the space program is not actually

working on the technologies necessary for prospective manned missions, effectively rendering

them impossible to conduct until changes are made and the technologies are developed.

With many low cost commercial options available for launching unmanned crafts to orbit,

it does not make sense economically to put the time and effort into developing the infrastructure

necessary for regular manned spaceflight. Weight is an extremely important factor in the cost of a

launch, as with each extra pound of payload, the energy cost, and therefore monetary cost, of

getting to orbit increases exponentially.

Perhaps most importantly, unnecessary risk of human life must be avoided, especially

when the same objective can be completed using an alternate solution. Unmanned solutions are

nearly always more cost-effective than the alternative manned missions. In 1986, Space Shuttle

Challenger exploded only minutes into the launch, killing all seven astronauts onboard. The

mission? “To deploy a tracking and relay satellite” (Mindell et al 4), something that would have

been much easier and less complicated to achieve via an unmanned rocket.

Unlike the beginning of the space race in the 1960s, there are not many commercially

available rockets designed to carry both cargo and humans as payload. In the past, civilian

companies contracted to mass-produce rocket engines and components supplied government

efforts with consistent launch vehicles made to government specifications. The government
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workers would then design the payload, whether it be a manned capsule, a second stage capable

of orbit, or a scientific package, around the already existing rocket (D’Antonio 104).

However, today cost-effective rockets capable of carrying manned payloads are largely

not compatible with the manned craft designed separately by government contracted companies.

In addition, the safety standards during the early days of space exploration were much more

lenient, and allowed for a significant amount of risk to human life. Today, the government has

much more strict allowances for vehicle reliability and resilience in order to avoid the possibility

of crew death, which would spell social and financial disaster for the space program. According to

Jenab and Pineau, “Sending men to space has never been an ordinary activity, it requires years of

planning and preparation in order to have a chance of success.”

In contradiction to most sources, a documentary produced in 1961 by the National

Aeronautics and Space Administration claims that “training has covered every conceivable

eventuality, every emergency no matter how unlikely” (NASA 00:06:14 - 00:06:20). It should be

noted that this statement was made during the much less restrictive heyday of space exploration,

and was made regarding the first ever attempted manned spaceflight by the United States. It is

entirely possible that this statement was made in order to bolster national pride and reputation,

rather than to report true and accurate information.

Even though this statement can be disputed without additional information, it should be

considered that, even with precautionary measures, once the spacecraft has left the atmosphere

and reached orbit, “crew life will be totally dependent on the environment control and life support

system of the spacecraft” (Matelli and Goebel). This means the occupants of the craft are
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completely at the mercy of variables such as critical system failures, damage to spacecraft by

micrometeorites, pilot error, and solar flares.

A perfect example of how unmanned crafts are paving the way for safer and simpler

manned missions is the problem of solar flares; extremely large gusts of radiation and matter

emitted by the sun. Solar flares are especially dangerous to manned crafts because of their

unpredictability and the effects they have on technology. The European Space Agency states that

solar flares “can disrupt Earth’s protective magnetic bubble and upper atmosphere, affecting

satellites in orbit, navigation, terrestrial power grids, and data and communication networks”

(ESA). This means that if a manned craft in space is exposed to a solar flare, critical systems such

as life support, communications, navigation, and heat management could fail, quite possibly

resulting in the deaths of everyone on board.

In order to combat this threat, the European Space Agency is planning an unmanned

mission to place a satellite in a high orbit so that it can observe the sides of the sun before they

rotate into view of the Earth. This will allow the satellite to provide control centers with early

warnings, hopefully in time to cancel manned launches or return astronauts from space to Earth

before the flare reaches them (ESA). This is only one way in which unmanned missions are

proving their value in creating a safer, more reliable network to enable human spaceflight.

In addition to the comparable safety advantages offered by unmanned expeditions, it is

worth noting that unmanned systems have had massive success throughout the years. Unmanned

crafts traveled far beyond Earth to Venus, Mars, and even Jupiter (D’Antonio 244). Spacecraft

such as Voyager 1 have exceeded and outperformed their intended purposes, completing

decades-long missions to the farthest reaches of the solar system and beyond. Humanity has
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learned much, much, more than it ever could have imagined, and unmanned satellites have proven

invaluable to the fields of science and physics, even proving and disproving theories.

For example, satellites have measured firsthand the effect of ‘frame-dragging;’ the ‘wake’

in spacetime caused by the rotation and movement of bodies of matter such as the Earth. It is even

possible to measure the curve in the trajectory of light particles caused by massive neutron stars

millions of light years away. And, as probes such as Voyager 1 continue far beyond the solar

system, they encounter effects and forces that have never before been observed.

What are possible reasons for the extensive use of unmanned applications prior to manned

activities? While manned spaceflight captures attention and holds it, unmanned spaceflight is

most often the safest and most sensible choice when faced with significant risk. The potential

political and social fallout from an accident involving U.S. astronauts means NASA will take the

chance of losing nearly all of its funding and public interest when it finally does perform a

manned launch. And, unmanned crafts are typically much less complex than their manned

counterparts, making it easier for technicians to troubleshoot and compensate for unexpected

issues.

In addition to the ability to travel much farther and faster than manned crafts, unmanned

vehicles aid humans in discovering design issues and refining processes. In 1958, the United

States Air Force attempted multiple times to launch a probe to fly past the Moon and gather

information. Both attempts failed due to different reasons, but the data gathered from the flights

and failures would prove extremely useful in future missions, laying the foundations for the moon

landing (D’Antonio 218). Had these missions not been conducted, the engineers responsible for

constructing and designing these crafts would have much less knowledge of how the harsh
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environment of outer space affects spacecraft, and much less understanding of the potential

technical failures and calculating mistakes that can occur during a mission.

Another major factor when travelling to extreme environments is the ability of unmanned

systems to test and provide data on new technologies and components, as well as propulsion

systems, thermal management systems, and communications systems without placing humans at

risk if the equipment behaves unexpectedly or fails. This experience gained means that future

missions can be more cost effective, more reliable, and far more capable thanks to the technology

and methods proven by unmanned craft.

In addition to the safety benefits, unmanned crafts do not rely on life support systems

while in operation, and can gather information at a lesser cost for when humans follow their path

to the stars. Many past presidents have promised lofty goals in space exploration, but never came

close to attaining them, “unwilling or unable to obtain the financing necessary” (Baker).

This critical juncture of politics and economics is where even the most well-intentioned

plans tend to fail, whether by lack of public interest or by ‘sticker shock’ and scepticism in

Congress. Spaceflight, once a matter of international politics and national prestige, has fallen

victim to national politics, with parties sabotaging each other’s attempts for no purpose other than

to hinder each other’s agendas.

This political blockade means that funding for large scale manned missions is a long way

off, but the space program has to continue operating as normal and performing missions, or it

risks appearing defunct and useless. Fortunately, there is no shortage of information left to gather

by sending unmanned crafts to explore planets such as Mars. However, this does mean that it is

not possible for the space program to ‘save up’ money in order to launch manned missions.
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Thus, the most promising technique to ensure the eventual possibility of manned

spaceflight on a greater scale is to utilize current resources in order to operate unmanned missions

that will result in the greatest gains in technology and expertise that can be then translated to

manned operations. This will improve the feasibility of such missions and increase the scientific

value of spacecraft. In addition, the development of lighter and better components will decrease

the cost of spaceflight, both manned and unmanned.

In today's world, the United State’s space program can seem almost obsolete, a relic of a

once-unified nation, a behemoth of nationalism and pride, slowed to a standstill by the loss of

purpose. Its enemy defeated, it now seldom makes headlines, slowly disappearing into the

background of politics. These days NASA can seem almost as remote and secretive as the thick

Florida swamps that surround the establishment. Without the risk, excitement, drama, and

heroism of manned flights and daring new experiments, there is no large-scale public interest in

the space program. The novelty of space itself seems to be wearing thin.

Even with discouragingly low levels of public interest and pressure from both the

government and society for manned missions, extensive unmanned spaceflight is still necessary

prior to manned activities. This is due to the lower operating and building costs of unmanned

crafts, the lack of significant risk to humans, the ability to test and develop new equipment to be

used in manned missions, and the ability to discover how systems respond to harsh environments

on other planets. The significance of this should not be underestimated, as the safety and

wellbeing of future astronauts depends on the research and development conducted by these

crafts.
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Works Cited

Baker, Peter. “For 50 Years Since Apollo 11, Presidents Have Tried to Take That Next Giant

Leap.” ​The New York Times,​ 19 July 2019,

www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/us/politics/apollo-11-anniversary-presidents.html​.

Accessed 27 Feb. 2020.

D’Antonio, Michael. ​A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957 - The Space Race Begins​. Simon &

Schuster, 2008.

ESA,​ European Space Agency, ​www.esa.int/​. Accessed 27 Feb. 2020.

Jenab, Kouroush, and Joseph Pineau. “Failure Mode and Effect Analysis on Safety Critical

Components of Space Travel.” ​Management Science Letters,​ Growing Science, 1 July

2015. Directory of Open Access Journals, ​doi: 0.5267/j.msl.2015.5.006​. Accessed 26 Feb.

2020.

Matelli, José Alexandre, and Kai Goebel. “Resilience Evaluation of the Environmental Control

and Life Support System of a Spacecraft for Deep Space Travel.” ​Acta Astronautica,​ vol.

152, Nov. 2018, pp. 360–369. ​EBSCOhost​, doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2018.08.045. Accessed

27 Feb. 2020.

Mindell, David A. et al. ​The Future of Human Spaceflight​. Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, 2008, ​https://web.mit.edu/mitsps/MITFutureofHumanSpaceflight.pdf​.

Accessed 27 Feb. 2020.

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Mercury Freedom 7 (1961) Documentary on

America's First Manned Spaceflight.” ​YouTube​, uploaded by The Federal File, 18 Sep.

2016 1961, ​www.youtube.com/watch?v=INlBxrgLrFM​. Accessed 26 Feb. 2020.

United States, Congress, ​Challenges and Opportunities for Human Space Exploration: Hearing

before the Subcommittee on Science and Space of the Committee on Commerce, Science,

and Transportation, United States Senate, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First

Session, April 23, 2013​, U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2015. ​Govinfo,​

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-113shrg94152/pdf/CHRG-113shrg94152.pd

f​. Accessed 27 Feb. 2020.