Front Lines is a guest viewpoint section offering perspectives on current issues and events from people working on the front lines of Canada's technology industry. Lorne Trottier received his M. Eng. in electrical engineering from McGill University in 1973. He is president and co-founder of Matrox Ltd., a manufacturer of computer graphics, video editing, and image processing products. He has been a lifelong space enthusiast and is a member of the Millennium Committee of the Planetary Society.
The recent Columbia space shuttle disaster has raised questions about the value and risks of space exploration.
Many people do not appreciate the worth of space exploration, some writing it off as a sterile product of the Cold War struggle between the U.S. and the USSR. Others view it as a hollow spectacle that is a big waste of money better spent on more pressing problems here on earth. These critics do not appreciate the immense contribution that space exploration is making to our understanding of our place in the cosmos and to human welfare.
We are living today in the midst of the Golden Age of Space Exploration, which began, with the launch of the Soviet Sputnik in Oct. 1957. Carl Sagan the famous American planetary scientist, has written: "We have entered, almost without noticing, an age of exploration and discovery unparalleled since the Renaissance."
Since the Apollo lunar landings, public interest and funding of space exploration have waned. But the pace of major new scientific discoveries and practical applications of space technology has never been higher.
Both the American NASA and the European Space Agency ESA have taken up the "better cheaper faster" mantra and are developing a veritable armada of relatively low cost robotic spacecraft with awesome scientific capability. This is an area where Canada should join other nations in playing a much more active role.
The limited budget of the Canadian Space Agency has been focused on the high visibility "Canadarms" on the space shuttle and the International Space Station, the Canadian astronaut program, and the little known Radarsat, which maps Artic ice movements. Canada has also contributed some instruments to the Japanese Nozomi Mars Orbiter. The CSA along with Canadian companies and universities have an excellent reputation in the space community. But, while these programs are worthy, there is insufficient focus on space science.
When the history of this golden age of exploration is written, it would be highly desirable for Canada to share more of the credit.
Advances in Science
Since the dawn of the space age, our comprehension of the earth, the solar system, the cosmos and our place in it has been revolutionized. These discoveries are breathtaking in scope ranging from understanding the origins of the universe itself, to measuring climate change on earth. But a common thread underlies all these discoveries: we are deeply connected to space.
Carl Sagan best explained one of these connections: "except for hydrogen, all atoms (all the elements) in our bodies were made in red giant stars, thousands of light years away in space and billions of years ago in time. We are star stuff."
The connection between the cosmos and earth is profound.
Consider a few of these seminal discoveries. In 1992 the American COBE spacecraft first mapped variations in the cosmic background radiation. These variations in the distant radio echo of the Big Bang were the "seeds" for the formation of the first stars and galaxies. Their discovery was a strong confirmation that the Big Bang theory is correct. New spacecraft such as the NASA MAP and the ESA Planck will greatly improve the precision of these measurements and provide a more detailed portrait of events during the Big Bang itself. They may even foretell the ultimate fate of the universe.
Since 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has been providing thousands of spectacularly beautiful and detailed images of galaxies, stars, and planets and has made dozens of scientifically significant discoveries. The famous Hubble Deep Fields are 10-day photographic exposures of supposedly empty space. Each image contains more than 1,500 galaxies ranging out to a distance more than 10 billion light years. Like a core sample though sedimentary rock, the Hubble Deep Field is a core sample through cosmic time. In it scientists catch glimpses of how the earliest tiny galaxies have merged over time to form the large galaxies that dominate today's universe. The same Deep Field image also provided dramatic confirmation of the most startling recent discovery in cosmology: namely that the expansion rate of the universe is actually accelerating rather than slowing down. If it were extended over the whole sky, the Hubble Deep Field could "see" more than 100 billion galaxies!
Best is yet to come
New generations of space telescopes will probe deeper to the edge of the visible universe and provide much more detailed images of the formation of the earliest galaxies. Others may be capable of detecting evidence for life on the earthlike planets of nearby stars.
Within our own solar system, an armada of spacecraft continues to build our understanding of its planets and moons, as well as the earth itself. Much as geologists have reconstructed the geological history of the earth, planetary scientists are beginning to piece together a more detailed story of the evolution our solar system.
One of the major insights of the space age is an appreciation of the major role played by asteroid bombardment. A key finding of the Apollo lunar missions is that the moon was formed when a massive Mars sized body collided with the earth 4.5 billion years ago. A massive comet impact 65 million years ago wiped out the dinosaurs and abruptly changed the history of life on earth for our ultimate benefit. Similar impacts may be responsible for other mass extinctions in the history of life on earth, and future collisions both large and small pose an ongoing threat to human life. Small groups of scientists are beginning the mammoth task of finding and tracking the thousands Near Earth Objects (NEO's) that may pose a risk to the earth.
Beginning with the epochal Voyager missions of the late 70's, scientists have uncovered a stunning range of variation among the planets and moons of our solar system, surpassing the imagination even of science fiction writers. Each planet and moon has its own distinct characteristics, and studying them deepens our understanding of the earth itself. The four large Galilean moons of Jupiter are a case in point. The most interesting, Europa, is a brittle ice world whose otherwise smooth crystal ball surface is blemished with thousands of gigantic cracks. The Galileo spacecraft has uncovered convincing evidence for a vast ocean beneath its ice sheets. Could some form of life have evolved and still be living there? Future missions are in the planning stages for a Europa orbiter, to be followed by a science fiction like cryobot/lander that will melt a borehole through the thick Europan ice sheet and explore the undersea ocean for signs of life.
Other wonders include Titan, the largest moon in the solar system and the only one with an atmosphere. The joint NASA/ESA Cassini/Hygens mission will arrive at Saturn in 2004 and will return a wealth of data on the Saturnian system including its intricate and fabulously beautiful rings, as well as landing on the surface of Titan and returning data on the complex organic molecules that are believed to smog up its thick atmosphere.
Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, is the coldest and most distant object yet visited by interplanetary spacecraft. Surprisingly, this frigid world features huge geysers of exploding nitrogen gas and snow that erupt when the surface temperature rises above -200 degrees Celsius.
Closer to home the planet that has received the most scrutiny besides earth is Mars. Two NASA spacecraft have been orbiting Mars over the past several years, the Japanese Nozomi with some Canadian instruments is currently en route, and three new spacecraft will be launched this year: two versatile surface rovers from NASA, and an orbiter/lander mission from ESA. These spacecraft are beginning to provide clues to the mysterious geological and meteorological history of Mars. The 3-kilometre-thick layers in the Martian polar caps contain a record of Martian weather over the past several million years. Comparing Martian weather history with that of Earth will establish how much solar variations contribute to global climate change.
The surface of Mars abounds with features indicating that liquid water once flowed on the surface leaving behind traces of gargantuan flash floods and channels of ancient riverbeds. Spacecraft have revealed immense regions of layered terrain and sedimentary rock similar to those found in the American Southwest and evidence for very recent outflows of water from certain exposed layers. Other data suggests that a vast ocean may have once covered much of the northern half of the planet. The Mars Odyssey spacecraft has found that huge reservoirs of water or ice may lie just beneath much of the Martian surface.
But it is the possibility of life on Mars that arouses the most interest among both scientists and the public. The pervasive evidence for the presence of water on Mars leaves open the distinct possibility that life may have developed there and may still exist in sheltered underground reservoirs. A definitive answer to the question of whether life ever existed on Mars may eventually require a human journey. Such an expedition would surely be one of the greatest voyages of discovery and adventure in human history.
Practical Applications
Aside from spin-off technology such as cordless power tools, the exploration of space has led to a number of important practical applications. Communications satellites provide instant global news coverage and have given birth to a multitude of 24-hour news channels ranging from CNN to Al Jazeera. International sporting and cultural events ranging from the Olympic games to the Academy Awards are now broadcast live to a worldwide audience. Home satellite TV and satellite car radio services have boosted programming choices available to consumers. Weather satellites greatly improve weather forecasting and storm tracking. Earth environmental monitoring satellites are making major contributions to measuring and understanding climate and environmental changes. Global Positioning Satellites will soon revolutionize car navigation with real-time positioning, maps, driving directions, and eventually even traffic information.
Conclusion
The astronauts of Apollo 8 took one of the best-known photos of the space age as they orbited the moon in 1968. The picture shows the earth rising over the pock marked lunar surface, and reveals the beautiful blue earth as fragile oasis of life, lost in the vastness of space. The exploration of space is important for human welfare for a number of spiritual as well as practical reasons. The question of life in the universe and whether or not we are "alone" is one of the most compelling issues in both science and popular culture.
Understanding the origins of the universe and the earth has long been among of the deepest intellectual and spiritual questions of every culture. Understanding and comparing the geological history and climate of the bodies in our solar system deepens our understanding of the earth. Solar radiation, asteroid bombardment, super nova explosions have, and will continue to have, major effects on life on earth. And earth-monitoring satellites provide valuable information on manmade environmental changes to the global ecosystem. In short, space exploration is deeply connected to human culture as well as human material welfare.
When the history of this golden age of space science is written, what will be made of Canada's contribution?
With a relatively modest commitment of additional resources, the CSA along with its highly regarded partners in industry and academia can and should participate more fully in this age of discovery. This quest surely is an expression of one of humankind's most fundamental qualities - the desire to understand the cosmos, and our place in it.