.” Elkins-Tanton was joined by Ellen Stofan, director of the National Air and Space Museum and former chief scientist of NASA, in a discussion about how the pandemic is impacting space exploration, in practical and profound ways.wrote about for Future Tense in March. “Quarantine is something astronauts know a lot about,” said Stofan. She noted that quarantining before a mission has been standard practice since the beginning of space travel.
Elkins-Tanton also asked Stofan how leaders can justify investing in space while weighing so many other priorities. Stofan said that inspiring future scientists and spurring technological innovation is well worth the cost of space exploration. Plus, research on microgravity and its effects on cells on the International Space Station could teach us about vaccines and immunotherapy.
Part of that investment comes from a growing private space industry that will push exploration farther. Elkins-Tanton has received questions about how private companies getting involved with space transport, like the impending, will affect space missions. Stofan views private space companies like SpaceX and Blue Origins as an “and,” not an “or,” creating opportunity for the national space programs to refocus on exploration.
Last summer, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of landing on the moon, which created opportunities to look to both the past and the future of space exploration. Now, imagining several decades from now may be difficult. But Stofan called for the kind of optimism and ambition that spurred Apollo 11. “We need that kind of moonshot thinking to overcome things like a pandemic,” she said.
As we are forced to physically distance, the collaborative spirit of space exploration can bring us together. Elkins-Tanton believes “space exploration is fundamental to the human psyche,” referring to ancient Greek astronomers who imagined technologies far beyond their reach. Through leading the ASU Interplanetary Initiative, Elkins-Tanton has found that we are all a part of space exploration: “To become an interplanetary species, we need all different disciplines.
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