Fascination with the contents of our skies dates back thousands of years, but it was only in the last century that someone finally figured out how to get up there (though the very first rockets – similar to modern fireworks – date all the way back to 11th-century China). It would be another 20 years before Konstantin Tsiolkovsky worked out the physics of space travel and Robert Goddard built the first liquid-fueled rocket. From there, the pace picked up. Before long, satellites were traversing the final frontier and humans had landed on the Moon. But after the Cold War ended, both US and Soviet governments scaled back their programs, leaving further exploration to robots.
While national space programs have increased knowledge and enhanced national prestige, military and economic power, they’ve also helped the general public in a number of other ways. Privately-funded spaceflight companies and commercial space stations have also changed the cost and overall landscape of space exploration.
One of the most significant benefits of manned space missions has been to inspire generations to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics – all of which are vital to humankind’s future. Space research has also led to a number of medical advances that have improved life on Earth, including methods for delivering cancer-fighting drugs directly to tumours and ultrasound equipment a nurse can hold and transmit from thousands of miles away.
With the International Space Station and China’s Chang’e program ramping up, there’s renewed hope that humans will again land on the Moon. In the meantime, robots continue to explore the planets of our solar system and beyond – rovers on Mars have gathered valuable data from the surface and unmanned probes have found organic molecules in the clouds of Venus.