Space ……A Better Future ?

This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.

Looking up at the night sky as a kid I would think of the nursery poem “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, but now studying about those, I find that they are stars burning millions of light years away from me in a vast never ending dark expansion called space. It is a place where creation begins at the atomic level and ends at a gigantic stage; it is a place where creation and destruction are two sides of the same coin. It is a place that has aroused a sense of curiosity in humans for ages and has fostered the sense of outer space exploration. 2000 years ago ancient Greek philosophers estimated the distance to the Moon. Then 500 years back an Italian astronomer named Galileo Galilei presented his argument that Earth revolves around the sun.

But in the present times where Albert Einstein has presented his theory of Black holes and Stephen Hawkins has presented his Big Bang Theory we have to think of what lies ahead. Nowadays the phrase “There is no planet B” is quite common when it comes to environmental issues. But is it true? On 17th April 2014, NASA discovered an exoplanet named Kepler-186f within the habitable zone of a star but due to the star’s red wavelength, the planet would have red plants. Kepler -22b and Proxima Centurari are planets like Earth but have one or two vital elements missing. Yet there has been no such breakthrough in the field of astronomy where a planet like the earth has been discovered. But to have a brighter future mankind won’t stop thinking, and won’t stop exploring.

Space exploration and space observation is the key to a brighter future. Not only can using space observations help protect society from climate change, but also improve society's commercial and public health. Satellite imagery can identify crop yield through a magnified view allowing farmers to understand when to water, fertilize and harvest crops. Mega-constellations also look promising. These satellite groups can enhance the efficiency, capacity and safety of a variety of Earth-based services. By using big data, mega-constellations can create more high-speed internet with increased throughput and global coverage benefitting users every day. So it proves that what we think is impossible may be possible in the not-so-distant future and who knows with the help of space exploration we might find others like us.