The Future of Exploring with Unmanned Systems in Space

     It is not a surprise that I am interested in unmanned systems and what role those systems play in advancing society and civilization.  After looking at an article from the journal Nature Astronomy, I can see a small bit about what society is aiming for in the next three decades.  I found an article that discusses the progress that has been made with extraterrestrial regolith-sampling robots (ERSRs).  Will it be humans that ultimately will be the ones to physically construct bases on the moon or Mars?  Will humans step foot onto the Moon, Titan, or an asteroid in order to quench humankind’s primal curiosity anytime soon?  Zhang and his 11 co-authors do not address these exact questions in what I looked at in this article, but my mind cannot help but ponder what the future of space exploration will actually look like.  

    Let us get into the science of what humankind has done today and then I will look at what we might do tomorrow.  It is important to know as much as possible about where we want to go before we even begin to decide if and how to establish a settlement or conduct any operations.  One way to accomplish this is to study the ground, soil, rocks, or dust of the surface and subsurface of the rocky body of interest.  Merriam-Webster defines regolith as unconsolidated residual or transported material that overlies the solid rock on the earth, moon, or a planet (n.d.).  As of the writing of the aforementioned article in this post, eighty-nine missions have been planned where an extraterrestrial land is expected and 36 of those had ERSRs gather information to provide a better understanding of the regolith of those sites (Zhang et al., 2019).  There is data on regolith from the Moon, Venus, small bodies (celestial), and Mars available to study and further analyze.  The capability to learn more about this topic is here and growing.  Once more data is collected it will become possible to know more about where possible fuel sources are locate (frozen ice) and how better to extract them giving humankind the ability to develop missions to begin constructing bases of operation at some of these sites (Zhang et al., 2019).

    NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have been researching 3D printing of large scale objects including habitations since 2013 (Zhang et al., 2019).  I can see where the technology to create 3D structures will be available to construct structures on the Moon and Mars.  My mind ponders again something that is not addressed in this journal article.  I begin to wonder who will actually reside on the Moon or Mars and why will they be there.  These developments that are being worked towards in order to "advance" humankind are beginning to just feel like an opportunity for one nation or power to show dominance over all others.  We are learning how push the limits of what we know as possible for human existence.  Are we doing this to better humankind?  Will we be conducting research that will ultimately  lead to a better life for those who still reside on Earth?  

    I agree with Zhang and all of his co-authors in that the future of space exploration will be lead by ERSRs getting better at what they do thus giving humankind the ability to eventually colonize the Moon and Mars.  This is happening.  Governments and even private companies are spending billions on this goal.  Unmanned systems will be there first so that eventually humankind can have a presence there as well.  

References

Merriam-Webster.  (n.d.).  Regolith.  In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary.  Retrieved April 22, 2021,           from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/regolith

Zhang, T., Xu, K., Yao, Z., Ding, X., Zhao, Z., Hou, X., Pang, Y., Lai, X., Zhang, W., Liu, S., & Deng, J.  (2019).  The Progress of extraterrestrial regolith-sampling robots.  Nature Astronomy, 3(6), 487-497.  10.1038/s41550-019-0804-1

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/releases/2020/nasa-looks-to-advance-3d-printing-construction-systems-for-the-moon.html