Opinion | Dont Cede the Space Race to China and the Billionaires – The New York Times

If anyone is as bullish on the new frontier as China, it is the billionaires. Their ambitions, too, should spur NASA to stay in the game. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk might or might not be visionaries, but they are easily the most powerful people on this planet to speak with a straight face about colonizing other ones. Mr. Musk warns of an extinction event that will require us to leave Earth behind. There is a certain egalitarianism in the idea of an escape hatch for humanity, though it is the egalitarianism of rats leaving a sinking (or overheating) ship. It would have to get pretty bad down here before ordinary people follow the billionaires into the black void of space rather than bid them adieu. Mr. Musks product placement of a Tesla in orbit and Mr. Bezos postflight performance in his cowboy hat leave one wary of their motives and nostalgic for the military bearing of Glenn. If space travel lost its novelty in the early 1970s, it might now be in the process of losing its dignity.

Of course, this takes nothing away from the achievements of Mr. Musks aerospace company, SpaceX. Rarely in any industry has such boldness of imagination been matched by such brilliance in execution. The company is an indispensable partner to NASA; a SpaceX landing system will carry astronauts to and from the moons surface.

But there is an essential difference between exploration and colonization, and both are a far cry from commercialization. Left to the billionaires, space is less likely to become a haven for humanity than a playground for its wealthiest members. In that event, there will be no more John Glenns no more astronauts to look up to and emulate, astronauts whose humility and awe in the vastness of space define them as much as their bravery does.

The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, Kennedy said in 1962 at Rice University, warning that no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space. Perhaps this logic has lost its power; perhaps Americans dont care if the billionaires and China have the moon to themselves. The idea of space as a new frontier, too, might be tired, overworked. (During the Super Bowl, a Salesforce ad dismissed it with an Eh.) But the thrilling discoveries by Perseverance the evidence of ancient Martian river deltas and lava flows give eloquent testimony to the mysteries that await on the frontier. Robots like these are stunningly capable. Still, they cannot invent or imagine; they cannot drive the process of discovery in space any more than they do here on Earth. Only humans can lead, and to lead, humans must go.

Science is simply the exploration of the unknown, James Head, a planetary geologist at Brown who helped train the Apollo astronauts, told me, adding that the moon is unknown. Mars is unknown. Perhaps this is what NASA should say, and without apology: We dont know what well find. We dont know what the moon and Mars can tell us about the origins of the universe and life on Earth and possibly beyond it. And that, above all, is the reason for going. Six days after his return to Earth, Glenn addressed a joint meeting of Congress. What benefits are we gaining from the money spent? he asked, acknowledging that it was too early to say. But exploration and the pursuit of knowledge, he said, have always paid dividends in the long run usually far greater than anything expected at the outset. Why bother? This is why.

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Opinion | Dont Cede the Space Race to China and the Billionaires - The New York Times