The Betrayed Space Generation
By: Jack Guthrie
Tags: Vision, Spacex, Space, Space Exploration, Technology

We recently celebrated 50 years since 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the spirit of that, let’s start there.

1968

It’s the year 1968.

The space race is in full swing. While the first man-made object landed on the moon on 13 September 1959 by the Soviet Union’s Luna 2 mission, no man has yet stepped on the moon. That would remain the case until the following year, when on 20 July 1969 Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin would step on the moon as part of the United States’ Apollo 11 mission, marking the beginning of the end of the space race.

Out comes a film that, beyond the clearly sci-fi plot tie, makes predictions about the technologically-advanced, space-faring future that humanity may have in 2001. 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, partially based on a short story “The Sentinel” written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1948.

Regardless of how much you think the film actually attempted to make accurate predictions about our future, what is indisputable is that these technologies were at the very least realistically contemplated as achievable ideas now over 50 years ago.

From seemingly minor advancements such as video-conferencing, tablet computing, voice-identification systems, flat screen TVs and in-flight entertainment, to major technical advances such as spaceplanes, moon bases, moonbuses, manned missions to other planets (Jupiter), cryogenic sleep, artificial gravity (via centrifuge), artificial intelligence, and EVA (extra-vehicular activity) pods, the film depicted an exciting space-faring future.

Let’s jump ahead 50 years — half a century since the debut of Kubrick’s film.

2018

It’s the year 2018.

A new space race is sparking. While NASA successfully landed and operated Mars unmanned rovers from mid-1997 through to today, no man has yet stepped on the red planet. In fact, since 1972, no man has again stepped on the Moon.

The inefficiencies of public space agencies are now obvious, with election cycles, political priorities, red tape and funding problems preventing real progress. Ironically, the public hold most hope in the private sector to successfully land a man on the Moon again, or Mars for the first time.

It’s 17 years past 2001, and very few of the more exciting predictions about the technologically-advanced, space-faring future that humanity may have had have come true.

In 2018, we have video-conferencing, tablet computing, voice-ID systems, flat screen TVs and in-flight entertainment. Yet we have none of the more major and exciting predictions made during the 1950s and 1960s. While we may have an international space station, we have commercially unviable suborbital space planes, no moon base, no manned missions to other planets, unproven cryogenic sleep science, no viable artificial gravity, very limited artificial intelligence (and nowhere near general artificial intelligence), and no EVA pods.

The Betrayed Space Generation

The exciting, technologically-advanced, space-faring future we envisioned is just not there. We betrayed our own vision of the future. Those born in the 50s and 60s were sold a vision of the future but were not called to action to make the vision itself a reality. They grew up thinking that someone else was working toward achieving that vision.

They are the betrayed space generation. And all we have today are excuses for why what could have been is not so.

“It costs too much”

“We have other advancements instead”

“It doesn’t deliver real benefit”

“There are/were other priorities”

“We should focus on looking after Earth before we move to other planets”

“We don’t have the technology”

We have weak excuses for not following through with action toward achieving a vision of the future we all wanted and marvelled at the thought of.

The vision itself has been consistent — clearly emphasised by the killer popularity of the space sci-fi genre. In 1977, George Lucas’ Star Wars hit cinemas, in 1982 Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, in 1997 Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall, in 2009 James Cameron’s Avatar, and in 2014 Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, just to name a few.

The vision itself was also not unrealistic — private companies of today have built near enough to most of the technology needed for the predicted space-faring future of Kubrick’s film within just the last 10 years.

However, the vision lacked action and drive. We betrayed ourselves, and we only have ourselves to blame. We sold a vision to ourselves without a call to action, and our inaction and procrastination bred stagnation. We thought somebody else was going to bring our vision to us. We thought that somebody else was working on making the vision a reality, so none of us truly were.

A New Hope

All that negativity said, the future is not dreary. You and I have been born at a very lucky time. A time where people have woken up and begun to recognise that having a vision alone is blatantly not enough. Vision is meaningless without the accompanying action.

We are living in a time where it’s likely that within our lifetimes we will have a much more space-faring future than the past 50 years combined — but only if we act to make that vision a reality.

Elon Musk and Gwynne Shotwell with SpaceX have paved one of the most actionable, realistic paths to achieve a technologically-advanced, space-faring future. It has inspired others to not only follow, but contribute to and act toward achieving that vision. Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin and other public agencies including NASA and ESA are in on the same vision.

We’re scrambling to action — today, not tomorrow. You and I can be a part of making humanity a technologically-advanced, space-faring species. All we have to do is not make the same mistake twice — let’s not be content with the vision of this future alone.

I refuse to stand by and let the betrayed space generation extend to generations.

Let’s get shit done.