Editorial: Nasa asteroid samples latest achievements as space race picks up pace

Technicians examine the sample return capsule from Nasa's Osiris-Rex mission. Photo / Nasa via AP

EDITORIAL

It is incredible to think of the achievements in aviation and the skyrocketing aerospace industry in the past 50-plus years.

The year 1969 was momentous; it included the first commercial flight of a Boeing 747, the first test flight of the Concorde, and the first “giant step for mankind” as humans walked on the moon.

Once mere flights of fancy and the stuff of science fiction, human imagination and our spirit of adventure and technical prowess now seemingly know no bounds.

This week, asteroid samples collected from deep space by Nasa were returned after a seven-year journey, dropped off in a “flyby” past Earth made by the Osiris-Rex spacecraft. Nasa says the 4.5-billion-year-old pebbles and dust are the biggest haul from beyond the moon and from the dawn of our solar system, and will help scientists better understand how Earth and life formed.

Rather than a “space oddity”, though, such major achievements seem almost commonplace now. It is Nasa’s third sample return from a deep-space robotic mission, adding to an increasingly sizeable collection - including asteroid samples from two Japanese missions, comet dust from a previous US capsule, and hundreds of kilograms of moon rocks gathered by the Apollo astronauts and other lunar material from missions carried out by the then-Soviet Union and China.

From those first giant steps in 1969, the space race has picked up pace at a phenomenal rate, and involves an increasing number of countries.

India this year became the first country to land on the dark side of the moon, near its south pole.

Nasa has now landed spacecraft on Mars nine times; its rover Perseverance has spent the past two years on the red planet collecting core samples it hopes will be eventually transported to Earth.

Last year, Nasa’s Dart mission successfully changed the orbit of asteroid Dimorphos in a test to see whether the world could potentially be saved should a scenario like the one depicted in the film Armageddon become a reality.

New Zealand’s own Rocket Lab has carved out a name for itself as a leader in satellite design and manufacturing, space software and components, and reliable launch services.

But as the world deals with the sins of colonisation here on Earth, environmental degradation and a climate catastrophe, shouldn’t we tremble at our increasing footprint in space?

Making such giant steps happen requires not just great vision, but colossal budgets. The billions spent on space travel would undoubtedly be well-spent fixing any number of pressing issues around the world. Research is the oft-quoted aim of these missions, yet humans do appear to have very selective interest when it comes to inconvenient scientific truths.

There are no small egos involved in this pursuit of knowledge. Billionaire rocketmen Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have certainly helped fire our imaginations, but are noble endeavours all that fuels them?

What price hubris?

From that initial moon landing amid the Cold War, Musk’s own revelations about the use of his Starlink service in the Russia-Ukraine conflict are just an example of the real-life star wars already being fought as competing interests continue to shape a modern space race rapidly picking up pace.

The challenge - as we continue to dare to dream - is to not let it orbit entirely out of control.