Dear MEL Topic Readers,
The Silicon Valley space race
Space race was originally caused by the clash
between East and West, or communism and capitalism, and had been driven by patriotism
and nationalism until the end of the cold war. The first animal that went to space
was a dog nicknamed Laika in 1957. Yuri Gagarin was the first man who made a
space trip in 1961. Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly to space
in 1963. They were all Russians. It took another six years for Russia’s
space rival to mark “the first” mission in space, Apollo 11 to land the first
man on the moon in 1969. An enormous amount of investment was made to develop and advance
technologies to realize these missions, which subsequently brought about and
enhanced new technologies, such as semiconductors, microchips, and computers to
aerospace, military, and IT industries.
Even after the cold war, there is fierce but
peaceful race is going on in space. China and India are on the racetrack to
send probe missions to the moon. In the private sector, several ambitious space
missions have been undertaken, such as a trip to space, landing on the moon and even
colonizing Mars.
One of them is Space X by Elon Musk, the
founder of PayPal and Tesla. It is an aerospace manufacturer and space
transportation services company that aims to reduce costs for space transportation
and to build a colony on Mars.
Blue Origin in another aerospace manufacturer
and sub-orbital spaceflight services company that was founded and funded by
Jeff Bezos, the founder and chairman of Amazon. The company also visions to realize
space colonies that can be inhabited by thousands of people, just like Rama
described by Arthur C. Clarke.
After all, egos, whether they are national or
personal, seem to stimulate human ingenuities.
Enjoy watching the video and think what
motivates and drives people to go beyond what they are.
No comments:
Post a Comment