Look up at the stars, and you may wonder what is beyond our knowledge in space. Now look down. The deeper we venture into the sea, the further we advance into the unknown. The constant technological advancements of NASA and other scientific organizations are difficult to keep up with, and there is still much of our solar system and depths of the sea yet to be discovered. Let Distraction help you revisit your childhood memories of counting down to blast off and educate you of the revolutionary accomplishments beyond the frontiers of the unexplored.
We know so little about space and sea, but the question is why? At some point in our education, we are taught briefly about our solar system and the planets within it, the first man on the moon and how we may travel to Mars one day — but there is so much left unexplored. As with the ocean, many take on adventures in snorkeling or scuba diving off Miami Beach, but only a kilometer of the ocean has been explored.
As we enter an era of new technology and innovation, space travel and ocean exploration are becoming a pressing matter to understand the patterns on Earth and what lies beyond our realm of living. There is a large amount of money being invested into NASA to fund various space explorations and probes, and there is ocean technology and sonar developments that could possibly increase our knowledge on the deepest parts of the ocean floor.
For many students, there is an interest in how we live on Earth and are constantly surrounded by oceans, yet there is hardly any exploration into what could possibly be down there. Space exploration also piques the interest of many wondering when we will go to the moon again or if venturing to Mars is even a possibility. There are questions left unanswered about why we know so little about our own universe, but there are also many difficulties that make it hard to understand these frontiers.
Space Exploration
Space exploration is one of the biggest developments in our modern history. NASA is hard at work with creating and sending probes into space for further exploration. There are projects underway to return to the Moon and to send more rovers to Mars. However, according to Dr. Joshua Gunderson, a professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Miami’s College of Arts and Sciences, one of the main factors that inhibits additional ventures into the great beyond is the cost.
These are big missions that require lots of preparation and money in order to ensure that these trips go smoothly. The other main factor that is truly of the major concerns is human safety.
“Going beyond the earth-moon environment, there’s hazards such as types of radiation that can be cancerous with charged particles that can come and can hit humans,” said Gunderson.
The Earth’s environment is much different than that of space, so safety is a major concern and a factor that affects our ability to exceed the already explored territory of space.
“There is a magnetosphere that is a protective envelope that shields us” said Gunderson.
Earth is very conducive to humans and allows us to thrive. Yet once we exit, we lose protection from the magnetosphere alongside losing access to every other factor that makes life possible. Human space travel is a feat in having to account for living conditions and safety. Space exploration with probes and other non-human technology is easier to account for in terms of safety.
As of now, there are a large number of unmanned probes going to Venus and to Saturn’s moon, Titan, in the hopes of finding potential life. In terms of finding life in our solar system, there is a very limited chance of this happening due to the environmental extremities. If life was found it would “most likely not be intelligent life, equivalent to low level bacteria or single cell life found on Earth,” said Gunderson.
The exploration for life consists of aiming to find biomarkers that could indicate a possible living organism. Especially on Mars, there are many rovers there continuously looking for biomarkers that could be evident of any possible life there yet “it is unlikely that there would be current life as this would have already been discovered.”
“This might be a possibility in the span of our lifetime as technology advances are happening quickly, and NASA is investing money to do this,” said Gunderson.
As for travel outside of the solar system, this is very unlikely. Human safety again is at the forefront of these issues, and it would be very difficult to sustain life so far away. Furthermore, there is no need for humans to travel into the deepest depths of space, as there are also probes that could do most of the exploration without having to risk a life.
This is likely not going to occur for a long time as it is “contingent on technological innovations moving humans at high enough speeds or dealing with the particle radiation and if humans can live for extended periods of time in lower g levels,” said Gunderson.
Most humans are frail and not made for interstellar travel, so our eagerness to explore the beyond may not be so simple. Space exploration is expensive and dangerous and requires a long time to develop. Our hopes of traveling back to the moon and even Mars are difficult, but even beyond this is still in question.
Ocean Exploration
Another unexplored frontier that occurs right here on Earth is our oceans. There are many curiosities as to what could lie below the ocean with more than 80 percent of the oceans remaining unexplored. The main reason as to why it is so difficult to further explore are the conditions of the world’s oceans. A majority of the unexplored “is characterized by zero visibility, extremely cold temperatures, and crushing amounts of pressure” according to Oceana. Ocean Exploration technologies are becoming more advanced with Human Occupied Vehicles or HOVs and Remote Operated Vehicles or ROVs.
Yet expeditions can be very expensive and lack of navigation and data can make it very difficult to further explorations. There is a need for more information but many organizations are reluctant to invest in projects because of the unknowns, leaving no progress to be made. In our present time, more technology such as better satellite coverage allows for more predictions and research into the deep ocean.
Oceans are variable, but the shape of the Earth is constant so this allows for the satellite to pick up on movements, according to Dr. Donald Olson a professor in the Department of Ocean Sciences at the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Marine Sciences. The ocean is ever changing, and one of the main reasons is climate change. There is more flooding on the US coast because of high astronomical tides due to the moon being closer to Earth. All of this can be seen with developing technology.
“Climate deniers say people are wasting too much money on ocean exploration,” said Olson.
There is also some ocean technology that can predict El Niño events to gain more of an understanding of weather patterns across the globe. Overall, the ocean is a very difficult place to explore as “sound has a lot of promise, but it is not high resolution,” said Olson.
There is also a lot of worry about disturbances to marine life in these deeper areas because there are many uncertainties. Even though ocean exploration is new, and there is little knowledge of most of the ocean’s terrain, there are many technologies that have given data with “there being more profiles of the ocean than ever before,” said Olson.
The ocean is fascinating to many students, as UM offers majors such as marine affairs, marine biology and ecology, marine science, and oceanography.
A UM marine science major Olivia Chaumont shares her own experiences and interests in the aquatic world and the future of ocean exploration. She finds that the SCUBA technology really provides an opportunity to explore marine life and stay underwater for longer.
Her own specific interests include “helping sea life and observing how marine life operates as in the future we will find ways to stay at lower depths,” said Chaumont.
She hopes to join programs involving coral restoration as this will allow her to “explore parts of the ocean that have been unseen to find ways to save coral in Florida,” said Chaumont.
Space and ocean exploration cover a lot of unknowns. Yet with more technologies developing and curiosities speaking about whether we will find new life in space, or finally explore the darkest parts of the ocean, there will be new developments far in the future that will increase our knowledge of these frontiers. For now, we can keep dreaming about a life on Mars, or the new and interesting marine life we are yet to find in the ocean, with hopes of someday achieving progress in exploration.
Life on Mars?
According to NASA, they are creating an exoplanet program to find other life forms in space. Yet, the search for life could take decades to come to fruition. Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics professor Sara Seager is currently looking for possible chemical combinations that could signal potential alien life. Water is a very clear sign that life may be present so exploration there is the first plan of action which naturally is Mars being the closest. There could be a very high possibility that life may exist in places without water, but that is unknown to many astrobiologists.
However, there is no firm evidence of life beyond Earth now. There have been numerous “alien-encounters” circulating the media, but no solid evidence of life. The 1976 Viking Programme aimed to look for life on Mars yet found nothing. Many researchers believed things might have been ignored and there should be a re-evaluation for new possible life that emerged.
words_grace tylee. photo_david kronman. design_marita gavioti
This article was published in Distraction’s Winter 2023 print issue.
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