1.2 Background

1.2_ B A C K G R O U N D

_ T h e S p a c e R a c e

Space is quickly becoming the new frontier to be explored by national governments and private sectors. In the process, these different parties are preparing themselves for an environment with the same competition and collaboration that can typically be found on Earth. Historically the Space-race began in August 1955 when the Soviet Union responded to the USA’s announcement of their intention to launch artificial satellites for the upcoming International Geophysical Year (History.com Editors, 2020).

The Soviet Union achieved an early lead in the race when it launched the first artificial satellite named “Sputnik One” and “Sputnik Two” – the first satellite to carry a living animal in 1957. In the same year the USA suffered a terrible loss and critical step back with their experimental rocket “Vanguard One” when it exploded on the launch pad. The back-and-forth race between the USA and Soviet Russia became a remarkable point in history and became one of the biggest races known today. In the following two years the USA and Soviet Russia celebrated great leaps in advancement in technology and successful launches of satellites. Along with the technological advances came better equipment that could better map Space and communicate with equipment on Earth. This in turn, meant that scientists and astronomers could now start to obtain better readings and imagery from satellites in Earth’s Orbit. Humankind celebrated with Vanguard 2 when it successfully measured cloud cover and sent back the first attempted photo of Earth from a satellite; the constant motion resulted in difficulty interpreting the data. Soviet Russia made a big stride forward with Luna 3 as it was the first mission to photograph the far side of the Moon in 1959.

In these two years Soviet Russia and USA kept on trying to compete in the Space-race, but the true leap came from the Soviet Union on the 12th of September 1959, when they had the first Spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon. This was also the first human-made object to land on another celestial body (NASA, n.d.). The USA gained back some lead in the race with the success of “Explorer Six” which included an instrument to study particles and meteorology. The success of “Pioneer P-3” with the Lunar orbiter probe as a

payload, also put them ahead in the race. The intent of the probe was that it would be placed in high orbit so that the Space/section between the Earth and the Moon could be better investigated, and a secondary objective to gain better control over Spacecrafts in orbit from Earth.

During the 1960’s an ambitious plan was set in motion and involved successfully and safely sending and returning a human being into Space. In April of 1960 humankind celebrated a solar monitor system along with “TIROS-1” (or TIROS-A). TIROS-1 was the first successful low-Earth orbital weather satellite and the first of a series of Television Infrared Observation Satellites from the USA. While the Soviet Union launched the first test flight of the Soviet Vostok programme, and had the first Vostok Spacecraft, as well as the first flight into outer Space in which animals were sent into orbit and returned back to Earth safely. (NASA, n.d.).

After the previous missions in and out of Earth’s orbit, and the missions to the dark side of the Moon, the setting was ready for mankind to send a human being into Space. The Soviet Union grabbed the opportunity and sent humanity’s first Cosmonaut, a Russian Astronaut, into Space. The Soviet pilot and Cosmonaut, who became the first human being to journey into Space, was Yuri Alekseyevush Gagarin. This was a major milestone in the Space-race. The capsule with which he went into Space, Vostok 1, completed one orbit of Earth on the 12th of April 1961. Yuri Alekseyevush Gagarin truly became an international celebrity and received a number of medals, as well as his nation’s highest honour, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (TITO, 2004).

The middle part of this decade had more technological advances and more successful missions for both the USA and the Soviet Union. Some include, but are not limited to, Ranger 6 through Ranger 9. These missions all included Lunar impactors, which returned different results. Various missions during this time period all returned varying results such as some missions only returned pictures until they landed on the Moon.

These missions included a series of solar-orbiting, spin-stabilized, solar-cell and battery-powered satellites designed to obtain measurements on a continuing basis of interplanetary phenomena from widely separated points in Space and a research satellite designed to explore Earth’s ionosphere.

A TRAINING FACILITY FOR ASTRONAUTS FROM THE NATIONAL AND PRIVATE CENTER : Graphic of USA vs RUSSIA Space race. 2021. Haikudeck.com. 2021. The Space Race Eras - A Haiku Deck by Gregory Trieste. [online] Available at: <https://www.haikudeck.com/the-space-race-eras-education-presentation-htDX0Xakrh> [Accessed 9 AUGUST 2021].

The first Spacecraft from the USA to orbit the Moon was designed to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selecting landing sites, and the first US soft landing; the Surveyor program performed various tests in support of the anticipated and planned manned Moon landings.

These missions mark the start of the great Moon race which was a race to see which country would be the first nation to safely land a human on the surface of the Moon and to return that human safely to Earth. While the race was head-to-head at the start the U.S. won the “Moon Race” when the Astronauts Niel Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon in 1969 (Royal Museums Greenwich, 2021).

The middle part of this decade held more technological advances and more successful missions for both the USA and Soviet Union. Some include but are not limited to Ranger 6 through Ranger 9. These missions all included Lunar impactors; these different missions returned various different results. The race drastically started to slow down for the Soviet Union when they tried to perfect their N1 rocket, but after two failed launches in 1971 and 1972, they cancelled the research and development of the rocket in 1976. The United States celebrated five successful launches, with Apollo 12 to 17, during in the 1970’s (Knight, 2021).

Throughout the 1970s other nations experienced a sense of inspiration and joined in the Space expansions. Some of the nations, including Japan, France, the United Kingdom, China, and India, all sent up satellites during this time and became part of the development of technology for Space Travel. The timelines pictured in figure 1 and figure 2 show the sequence of events of Space expansion from 1610 to current day events and future plans.

Since the inception of the Space-race, thousands of satellites have been launched into Earth’s orbit. Ultimately these are aimed at helping humanity to better understand and investigate our planet and solar system. Consequently, we now have access to better-detailed world and star maps, as well as more sensitive techniques in analysing weather patterns which enable us to be more prepared for natural disasters (UOCSUSA, 2015).Technology has improved with leaps and bounds through the years. In November 2011, humanity celebrated the launch of the Mars Rover named Curiosity. Society celebrated again on August 6, 2012, when NASA confirmed that Curiosity had successfully touched down on the surface of the distant Red Planet (Sea and Sky, 2020). History again repeated itself when we celebrated the touchdown of the new Mars Rover, namely Perseverance, on February 18, 2021. This little machine is now continuing with the mission of Curiosity mission by further exploring the surface of the Red Planet (DW, 2021).

However, closer to home, observatories located in strategic areas around the world are on a never-ending search to piece together an entire map of our cosmos. They collaborated in 2019 to form a Nero-Net. (Stardate, n.d.) This was used to photograph the first-ever event horizon of a black hole. This great accomplishment marked a point in the history of what we as humanity knew about Black Holes and resulted in a completely new subfield in science that needs to be explored even further (Loff, 2019). However, closer to home, observatories located in strategic areas are world are on a never-ending search to piece together an entire map of our One of the leading companies in the private sector of the Aeronautics Division, is SpaceX. SpaceX prides itself in the re-use of rockets. A significant milestone in creating a more sustainable approach to the manufacture and launching of space craft. SpaceX has designed, engineered,

ABOVE : FIRST PHOTO OF LUNAR FARSIDE. Moon: NASA Science. 2021. First Photo of the Lunar Farside – Moon: NASA Science. [online] Available at: <https://moon.nasa.gov/resources/26/first-photo-of-the-lunar-farside/> [Accessed 14 JUNE 2021].

BELOW : LAIKA THE DOG, FIRST ANIMAL IN SPACE. Space.com. 2021. Laika the Dog & the First Animals in Space. [online] Available at: <https://www.space.com/17764-laika-first-animals-in-space.html> [Accessed 4 May 2021].

One of the leading companies in the private sector of the Aeronautics Division, is SpaceX. SpaceX prides itself in the re-use of rockets. This drastic mechanical change is a significant milestone in creating a more sustainable approach to the manufacture and launching of Space craft. To date, SpaceX has designed, engineered, and built their iconic Falcon 9 rockets, which have been successfully launched a total of 49 times. (SpaceX, n.d.) To augment the position and contributions of South Africans, and contribute to the argument for this thesis, this has been achieved because of South-African born visionary, Elon Musk. He has been pushing the limits of imagination and linking it to reality to build a better future. (Zimmermann, 2020)

Elon Musk has a great fear that some form of catastrophic extinction event will happen in the future that will in turn wipe-out humanity. This catastrophic event might come in a form of a natural disaster or human made pollution that gets to a point that makes the earth uninhabitable. This “fear” is what drives Elon Musk to be humanities savour in the future. His safety net plan is to expand humanity to other nearby planets, Mars; so that humanity stands a better chance of surviving with colonies of humans expanding into the cosmos and give humanity the best chance for survival. This will, in turn, give way to new challenges that need to be adapted to and overcome (Tech Vision, 2020).

Blue Origin funded and supported by Jeff Bezos is one of the other leading companies in the private sector division of aeronautics. This company already has two working, designed rockets, namely the New Shepard, and Omega A, and with a third type of rocket underway, the New Glenn. Blue Origin links the rocket to the kind of payload that needs to be delivered into the Earth’s orbit. (Origin, 2007) Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Blue Origin and Amazon, has a different approach to Elon Musk. His approach is to retain Earth as humanity’s one true home and expand resource gathering outward into the cosmos. Jeff Bezos realizes that natural resources on Earth are starting to run dangerously low and these resources will have to be obtained elsewhere. home and expand resource gathering outward into the cosmos. Jeff Bezos realizes that natural resources on Earth are starting to run dangerously low and these resources will have to be obtained elsewhere.

Bezos’ plan involves moving our resource mining to the Moon, and to other planets and their Moons. (Chang, 2021) There he hopes to find alternative resources, or at least one resource in abundance which can replace one of our significantly important and strained resources.

ABOVE : GRAPHIC OF ELON MUSK AND FALCON 9 ROCKET. Ft.com. 2021. SpaceX: how Elon Musk’s new rocket could transform the space race. [online] Available at: <https://www.ft.com/content/25e2292ba910-41c8-9c55-09096895f673> [Accessed 09 November 2021].

ABOVE : GRAPHIC OF JEFF BAZOS & NEW GLEN SPACCESHIP. Ft.com. 2021. Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin says it will take a civilian to space in July. [online] Available at: <https://www.ft.com/content/7bc1c0c2-3e54-4dc0-89ca-828ff57e82ca> [Accessed 9 November 2021].

The current high paced rate of preparation and development of Space exploration technologies should contribute to significant changes for humanity within the next few years. Jobs known today may drastically change in the future. These future “Space” jobs will demand skills and preparation, depending on the challenges that lie ahead.

With these jobs and changes that lie ahead, humanity might have to expand its views and knowledge on what it might take to be part of this Space expansion (Author, 2021). How will humanity cope with the intense physical and mental training needed to adjust to Space Travel and Space Mining? How can humanity ensure that everyone is included in the inevitable development? With the current expansion of humanity, there will be positive and negative effects as with everything else globally. Space expansion holds a new age of wonder, technological advances, resources, and challenges. Having said that, humanity needs to ensure it is ready and prepared for the challenges that may lie ahead. Robert Goodwin once said: “All civilizations become either Space fairing or extinct.” (Atkinsin, 2011).

_ A N A L O G S T A T I O N S

NASA has been actively planning to expand into the cosmos, beyond Earth’s orbit; in order to do this, they have started conducting human analog missions and field tests. NASA uses the word “analog” as a descriptive word for these missions as it describes something that can be represented using a continuously variable characteristic. These human analogs take place in extreme environments.

These analog missions and field tests will become more essential in preparing Astronauts for the environment on other Planets. These analog missions field tests are done on Earth in various locations that are identified based on their physical similarities to the extreme environments of a specific target mission (NASA, 2011). These missions are used to simulate different aspects of missions to future destinations, including the Moon, asteroids, and Mars.

These missions are performed so that hardware and operational concepts can be tested in these relevant environments before they are used for Spaceflight. It is important to note that these analog missions cannot simulate all aspects of the Space missions here on Earth. Thus, it is generally accepted that a very wide array of different analog missions is essential and vital to future Space exploration. This is done so that each analog mission only tests a few concepts and/or hardware at a time so that they can critically focus on these objectives and ensure that they are tested correctly (NASA, 2011).

_ A N A L O G G O A L

NASA’s goal is to prepare Astronauts and robots for the complex challenges of living beyond low Earth orbit. To do so, it conducts analog missions both on Earth and in Space in similar extreme environments. A key aspect to note is that NASA keeps adding locations to the analog list to better suit the extreme conditions (NASA, 2011).

_ A N A L O G S T A T I O N S L O C A T I O N S A N D O B J E C I V E S

These locations, and the objective of the location include, but are not limited to:

• Desert Research and Technology Studies (RATS).

• In-situ Resource Utilization Demonstrations.

• Haughton Mars Project

• Pavilion Lake Research Project

• NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations.

• International Space Station Testbed for Analog Research (ISTAR).

• D-MARS

Desert Research and Technology Studies (RATS).

The RATS center provides a data base for engineers and scientists to design, build, develop, and evaluate technology, human-robotic systems, and extravehicular equipment in the high desert near Flagstaff, Arizona (NASA, 2011).

The Arizona desert has a rough, dusty terrain along with extreme temperature swings that simulate those that may be encountered on other surfaces in Space. Additionally, the remote location of Arizona provides realistic scenarios for extreme remote communication.

LEFT : RATS ANALONG PHOTO. Nasa.gov. 2021. Nasa.gov. 2021. NASA - D-RATS Set Sights on Asteroid. [online] Available at: <https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/desertrats/ dratskennedy.html> [Accessed 23 November 2021].

In-situ Resource Utilization Demonstrations.

The terrain has a very heavy rock distribution, soil materials and permafrost. This human analog station is situated in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. This location provides a great testing ground for equipment and operations that cannot be done in laboratories. In situ resource utilization demonstrations are performed here, and this is a necessary element in NASA’s exploration architecture. Technologies that are also evaluated here could be used to find ice in lunar or planetary environments (NASA, 2011).

The use of in situ resources can be described as a process that harnesses local resources for the purpose of human and robotic exploration, including end-to-end oxygen extraction, separation, and storage from volcanic material. There are several resources that can be used for this purpose, such as regolith (or surface material), minerals, metals, volatiles, water, ice, sunlight, vacuum, and thermal gradients.

RIGHT : In-situ Resource Utilization Demonstrations PHOTO. NASA. 2021. Overview: In-Situ Resource Utilization. [online] Available at: <https://www.nasa.gov/isru/overview> [Accessed 2 November 2021].

Haughton Mars Project

The Haughton Crater is located on the Devon Island in Canada. This location can only be accessed by aircraft from Resolute Bay, Cornwallis Island, Canada. The crater is a rocky arctic desert environment that features geological and biological attributes. This creates an ideal setting to set out requirements for future missions for robotics and human beings. The setting is the most often used setting to prepare for future Mars missions.

In collaboration with NASA, the Mars Institute, and the SETI Institute, members of the Haughton Mars Project perform a number of representative lunar science and exploration surface activities using infrastructure and assets already on the ground. Several science and operational concepts are demonstrated, such as extravehicular activity traverses, long-term high-data communication, complex robotic interaction, and on-board rover and suit engineering (NASA, 2011).

RIGHT : Haughton Mars PHOTO. NASA. 2021.2021. [online] Available at: <https://twitter. com/HMP> [Accessed 23 November 2021].

Pavilion Lake Research Project

Pavilion Lake Research Project is an international, multidisciplinary science and exploration effort that seeks to understand the origin and biogeochemical processes of freshwater microbial communities in Pavilion and Kelly lakes in British Columbia, Canada.

Pavilion and Kelly Lakes contain ancient microbialites (rock-like underwater structures) that are relevant to understanding ancient microbes on early Earth. Scientists and astrobiologists on Earth can apply findings from this research to searches for life in the solar system and beyond. These analog missions are done by NASA because they are conducted at established critical science research locations where a variety of methods and technologies can be tested and developed to conduct future surveys and gather science data (NASA, 2011). In some cases, scientists use submersible vehicles and methods to explore microbialites under water in a way that is similar to what a robotic precursor mission would do to explore a near-Earth asteroid. Process refinements for traverse planning and scientific data collection will improve future Space exploration missions and scientific research techniques.

RIGHT : Pavilion Lake Research Project Pavilion Lake Research Project PHOTO. Space.com. 2021. Canadian Lake Helps Scientists Refine Alien Life-Hunting Skills. [online] Available at: <https://www. space.com/8652-canadian-lake-helps-scientists-refine-alien-life-hunting-skills.html> [Accessed 23 November 2021].

NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations.

In addition to being harsh and unpredictable, the ocean provides many parallels to living and working in Space. National Marine Sanctuary in the Florida Keys, where the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates the underwater lab Aquarius, is a test site for NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operation (NEEMO) project. The isolation and real hazards of this laboratory make it an ideal place to test concepts of Space exploration.

Long-duration missions, lasting up to three weeks, provide Astronauts with the opportunity to simulate living in Space and perform extravehicular activities beneath the surface of the ocean. They can test advanced navigation and communications equipment, as well as future exploration vehicles, during these missions. Astronauts undergo these tests in order to gain a better understanding of day-to-day mission operations (NASA, 2011). These locations create realistic scenarios for crews in close quarters to practise and grow accustomed to making critical and crucial decisions in real time.

RIGHT : NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations. PHOTO. NASA. 2021. About NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations). [online] Available at: <https://www. nasa.gov/mission_pages/NEEMO/about_neemo.html> [Accessed 3 November 2021].

International Space Station Testbed for Analog Research (ISTAR).

The International Space Station (ISS) provides an ideal environment for testing future exploration missions since it provides a long-duration, gravity-free Space environment and the opportunity to test many factors not possible on analog missions. As NASA develops new exploration systems and capabilities, the ISS will be used as an assessment platform to identify risks and challenges to Astronauts’ health and safety, train crew autonomy for handling communication delays, and evaluate new exploration systems as they are developed (NASA, 2011).

The aim of ISTAR is to challenge Astronauts to work progressively longer periods without assistance from mission control, just as on a mission to Mars or on an asteroid close to Earth. In the future, ISTAR missions will be able to last as long as six months, and they will utilize the ISS confinement system and zero-gravity to simulate crew activities during long-duration flights and crew arrivals at exploration destinations.

RIGHT : International Space Station Testbed for Analog Research (ISTAR) PHOTO. Ashley Strickland, C., 2021. Astronauts will conduct a spacewalk this Sunday. [online] CNN. Available at: <https:// edition.cnn.com/2021/02/24/world/nasa-spacewalks-preview-february-march-scn/index.html> [Accessed 3 November 2021].

D-MARS

Desert Mars Analog Ramon Station (D-MARS) is a Space analogue research centre in Israel. This centre is used for analog Astronauts to go on scientific journeys of exploration that simulate an actual mission on the surface of Mars (D-MARS, 2018).

D-MARS was established in 2017 and began performing an analog mission to Mars in 2018 (D-MARS, 2018). D-MARS has, since then, performed several analog missions, created special educational programmes, and established unique and state-of the-art course for Ramonauts (crew members from D-MARS), crew member at the station, and control room operators.

Space analogs are becoming well-developed sectors of the Space science discipline. These analogs are used to train future human explorers, test related hardware, and make Space more accessible to the public.

Alon Shikar, a co-founder of D-MARS and a Ramonaut in the first team, is responsible for developing the research bases, and together with Moshe Zagai he led the development and construction of the first habitat on Mars. Alon is an architect and the owner of Shiksa Design Collective (D-MARS, 2018).

RIGHT : D-MARS. PHOTO. NASA. 2021. D-mars.org. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.d-mars.org/index.php?dir=site&page=gallery&op=category&cs=1> [Accessed 3 November 2021].

When looking at the refined and focussed literature study and the existing operational Astronaut training facilities that are available, it is clear that on the one hand the Russian Space Agency focuses mainly on the survival training aspect and only runs simulations on the four or five modules from the ISS that they have built. On the other hand, NASA, the US Space Agency, focuses mainly on the simulation aspect of training. NASA has all the modules from the ISS on which to run simulations and prepare Astronauts for installation and repairs of equipment, as well as experiments that will be done on the ISS. This is a good example to consider because with the simulations they run on the modules, they already have the ISS orbiting Earth.

Consequently, there is a framework to use when doing simulations. The challenge with Mars is that SpaceX will only send two rockets containing equipment as a starting point and therefore the Astronauts will need a different level of training so that they know how to handle multiple scenarios with little to no equipment. This will have to suffice until more equipment and resources can be sent to assist the Astronaut colony on Mars. At the start of the colony on Mars, equipment and resource ships will be the accepted modus operandi to receive and process the necessary resources that will be needed until such time as a permanent settlement is established.

The proposed facility at Sutherland, South Africa will focus on both survival and simulation training while also establishing an area where Astronauts can test the equipment and familiarize themselves with the equipment.