Is the ‘new’ Space Race and exploration now becoming an Absurdity?

(“The Cenotaphs of human conquest ” (Adrian Glass 2016) 12×17 Framed enhanced photographic image printed Ilford Gold Fibre Silk – 310gsm.)


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"This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said. But what is 
absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and the wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart.” Albert Camus

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In recent light of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy lift rocket transporting an Elon Musk Tesla electrical car into space as a strange temperament within the ego sphere of the famed billionaire, that in all its retrospect is a bizarre way of testing the payload capsule of the Falcon rocket. As the car itself is affixed with a dummy pilot, outfitted in a SpaceX mock spacesuit as it sits motionless holding onto the car’s steering wheel whilst spinning in an wayward trajectory, after being boosted by the Falcon’s main rocket, towards the asteroid belts of Mars and Jupiter. Avoiding Mars as the intended crash site for Elon Musk’s publicity stunt (so much for ‘Planetary Protection’ protocols), the interplanetary Space race has essentially begun, as most public and private Space companies will now aim, with others not so far behind SpaceX, to develop more powerful and larger rockets which in turn will further increase payload and transport routes. But, as decreed by media hyped enthusiasts via social media, we are a long way off in mining the asteroid belts that encircle the Earth. As Science fiction writers, like myself, have played and used the ideas of off-world mining industries as future ventures. From my perspective this will be a solely robotic enterprise from start to finish. At the ire of Musk’s dislike or paranoia that artificial intelligence will be the detriment of humanity. As Space is an extremely hostile environment to organic life, in someways a viewpoint that Space exploration Programs, such as SpaceX have not considered as the main hurdle for human exploration into the Solar System. And by most analyst reports, more so from NASA on a human mission to Mars, it maybe unlikely in the near future.

The Absurdity of SpaceX launching a car into Space, with the industrialist owner of Tesla claiming that it will orbit the sun for millions of years, is almost pitiful in its overall sentiment of exploring Space as a human achievement, with the inscribed message for Extraterrestrial Life “Made on Earth by humans” imprinted onto the car’s circuit board. One should not see this as childlike and wondrous in its imagination of the Cosmos, this, as an absurd stunt only cheapens the wonder of the Universe, so it should be seen as immaturity defined. The car will be destroyed within a year of orbiting the Sun, either by solar radiation destroying its key monocular structure or it slamming into one of multitude of micro-meteors to small/medium size asteroids with circle ominously around the Sun.

The Universe does not care about the egos of Billionaires and/or our overall desire for human exploitation into Space. In fact the Universe, the Cosmos, does not care if we exist or perish tomorrow. It holds no value on human life by any consideration. Our endurance and survival depends on a state of mind within the Universe. In the sense, we should endure the possibility that we may be alone, sans our imagination, and survival, that we live only within this present point in time. On the Earth, our home. In which we should protect from internal and external threats. If we are to send artifacts into Space, not cars or fake stars, but reminders of those aspects of human endurance and survival. Then we should urge these Space programs that wish to embark on testing larger rocket systems. To send an iconic fixture or artifact into the Cosmos of the human race which embraces our strengths. Not weakness.

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Adrian Glass (Adrian Glass is an author and artist, his last three books can been seen on Amazon: (Voids of the Elysium, SATRAN KAEVON, CATACLYSMAL )