By any modern standards of human endeavor and research, communications made
possible by global navigation satellite systems and space transportation stand
preeminent in the wonderment they offer. What began as exploration of outer
space in the nineteen fifties and sixties is now full blown tourism in space. Added
to that is the startling possibility of the existence of life in outer space which makes
us not only think but wonder in amazement. Stephen Hawking – one of the world’s
most eminent and knowledgeable physicists – has stated that in a universe with 100
billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars, it is unlikely that life
forms are present only on Earth. Hawking has also said:
To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly
rational. . . the real challenge is working out what aliens might actually be like1 . . . I
imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their
home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and
colonize whatever planets they can reach.2
Against this bewildering backdrop, we continue to use and explore outer space,
take pictures, calculate trajectories of planets and determine who owns the moon
and what the purpose of outer space exploration is. An added dimension is the use
of aerospace in terrestrial transportation where an aerospace plane will take off as
an aircraft, go into orbit, enter the atmosphere using the Earth’s orbit into its
destination, cutting the travel time significantly. It is said that by using this method,
air travel time can be reduced drastically. For instance, a journey by air between
Los Angeles and Sydney, which would now take 14 to 16 hours by conventional air
travel, could take 2 hours or less. None of these technological feats would be
possible without the advancement of information technology and computerized
knowledge-sharing. However, with the advancement of this technology would also
come the threat of cyber terrorism, which is a real cause of concern to astronomical
science and space travel.