In American history the frontier was considered the Wild West, land that inhabited by Native American and sought after by white settlers. This sense of a frontier continues to linger in the American mind, the acquisition of "untamed' land based on either the need for space as in the Old West or a need for rare elements that created the Gold Rush in 1849. What made the idea of a frontier attractive back in the 19th century was wealth, power, and prestige. That attraction has not changed in the 21st century, which brings me to frontierism.
Used in this post, the frontier is an idea associated not only with exploration but also with competition and conquest. It is the idea of a frontier being a starting line in a race to be the first in discovering or creating something new. The idea of a frontier seems hardwired in the collective human psyche. We humans always seems to be in a race of some kind, either literally or metaphorically. The fascination with discovery is something most of us are attracted to, either as an active participant or as an observer.
On the positive side, the sense of a frontier is what drives us to understand the unknown and to be innovative in that pursuit. On the negative side, a frontier is often the product of greed in pursuing wealth and power that treats knowledge as a commodity. Perhaps the biggest frontier facing humanity is the frontier of understanding ourselves and our planet home; its mysterious and kindred life forms and the role they play in keeping our planet home a habitat for life. In other words there remains frontiers in our planet's backyards and waterways to explore and understand.
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Space exploration is a frontier that fascinates me as I suspect it does most of us. It seems to me, however, that the more we know about the universe the less we humans know or, should I say, understand about our place in it. I am not against space exploration as long as it is a planetary undertaking instead of an international race to dominate access to resources found on other planets.
The idea of a nation planting its flag on the moon or mars; as if to say, this planet belongs to specific parcels of land (nations) on the earth seems ridiculous. It exposes an archaic sense of national tribalism that continues to wreak havoc in the world in which we live. For example, I speculate that if the United States, Russia, China, India, or the EU control portions of the moon such control will be considered primarily from a military point of view with regard to national interests on earth.
This speculation causes me to advocate for getting our collective acts together and recognizing the necessity to understand our home planet and the uniqueness of life here and now before entering and subjecting planetary exploration with the international animosity that continues to plague our existence on Earth. One of the hopeful outcomes of any space travel involving humans; such as the Artemis II crew, is that they invariably express a sense of humility about our planet and awe with regard to vastness of space in which this blue dust mote exists.
Opportunity for the frontier explorer always seems to lurk in the darkness of the unknown. We have plenty of unknowns lurking about right here in our home planet. There is much we can learn about our universe by studying our place in it as revealed by our planet home. For instance, we art only a blue dust mote, but a living green one. We have yet to see a planet that has something akin to trees or even moss. T
We are the only planet we know of that lives and breathes with a diversity of life forms. This is not to say there are no other planets like us, but rather to say that we should know ourselves better, appreciate the uniqueness of life's diversity that we experience everyday, and seek ways to better utilize the resources that our solar system already gives us; that in taking and preserving all life on this planet as in dispensable to ensure life not only on our planet but potentially other for eons to come. In that way we will be better prepared to explore the frontiers of space with a better understanding of what we are looking for and what we are looking at.
Norm
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