The Vanishing Frontier

Originally published in the Informanté newspaper on Thursday, July 23, 2015.

46 Years and 3 days ago, Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin became the first two of only twelve individuals to achieve the most remarkable feat mankind has yet achieved: They set foot on another world. Just a week before, on July 14, the New Horizons space probe became the first spacecraft to explore the former ninth planet Pluto. 

The wealth of information and emotions that these events have stirred up are undeniable. Who amongst us have not gazed upon the stars at night, and experienced a profound sense of wonder at the majesty of the universe? Astronomy, after all, is the oldest of the natural sciences, and it has formed the basis of our culture for eons.

Our calendar bears testament to this history. One year, being the time the Earth takes to make one revolution around the sun. Months closely approximating the revolution of the Moon around Earth. A day, being a single revolution of the earth about its own axis of rotation, with the seasons being an artefact of the inclination of that same rotational axis relative to the plane of Earth’s orbit around the sun.

Space has memorably been called the ‘Final Frontier’ by science-fiction television shows such as Star Trek. Yet this frontier has been vanishing bit by bit. On December 13, 1972, Eugene Cernan became the last person to set foot on the moon. Apollo 17 was also the last manned spaceflight beyond Low-Earth Orbit. And in 2011, the United States retired its Space Shuttle program, losing manned spaceflight capability. Currently, only the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China retain the capability of human spaceflight.

But frontiers are in fact important to a civilized society. Frontiers have traditionally been the safety valve of civilization – drawing the discontented, the so-called outcasts, who have different ideas and those who wish to try something new. Or, in other words, the innovators. Like the Boers and Dorsland trekkers who chafed under European authority and spread into Africa. Like the Ovaherero, who spread from East Africa to become cattle herdsmen instead of remaining hunter-gatherers. In fact, like most of the tribes here in Namibia, who braved the harsh climate to make this country a new home.

Innovation is not called the ‘engine of wealth creation’ for no reason. While the United States was mostly a frontier, innovators like Cornelius Vanderbilt, John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford built business empires that would catapult the United States to superpower status. And the Apollo program built on that, with dreams of space exploration encouraging interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) disciplines, thus allowing the United States to maintain its superpower status throughout the 1970’s to 1990’s.

The benefits derived from the Apollo program still reverberate through our lives today. From the obvious technological benefits, such as the rise of the computer industry, cordless tools, telemetry controlled devices and solar power panels, to the less visible, such as firefighting suits derived from space suits, medical pacemakers, MRI machines, and safety features in cars, to the absolutely mundane, such as chlorine-free pools and athletics footwear based on the boots of space suits, the benefits remain palpable.

But without a frontier, humanity’s discontent remains sown amongst us. We start squabbling over what we have currently, instead of dreaming about what we could achieve. Innovators feel ‘boxed-in’ and soon we start seeing elements of class struggles, between those who want change, and those who resist it.

With the Apollo program but a memory to the current generation, the American Dream appears to be coming apart at the seams. More students are studying business, law and other liberal arts degrees than STEM degrees, and with that comes the resultant loss of technological leadership.

In Namibia, by and large, our dream was to have an independent nation, to be a free people. But here as well, we achieved that dream, and are now squabbling amongst ourselves. Our economic growth, so dependent on innovation, shows signs of slowing. Namibia, as a nation, seems to find itself in need of a new frontier, a new dream towards which we can work. After all, as long as a single mind remembers, as long as a single heart still beats with passion, how can a dream die?