Special news – Water, natural resources and reaching Mars: the motivations that revive the space race

First modification: 03/01/2024 – 19:30

No longer only the United States and Russia are in the space race, China and recently India have set their eyes and interests on having greater developments in space issues.

In August 2023 the Indians attracted attention with the success of their mission Chandrayaan-3who managed to take a remote-controlled vehicle to explore the south pole of the Moon, the most unknown region of our satellite and which is believed to have great natural wealth.

And the United States made successful progress with its program Artemis of NASA, an international flight plan that seeks to take astronauts to the Moon, including thethe first woman to set foot on the natural satellite, specifically at the south pole, in 2025.

Not everyone had the same fate, the mission Moon-25led by Russia, ffailed in his first attempt to return to the Moon, after 47 yearsafter the unmanned device crashed moments before landing on the moon.

A competition stopped for half a century

Conquering space was one of the main concerns of the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but the high costs of the missions and the few tangible results for humanity caused its exploration to be paused, until now.

In the 1950s the idea prevailed that Whoever conquered space first would also dominate the world. From then on, there have been six space missions that have gone to the Moon, with 12 different astronauts, without the Soviets ever achieving it.

For its part, NASA had ambitious plans to continue space exploration after the success of its missions, but it was defeated by the high cost of economic and political resources.

While the Soviet Union worked to develop space stations and missions for exploration, but in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union, plans were transformed and the competition became a joint effort between the newborn Russia and the United States. Since 1972, 51 years ago, a human being has not landed on the moon.

Latin America is also interested in space

Latin American countries have also been interested in space exploration, the first to do so were Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, which created their space agencies in the second half of the 20th century and with which they have managed to build rockets, design engines and fuels.

However, Latin American States allocate less than 1% of their GDP to space exploration, which has not allowed important achievements in the subject.

Chile is key from the Atacama Desert. As well as Argentina, which from Patagonia has a quite interesting position but here we must establish strategic alliances. For example, China has bases in Argentina, while Brazil is an important competitor in this industry, but obviously the budgets are very low. We need more investment and interest from governments for spatial development, according to Alejandro Godoy, political consultant.

However, interest seems to have recently been sparked in the region. Brazil prepares for future missions to Mars. In 2021, it was the first South American country to participate in NASA's Artemis program.

In addition, Mexico plans its Colmena mission, which seeks to put five mini robots to explore the lunar surface.

For its part, Colombia renewed the objectives of its Air Force, which was renamed the Colombian Aerospace Force and has set the goal of developing orbital vehicles, as well as deploying Earth observation satellites.