Society's New "Age of Exploration"

Are we ready for a new "Age of Discovery/Exploration?" I say, "no," however with the series of events occurring at the moment; war/conflict, displacement, disease, and global division... eventually, we will be. Here's why.

Humans have been on earth for more than 300,000 years, however, only a fraction of that time has been allocated to migration and exploration (Smithsonian, 2018). Less than 30 percent of our planet has been a domain for exploration. As of current, most exploration has taken place on land, near the surface of our oceans, or in the upper atmosphere. Little has taken place below the surface, or beyond our atmosphere. Our oceans, which make up 70 percent of our planet, much like outer space, have been largely unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored (NOAA, 2018). Only 20% of our planet's oceans have been discovered, and we have not begun to scratch the surface of discovering the infinite expanse of the universe beyond our atmosphere.

Global exploration started with the Portuguese discoveries of the Atlantic archipelagos of Madeira, the coast of Africa, and the discovery of the sea route to India in 1498. After these initial discoveries, Spanish and French explorers set out to make their own discoveries and succeeded. Over the next century, historical events trended toward a geopolitical race between European explorers searching for new lands to colonize and/or claim as their own and refugees fleeing religious persecution. This age was coined the “Age of Discovery/Exploration,” which took place between 1498-1548.

Since this era, human technology has progressed to a point that humans can trek to just about anywhere they want, including the furthest reaches of the ocean, the north and south poles, and more recently space or astronautical exploration. Astronautical exploration started with the “Space Race.” The Space Race was a period of exploration fueled by international competition to discover new horizons, much like the “Age of Exploration” which took place more than 300 years prior.

Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins with President Nixon

On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard, Jr., became the first American in space (NASA, 2017). Since then, NASA, along with numerous other space agencies, has sent numerous humans into space but only succeeded in reaching as far as the moon. In the earliest years of space travel, NASA’s focus was getting a human into space and back safely without any lasting psychological or physiological effects before anyone else. This race to space has been coined the term, "The Space Race." After initially coming in second to Russia, which managed to successfully send, Yuri Gagarin, to space on April 12, 1961, NASA turned its focus on getting the first man on the moon. On July 21, 1969, they found success, astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. To this day, the U.S. is the only country to have landed on the moon, allegedly. This series of events was a major milestone in human exploration, which was previously a geocentric endeavor. Since the moonwalk of the space race era, very few significant human space expeditions have occurred, as most present space expeditions occur via unmanned aerial vehicles.

In the last decade, human space exploration has undergone a shift from a private industry to a public commercial industry. This shift has been led by public organizations that focus solely on space exploration. Their aim is to get more humans in space by offering commercial space voyages to government-appointed astronauts (cosmonauts) and recently, to the average “Earth Citizen.” A few of these organizations including SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin have been successful in engineering aircraft to do just that. SpaceX plans to achieve its goal of putting astronauts back on the moon within the next 10 years. If you've been anywhere near any kind of screen lately, you're probably aware of the recent milestones these organizations have reached in achieving these goals.

Space X spearheaded the first non-internationally assisted launch from U.S. soil to the International Space Station in almost a decade, a major achievement towards its future manned moon landing. They were also the first company to charter an all-commercial space crew to space. In 2021, Blue Origin set the record for chartering the most civilian "earth citizens" to outer space as well as the youngest person, the tallest person, and the first celebrity. Virgin Galactic also achieved notoriety with its July 21, 2021, commercial space flight; marking the first time the founder of a spaceflight company had ever traveled on their own ship, beating out Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos by only a few months.

I believe it's safe to say, we are on the cusp of rekindling the infamous space race, which means new milestones in human exploration (space, air, land, and sea) will result. However, it leaves one to inquire if this major feat in space exploration, alone, equates to the magnitude of human exploration performed during the first "Age of Discovery and Exploration." I say no, however, we are witnessing a series of events that could lead to something similar....... Throughout history, human exploration has been driven by conflict.

Human exploration is synonymous with human migration. Human migration is almost always spearheaded by some type of major social and/or political occurrences, which encourage and sometimes force individuals to seek a new environment. The first "Age of Discovery" was initiated by religious and trade-related conflict, the space race succeeded decades of conflict during World War I, World War II, The Korean War, and the Vietnam war.... and although the world is not currently taking part in any major world war, there are instances of social and political conflict. The global pandemic or COVID-19 has pulled the veil back on the world's political and social prejudices and has resulted in an almost Cold War model of silent tensions between nations.

We are in a period of geopolitical divide sparked by extreme polarization in religious ideals, racial identity, economic disparities, and science vs. politics. In areas of extreme conflict, such as the conflict in Ukraine, individuals have begun migrating in search of a new culture, way of life, and refuge, making them refugees. The global refugee crisis has reached an all-time high, we're currently experiencing statistical trends similar to those that sparked the "Age of Discovery." When a country takes in refugees, it is introducing new influences on its culture, new knowledge, new ideals, values, and experiences; thus, changing the traditional culture within its borders. Societal progression comes from major cultural change. Most Notably, the creation of avenues for innovation; societal, technological, scientific, and spiritual. When combined into a singular conceptual innovation, we get exploration.

If going by the model of past spikes in exploration, hypothetically, when disease stops spreading and tensions settle, the world will seek change, innovation, and enlightenment to a new and better way of living. We will seek to explore new and differing ideas, we will seek to discover new methods of solving inequalities and conflict, and we will find a way to manifest the collective urge to find direction and closure into a physical form of distraction that will humble and remind us, although the world and its problems are big, we are tiny in comparison to what is waiting to be discovered in the universe, we will enter the newest age of exploration.