Risk vs Reward: The Challenges of Space (Hint: Space is Hard)
Risk vs Reward: The Challenges of Space (Hint: Space is Hard)
Contents
Our History Of Risk
The Price Of Living
Risk vs Reward
Fear & Ignorance
Conquering Our Aversion
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Great achievements do and will take risks.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as the classic saying goes.
You miss a hundred percent of the shots you don’t take; another way of putting it. (Thanks to hockey great, Wayne Gretzky, for that last.)
There are many others.
Point is, the right risk is good.
The right risk is vital.
Our History Of Risk
Risk has defined human advancement for millennia.
Thank the gods our cavemen ancestors didn’t wait until there was a cure for saber-tooth tigers before they left the cave. They took that risk. They probably had a 60% chance of stayin’ alive through any given day (yes, we did just use the title of a Bee Gees song), yet they went out and lived.
They explored.
They figured out the world around them. Peril was simply part of the process.
Because of that we’re here today.
The Price Of Living
Skinned knees and bloody elbows are part of the game, and worse. You, yes you, (insert name here), will one day be no more. For now you’re alive.
Being alive means living.
Death awaits us all. Saying that is not a contradictory sentiment. Lifetimes are finite and that isn’t a grim statement it’s a true one. Only once you embrace it can you truly live.
Reminding us of another old saying, something like “We’re all going to die. Question is, do you go out on your knees? Or on your feet?”
That’s a good framing of the concept of “meaningful mortality” – making the most of our lives.
Winston Churchill had a great quote on the subject: “It is not the critic who counts ... The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly ...”
Doesn’t sound like someone waiting for conditions to be just right, does it?
Someone waiting for the rain to stop, or the cure for saber-tooth tigers to be figured out before they dare surge into the world and make it better.
We gain to the degree that we risk.
Risk vs Reward
Every great advance in our history came with a degree of risk.
Think of anything we take for granted today and someone, at some point, had to take a risk either to discover it or to make it known.
Hell (good use of that word for this example), at one time people had to risk getting burned at the stake for spreading the word that we are not the center of the universe.
Zero risk has never been a prerequisite for living.
In fact, a (modern) life well-lived probably operates more at a constant 10% risk or more. Less than that and you’re not really living.
Sound like we’re on a soap box?
Maybe a little, but this is a call-to-arms.
Be intrepid.
Be adventurous.
Dare to go.
Humans, successful ones, don’t hide from life, they attack it. They weigh the odds, of course; there’s a fine line between foolhardy and adventurous – a line that’s different for everyone – but life is not lived in the dark, or in isolation.
Our point is don’t be timid.
Embrace a little discomfort.
Fear & Ignorance
It’s said fear and ignorance are good business, and that might be true.
But good business for who?
We don’t have to let fear affect us. In fact the right kind of fear can be a good sign. It means we’re on the right track.
It means we’re stepping outside that comfort zone.
And ignorance, ignorance doesn’t need to exist at all. It’s almost as if ignorance is a choice. Why choose not to be informed? Why choose not to know?
If banishing fear and ignorance puts someone out of business, we probably didn’t want them in business anyway.
Conquering Our Aversion
As our level of convenience goes up, we tend to become more risk-averse.
Not the best direction.
Keep the spark alive.
Continue to push, to live, to take calculated chances. In this we’re encouraging our future explorers, creators, inventors, to push the proverbial envelope.
The question becomes, how do we, the average space fans, contribute to that?
The best way for most of us is by being informed. Informing others. By getting out there and being part, spreading the word and, in so doing, sharing what we know.
There are those who will live their lives sitting at home, enjoying the fruits of the results of Those Who Dared.
Nothing wrong with that. These are quite likely the backbone of our society.
Indeed, your humble authors fall mostly into that camp. We’re certainly not out building rocket engines.
But we’re living.
And we're cultivating an interest in the next frontier.
You should be too.
Our space future depends on it.
Want to hear from us Friday mornings?
Every Friday our chief correspondent, Tai Rade (you’ll love her take on things), sends a recap of the week in space.
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