The Necessary Risks of Space Exploration
ECE/MIE Professor Hanumant Singh says the stranding of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard the International Space Station reflects the inevitable risks of space travel that are necessary to learn more about the universe.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Erin Kayata. Main photo: Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams will be in space until February 2025 due to safety issues with their spacecraft. NASA via AP, File
Astronauts stranded in space: Unexpected eight-month stay highlights the risks of space exploration, experts say.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams took off for the International Space Station in June. The test flight aboard Boeing’s Starliner was supposed to last a week, but they have yet to return.
Helium leaks and issues with the control thrusters were discovered with the spacecraft, making a safe return to Earth impossible, according to NASA.
Instead, the pair will return to Earth with the crew of an upcoming SpaceX mission, which means they will not be back until February.
But a weeklong trip turning into an eight-month journey is par for the course when it comes to space exploration, Northeastern University experts say.
“Space flight has always been a little bit messy, a little bit chaotic not by definition, but by design,” says Jacqueline McCleary, a cosmology expert and assistant professor of physics at Northeastern. “The way I look at this, this is one bump in the road on mankind’s long, inevitable path to the stars.”
Jacqueline McCleary, a cosmology expert and assistant professor of physics at Northeastern, said this situation is a “bump in the road” when it comes to space exploration. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
Hanumant Singh, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern who has experience working on unmanned vehicles, says sending humans into space offers more opportunities for exploration than sending up robots. But part of the risk of sending people to space is having to then make decisions around their safety.
Prioritizing that, despite Boeing’s insistence that the Starliner is safe, is the right call, he adds. Previously, there have been fatalities on NASA missions, like the Challenger explosion, but this approach shows the agency’s commitment to safety.
“I have a lot more respect for NASA for the decisions they made,” Singh says. “This is absolutely the right thing to do. … They are showing that, politics aside, they are going to do the right thing.”
While the idea of a short trip turning into an unexpected months-long voyage is alarming to many, these sort of detours are the expectation for astronauts. McCleary says Wilmore and Williams would have gone into this prepared for a longer stay, given the risks of space travel. The International Space Station is stocked with supplies specifically for situations like these.
The astronauts chosen are also former test pilots and military veterans who are “physiologically and psychologically ready” for being stuck up there, McCleary says.
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