During the first half of the 20th century, a radical change took place in our vision of the universe, first with the theory of relativity and then with quantum mechanics, and society experienced the appearance of motorized airplanes with propellers, photography, cinema, telephone, television and automobile. Less known, but very relevant, is that the bases for space flights were also established and the first rocket launches were carried out.
This progress was possible thanks to the industrial revolution of the 19th century, when gas, oil and internal combustion machines entered the scene, leading to the mechanization of industries and transportation. The implementation of electrical networks, for its part, streamlined the way energy and information was transmitted. Then the world wars imposed accelerated rates in the application of scientific and technological advances, which have been transmitted to our daily lives and today allow us to have the benefits of penicillin, ultrasound in medicine, travel in pressurized cabins of airplanes with turbocharged engines. reaction, use microwave ovens and access nuclear energy.
These spills made visible the economic and social benefits, but above all strategic, that science and technology provide. So public and private investments in research and development have been essential for post-war economic development. As time has passed, private investment has increased significantly and today represents around two-thirds of investment in science and development. The results are visible with advances in renewable energies, digital technologies, artificial intelligence, space development and telecommunications, where private participation is responsible for significant advances.
In the case of Latin America, its history in the last century is associated with both internal political, economic and social tensions, as well as those generated by international conflicts or derived from relations with the great world powers. Particularly with the United States, which consolidated its hegemony in the region after the First World War.
In general terms, Latin American development was based on the production and export of raw materials and food, in such a way that the technological developments of the 20th century were experienced with a certain distance. Delays were moderate during the first half of the century and attempts were even made at modernization and modernization in some countries. But the successes were only partial and in general the lags with respect to the main economies of the world increased over time. Of course there are chiaroscuros and some countries have positioned themselves as leaders while in the most vulnerable the delays have worsened.
In the case of the science and technology sectors, its beginnings could be established from the construction of the first astronomical observatories in the region, in the 19th century. Their tasks, in addition to those corresponding to the sky, included the areas of meteorology, cartography and hydrography, and they were also in charge of giving the exact time in each country. So they functioned as touchstones to strengthen scientific and educational work, allowing science to develop in a sustained manner in the second half of the 20th century. It is notable that despite the low budgets dedicated to these fields, less than 0.5% of the gross domestic product, there are currently mature and world-class scientific groups in several countries. For their part, the technological and innovation sectors, which require facilities with complex equipment and stronger investments, have suffered from the lack of private investment and have not been able to develop adequately.
The first milestone dates back to 1895, when the Peruvian Pedro Paulet was studying at the Institute of Applied Chemistry of the Sorbonne, in Paris. There he designed and built the first liquid fuel rocket engine, at a time when it was thought that the thrust of rockets should be obtained with gunpowder. Later, in 1902, he designed an airplane powered by his rocket engine, which he named Auto-bolide or Torpedo airplane. Later he was appointed diplomat of the Peruvian government in Europe. A contemporary of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who is considered the father of astronautics, Paulet anticipated the ideas of Oberth and Goddard by more than two decades. Unfortunately he was never able to obtain financing to build his aircraft, so the feasibility of his design could not be verified. In this way, Peru lost an opportunity by not supporting Paulet's pioneering work, and it was not until almost thirty years after his death, when they finally created the Peruvian Space Agency in 1974.
The second corresponds to the 1950s and 1960s, when Argentina, Brazil and Mexico created their agencies. With them they began the construction of rockets, as well as the design of engines and fuels. Both Argentina and Brazil have maintained sustained development from the beginning and are the best positioned countries. For its part, Mexico started vigorously but abandoned its space project in 1977. So now, decades away, it is trying to restart its activities.
ARGENTINA
The first Latin American rocket was launched by Argentina in 1950. During that decade they launched and manufactured the first Latin American jet airplanes. This laid the foundations for the creation of the National Space Research Commission and the Aeronautical and Space Research Institute in the following decade, institutions that were responsible for preparing specialized personnel and building two-stage rockets for meteorological and atmospheric studies. Their early development and geographical position allowed them to collaborate with the space agencies of the United States and France, in addition to experiments with biological loads in suborbital flights with rodents and apes, which were recovered alive. They also made successful launches from the Argentine area of Antarctica and in 1979 they carried out joint missions with Peru. In the 1980s they shifted focus to geographic studies and remote sensing. In 1991 they founded the National Commission for Space Activities, which has been in charge of carrying out all new space projects, both for the armed forces and for research. These include the launch into orbit of the first Latin American geostationary telecommunications satellites, the Arsat. Recently, in partnership with Italy, they have created a constellation of satellites for emergency response.
BRAZIL
In 1963 Brazil founded the National Commission for Space Activities and in 1971 the National Institute for Space Research. These two institutions were directed by the military, and their initial work focused on military programs. The rockets they built at that time were launched from their Barreira do Inferno base, created in 1965 and located near the city of Natal. In 1982 they began the construction of the Alcántara launch base, located at a point on the coast very close to the equator, ideal for launching geostationary satellites. Since 1985 they have put several satellites into orbit and in 1988 they made an agreement with China to develop remote sensing satellites. In 1993 they launched the first fully developed data collection satellite in Brazil. In 1994 control passed to the Brazilian Space Agency, run by civilians, and they began projects to upload constellations of micro- and nanosatellites.
Already in this century, Brazil is preparing for future missions to Mars, and began international collaborations and experiments in a semi-arid area of the northwest, relatively close to the Barreira do Inferno base, to simulate the conditions that travelers would have if they reached the ground. Martian. Recently, in 2021, Brazil was the first country in South America to sign an agreement to participate in NASA's Artemis program. Today it is the most advanced Latin American country in these areas and is the one that has invested the most resources for its spatial development.
MEXICO
In Mexico the first rockets were launched at the end of 1957 by the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí. This group was started on its own initiative, before the founding of the National Outer Space Commission in 1962 for the research, exploration and peaceful use of outer space, which was dedicated to the construction of rockets and studies of the upper atmosphere, but was dismantled. in 1977. The work that was done afterwards followed two different routes. On the one hand, government initiatives focused on the purchase of communication satellites during the 1980s and 1990s. On the other hand, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) created the University Program for Space Research and Development in the 1990s, with which the first Mexican microsatellite, UNAMSAT-B, was built and launched into orbit in 1996. In 2010, the second official institution was created, the Mexican Space Agency, which is now in charge of training personnel and the space project.
In 2017, the Space Instrumentation Laboratory group of the UNAM Institute of Nuclear Sciences, in collaboration with the State Council of Science, Technology and Innovation of Hidalgo, launched the first nanosatellite made in Mexico, the NanoConnect 1, into space. group launched NanoConnect 2 in 2021, in collaboration with the Satish Dhawan Space Center of the Indian space agency (ISRO). That same year, an international collaboration of the Mexican agency put the D2/AtlaCom 1 nanosatellite into orbit. Now an agreement has been signed with NASA's Artemis mission and the first Mexican mission to the Moon called Colmena is being planned, as a collaboration of UNAM, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Mexican Space Agency and the state of Hidalgo. This consists of putting five mini robots that will move autonomously to explore and mine on the lunar surface.
In addition to Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, there are seven other countries that have space agencies and satellites orbiting the Earth: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. In addition, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Uruguay do not yet have agencies but already have their own satellites, while Honduras and Panama will have theirs in the coming years.
In relation to manned flights to outer space, there are already ten people of Latin American origin or ancestry who have made extended trips on American or Soviet ships or have been to the International Space Station (ISS). The first was the Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, who traveled in 1980 on the Soyuz 38 of the USSR. He was followed by the Mexican Rodolfo Neri Vela, traveling on a space shuttle Atlantis mission in 1985. Subsequently, people with dual nationality have traveled on space shuttles, some of whom have made several trips. The date in parentheses corresponds to their first flight: Franklin Chang Díaz (Costa Rica-USA, 1986), Ellen Ochoa (Mexico-USA, 1993), Carlos Noriega (Peru-USA, 1997) , Marco Pontes (Brazil, ISS, 2006), John D. Olivas (Mexico-USA, 2007), George D. Zamka (Colombia-USA, 2007), Joseph Acabá (Puerto Rico, 2009) and José Hernández (Mexico-USA, 2009).
The challenges for the future, as in all areas of science and development, focus on three problems that depend on the political will of each government: financing, international cooperation and the creation of specialized, physical and human infrastructure. The most important is that related to financing, which determines the other two as well as the type of projects, whether own or collaborative, that can be carried out. Given how advanced the rest of the world is, collaborative projects are the logical way to expand capabilities and move forward.
In addition to financing, the relationship between industry and research centers has always been an Achilles heel for the development of the region. With the exception of Brazil, financing has remained very low and policies that link industrial sectors and stimulate productive investment have not been created. Despite this, several higher education centers have already created programs on aerospace topics. Its growth and impact will be very limited as long as the corresponding public policies do not change.
In the field of cooperation, some countries have agreements with agencies from other regions, and desires have already been expressed to build regional agencies. The first initiative was that of a South American Space Agency. The proposal was made by the defense ministers of the Union of South American Nations in 2011, but it has not been carried out. The second proposal was made by Argentina and Mexico at the 2021 meeting of foreign ministers of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, where a total of 18 countries agreed to create the Latin American and Caribbean Space Agency. Its first headquarters was established in Mexico, and at this time it already has 21 members. This type of multinational cooperation initiatives can be an incentive to improve financing policies and carry out long-term projects in Latin America. The expectation is that this would help generate technology-based industries, with well-paid jobs, that promote the social and economic development of the region.
Jose Franco. Institute of Astronomy, National Autonomous University of Mexico.
