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In the long run a single-planet species will not survive If we humans want to survive for hundreds of thousands or millions of years, we must ultimately populate other planets. There is no night in space, and no clouds or atmosphere to block sunlight. What was science fiction began to look more like possibility. Dreams of space settlement hit a zenith in the 1950s with Walt Disney productions such as Man and the Moon, and science fiction novels including Ray Bradburys The Martian Chronicles (1950). Mission AX-1 docked at the ISS on Apr. Large structures would be needed to convert sunlight into significant amounts of electrical power for settlers' use. Distinct cultural important (hard to define) is probably good reason. For more details . This article was published on January 21, 2022, at Britannicas ProCon.org, a nonpartisan issue-information source. Very little can be achieved on Mars that isn't already possible on Earth. NASA astronauts going into space afterward rode along with Russians until 2020 when SpaceX took over and first launched NASA astronauts into space on Apr. However, NASA ended its space shuttle program in 2011 when the shuttle Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 21. Orbits close to Earth can be reached in hours, whereas the Moon is days away and trips to Mars take months. This argument assumes that money not spent on space would automatically go toward socially beneficial projects. Colonization, or the desire to establish permanent settlements, soon followed. And the majority (63%) stated NASAs top priority should be monitoring Earths climate, while only 18% said sending astronauts to Mars should be the highest priority and only 13% would prioritize sending astronauts to the Moon. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. It may be possible to colonize the three farthest gas giants with "floating cities" in their atmospheres. And currently have no viable solution to protect ourselves from them. One possibility is air-breathing hypersonic air/spacecraft under development by NASA and other organizations, both public and private. After the Apollo moon landings, some scientists and NASA officials envisioned. Colonizing it would be akin to settling Antarctica if Antarctica was trying to kill you. However, a great deal of engineering would be required. What is the value of space exploration? https://www.britannica.com/story/pro-and-con-space-colonization. Colonizing other bodies in the solar system (or building our own orbiting habitats) is a way to create a "backup" of humanity that will survive no matter what happens to Earth. As of Feb. 2020, Russian Valery Polyakov had spent the longest continuous time in space (437.7 days in 1994-1995 on space station Mir), followed by Russian Sergei Avdeyev (379.6 days in 1998-1999 on Mir), Russians Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov (365 days in 1987-1988 on Mir), Russian Mikhail Kornienko and American Scott Kelly (340.4 days in 2015-2016 on Mir and ISS respectively) and American Christina Koch (328 days in 2019-20 in ISS). Although they would generally also take a few days to reach with current technology, many of these points would have near-continuous solar power capability, since their distance from Earth would result in only brief and infrequent eclipses of light from the Sun. Project Orion: A concept proposed by Freeman Dyson that could use nuclear bombs to propel a starship. Critics of space colonization maintain that such attempts would be a waste of time and a drain on financial resources, which could be better spent on alleviating problems such as hunger, poverty, and disease. If the goal of space colonization is to create another civilization that is viable independently of the continued success of Earth-based civilization, there will be enormous challenges putting in place the large infrastructure necessary for an industrial civilization. Transportation using off-Earth resources for propellant in relatively conventional rockets would be expected to massively reduce in-space transportation costs compared to the present day. And if we had a trillion humans, we would have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts and unlimited, for all practical purposes, resources and solar power unlimited for all practical purposes. [25], Space, in particular, is connected to exploration and growth in the human imagination. You want to send robots. Dreams of space settlement hit a zenith in the 1950s with Walt Disney productions such as Man and the Moon, and science fiction novels including Ray Bradburys The Martian Chronicles (1950). Finally, the level of (pseudo-) gravity is controlled at any desired level by rotating an orbital colony. That all being said, assume most 'wild places' as having strong 'right to exist as is' - which could be some or most of Earth, when other demands are lessened, in a due process, ideally. The fully automated, unpiloted Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launched on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and was named after Alan Shepard, who was the first American to travel into space on May 5, 1961. Humans have made a mess of Earth. Between now and 2040, the companys lifespan will have tripled. The other three Earth-Sun points would require months to reach. Over the next six decades, NASA would launch space stations, land rovers on Mars, fly past Pluto, and orbit Jupiter, among other accomplishments. It is a major theme in science fiction, as well as a long-term goal of various national space programs. Between melting the polar ice caps, slowly creating an atmosphere, and then engineering the environment to have . A continually accelerating starship: It would use a propulsion device such as a solar sail to approach the speed of light, allowing short subjective time to the crew, because of time dilation. The flight marked the first time that passengers, rather than astronauts, went into space. The Space Studies Institute was founded by Gerard K. O'Neill to fund the study of space habitats. By comparison, NASA's yearly budget averages only about $15 billion a year. Somewhere around 5-10 tons of material per square meter of surface area is required. Mars is a desolate wasteland with very little atmosphere, less gravity and no radiation protection. Several of these factors are discussed below. The British Interplanetary Society, founded in 1933, is the world's longest established space society. It's far from clear that human values will shape an Earth-based space-colonization wave, but even if they do, it seems more likely that space colonization will increase total suffering rather than decrease it. This can be achieved cheaply with leftover material (slag) from processing lunar soil and asteroids into oxygen, metals, and other useful materials; however, it represents a significant obstacle to maneuvering vessels with such massive bulk. The atmosphere is thin enough, when coupled with Mars' lack of magnetic field, that radiation is more intense on the surface, and radiation shielding would be needed for protection from solar storms. = (For articles about the Movement, see The Space Movement ). Famed British cosmologist Stephen Hawking sees only one way for humanity to survive the next millennium: colonize space. The Space Frontier Foundation promotes strong free market, capitalist views about space development. Locations in space would necessitate a space habitat, also called space colony and orbital colony, or a space station that would be intended as a permanent settlement rather than as a simple way-station or other specialized facility. [33], Lori Marino, PhD, Founder and Executive Director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy, asserted, [W]e are not capable of enacting a successful colonization of another planet. It has been proposed that these materials could be used for the construction of space habitats for human settlement. 12, 1961, NASA put the first people, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the Moon in July 1969. We're in the infancy of it I'm talking about that one day, I don't know when that day is, but there will be more human beings who live off the Earth than on it. The Colonize the Cosmos site advocates orbital colonies. 23, 2021, NASA, July 20, 1969: One Giant Leap for Mankind, nasa.gov, July 20, 2019, NASA, 60 Moments in NASA History, nasa.gov (accessed July 26, 2021), NASA, The Birth of NASA, nasa.gov, Mar. Indias planned human space flights have been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but they may launch in 2023. It has the benefits of close proximity to Earth and lower escape velocity, allowing for easier exchange of goods and services. After the Russians put the first person, Yuri Gagarin, in space on Apr. It increases our knowledge. Earth is the home of all life in the. The Expanse does a really good job with that. As of June 17, 2021, three countries had space programs with human space flight capabilities: China, Russia, and the United States. [31] [32], But, a person has yet to set foot on Mars, and no space station has been built on another planet or natural satellite. For example, as of June 13, 2006, over $320 billion had been allocated by the U.S. Congress for the war in Iraq. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13], Richard Branson launched himself, two pilots, and three mission specialists into space from New Mexico for a 90-minute flight on the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission on July 11, 2021. Some of these European countries fought one another for control over trade and the riches of the New World. [25], Munevar also suggested something similar in more detail: In the shorter term, a strong human presence throughout the solar system will be able to prevent catastrophes on Earth by, for example, deflecting asteroids on a collision course with us. We need a major change in how we think about what it means to be humanwe need to stop seeing our species as special and start seeing it as part of a collection of species. After the Russians put the first person, Yuri Gagarin, in space on Apr. Become a member. [24], Humans are not a species of stagnation. Looking beyond the solar system, there are billions of potential suns with possible colonization targets. [18] [19] [40], In Jan. 2022, Space Entertainment Enterprise (SEE) announced plans for a film production studio and a sports arena in space. 2. The argument of cost: Many people greatly overestimate how much money is spent on space, and underestimate how much money is spent on defense or health care. Answers: 3 Show answers Another question on English. The group returned to Earth on Apr. For both solar thermal and nuclear power generation in airless environments, such as the Moon and space, and to a lesser extent the very thin Martian atmosphere, one of the main difficulties is dispersing the inevitable heat generated. . SPACE colonization means much more than Antarctic-style research habitats on the moon or other planets for an elite group of astronauts. Ocean colonization boosts our technology and science. According to this view, there is nothing in space that is really needed, adding that moving beyond the solar system is totally impractical in any "reasonable" time scale. Equipment is available to extract in situ resources (water, air, and so forth) from the Martian ground and atmosphere. e However, if such a goal were to imply human self-replication, it would treat people as machines, requiring genetic experimentation on humans and expecting that human nature and the human desire for a spouse and family life can be by-passed in some cavalier fashion. Heppenheimer. This understanding is incredibly important in moving towards a nation that holds a strong and respectful relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Diseases will go havoc, pollution will destroy the environment, and world war 3 can become a nuclear war and numerous . Certain NEOs may also contain some nitrogen. As an alternative or addendum for the future of the human race, many science fiction writers have focused on the realm of the "inner-space," that is the (computer aided) exploration of the human mind and human consciousness. To justify the colonization of space, supporters have given a variety of reasons, including survival of the human species (in case of nuclear warfare or other planetary catastrophe), protection of Earth's environment, access to additional natural resources, and the spreading of life in the universe. Weightlessness makes construction of large colonies considerably easier than in a gravity environment. Inherent in exploration of all types is the opportunities that it opens up to the people doing the exploring. It is in my view a good idea to see if we can do this as one day Earth will not be livable and yes it is a very long time from now but one should learn now in order to do this in the future. "Space Colonization Top 3 Pros and Cons." [38] [39], The International Space Station has been continuously occupied by groups of six astronauts since Nov. 2000, for a total of 243 astronauts from 19 countries as of May 13, 2021. Many design proposals have been made, with varying degrees of realism, by both science fiction authors and engineers. To learn what can happen above low-Earth orbit, NASA studies how radiation affects biological samples using a ground-based research laboratory. These colonies would be positioned to construct massive solar power satellites to provide clean power to the Earth, as well as set up industries that on Earth create much environmental damage. 500 Cosmic rays and solar flares create a lethal radiation environment in space. One pragmatic argument suggests that if even half the money of space exploration were spent for terrestrial betterment, there would be greater good for a greater number of people, at least in the short term. Planetary colonization advocates cite the following potential locations: Mars is often the topic of discussion regarding "terraforming"the process of making the entire planet or at least large portions of it habitable. 8, 2022, a SpaceX capsule launched, carrying three paying customers and a former NASA astronaut on a roundtrip to the International Space Station (ISS). The fact that we have destroyed our home planet is prima facie evidence of this assertion. Within 148 pages, explore the mysteries of Mars. Is the Internet Making Us Stupid? Space colonization is the next logical step in space exploration and human growth. It would be like, Good news, the problems of poverty and disease have been solved, but the bad news is there arent any humans left. I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness, to make sure it continues into the future. [1], According to some philosophies, humans are the only beings capable of morality, and, thus, preserving humanity is the highest moral imperative. In the 1950s and 1960s, Dandridge Cole and Krafft Ehricke published their ideas. Mankind has been dealing with challenges since the first days of its existence. Musk is the CEO of SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company. Colonizing space is one method of doing so. And what should be done on that body: residences, industrialization, or another purpose?