why space colonization is important

Sooner or later, disasters such as an asteroid collision or nuclear war could wipe us all out. The fact that we have destroyed our home planet is prima facie evidence of this assertion. These solutions are the cornerstones that have helped people expand their horizons. The idea of terraforming Mars - aka "Earth's Twin" - is a fascinating idea. The Russian schoolmaster and physicist Konstantin Tsiolkowsky foresaw elements of the space community in his book, Beyond Planet Earth, written about 1900. One concern for the colonists would be to assure that their asteroid did not hit Earth or any other body of significant mass, yet they would have extreme difficulty in moving an asteroid of any size. 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. NSS Mission: "to promote social, economic, technological, and political change in order to expand civilization beyond Earth, to settle space and to use the resulting resources to build a hopeful and prosperous future for humanity." NSS Rationale - Why Our Mission is Important: Survival, Growth, Prosperity, and Curiosity Colonizing space is one method of doing so. The long-term survival of the human race is at risk as long as it is confined to a single planet. e However, its atmosphere is very thin, averaging 800 Pa, or about 0.8 percent of Earth's sea-level atmospheric pressure. What is the value of space exploration? In Earth orbit, the Van Allen belts make living above the Earth's atmosphere difficult. 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. If a workable solution were found and implemented, a project of that magnitude would cost billions, perhaps trillions. The discovery of life on Mars would not matter much one way or the other. Accessed February 21, 2023. https://www.procon.org/headlines/space-colonization-top-3-pros-and-cons/, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. SpaceX is a commercial space travel business owned by Elon Musk that has ignited commercial space travel enthusiasm and the idea of space tourism. Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos Blue Origin have generated similar excitement. Since the population increase is projected to continue, living space is and will remain an important need for the foreseeable future. Ross Andersen, Exodus: Elon Musk Argues That We Must Put a Million People on Mars if We Are to Ensure That Humanity Has a Future, aeon.co, Sep. 30, 2014, Anne Collins Goodyear, Space Travel Was a Dream for Artists Long before Armstrong Stepped on Moon, business-standard.com, July 15, 2019, Authors Calendar, Savien Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655), authorscalendar.info (accessed July 23, 2021), Mike Wright, Article on Von Braun and Walt Disney, nasa.gov, Aug. 3, 2017, Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Yuri Gagarin, eb.com, Mar. Another reason used to justify space colonization is the effort to increase human knowledge and technological abilities. SEE plans to host film and sports events, as well as content creation by Dec. 2024. There are plenty of creatives who . Transportation to orbit is often the limiting factor in space endeavors. It's not known what the minimum g-force is for ongoing health but 1g is known to ensure that children grow up with strong bones and muscles. This kind of space settlement is arguably the most important of inventions we'd need to give us a permanent place in space. 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. Marianne J. Dyson, Living on a Space Frontier. It has been proposed that these materials could be used for the construction of space habitats for human settlement. To know the unknown and explore new wonders of the Universe. Such colonies would almost certainly be restricted to the polar regions, due to the extreme daytime temperatures elsewhere on the planet. Musk argues that in order for humans to survive, it's necessary for the species to become "spacefaring" and "multiplanetary." But colonizing is no innocent practice: Humans have been reckoning with. [26], Brian Patrick Green stated, Furthermore, we have to realize that solving Earths environmental problems is extremely difficult and so will take a very long time. Alternatively, and more attractive to many, the Biosphere 2 project in Arizona has shown that a complex, small, enclosed, man-made biosphere can support eight people for at least a year, although there were many problems. 32% believed long-term habitable space colonies will be built by 2068. Space Colonization. Schmidt, Stanley and Robert Zubrin, eds. 1. NASAs ongoing Artemis program, launched by President Trump in 2017, intends to return humans to the Moon, landing the first woman on the lunar surface, by 2024. This would also help preserve the rest of terrestrial life presumably something the critics would approve of. Wrtie a essay based on your outline from lesson 2. your essay will be about the same topic. It has been suggested that Mercury could be colonized using the same technology, approach, and equipment that would be used for colonization of the Moon. The International Space Station alone has generated scores of medical innovations with uses on Earth, such as a method for delivering cancer-fighting medication directly to tumors; gadgetry that a nurse can hold to perform ultrasounds and transmit the results to a doctor thousands of miles away; and a robotic arm that can perform delicate surgery [12], Paul Eckart wrote Lunar Base Handbook in 1999;[13] M. Dyson wrote Home on the Moon; Living on a Space Frontier in 2003;[14] and Harrison Schmitt published Return to the Moon, written in 2007.[15]. 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. 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. We may have people living on the moons of Jupiter and other planets. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter. The concept of quality of life should play an important role in discussions of human space habitat design and planning. Mission AX-1 docked at the ISS on Apr. Many design proposals have been made, with varying degrees of realism, by both science fiction authors and engineers. Their answers included the following points:[7], Louis J. Halle, formerly of the United States Department of State, wrote in Foreign Affairs (Summer 1980) that the colonization of space will protect humanity in the event of global nuclear warfare.[8]. Ten Days That Vanished: The Switch to the Gregorian Calendar. A space colony can be the answer to philosophical challenges and economic expectations facing us here on Earth. One possibility is air-breathing hypersonic air/spacecraft under development by NASA and other organizations, both public and private. These may be expensively imported from the Earth, or more cheaply from extraterrestrial sources, such as the Moon (which has ample metals, silicon, and oxygen), Near Earth Asteroids, which have all the materials needed (with the possible exception of nitrogen), comets, or elsewhere. Propellant launched from the Earth is likely to be prohibitively expensive for space colonization, even with improved space access costs. This understanding is incredibly important in moving towards a nation that holds a strong and respectful relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. You want to send robots. Number Ten: Technology. Space exploration gives us the chance to begin colonizing other locations, giving us hope that our species can survive. [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. This article was published on January 21, 2022, at Britannicas ProCon.org, a nonpartisan issue-information source. Why Werner Herzog Thinks Human Space Colonization 'Will Inevitably Fail' (arstechnica.com) 179. Chicago, Illinois 60654 USA, Natalie Leppard According to Cassini data from 2008, Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on . [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. 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. The Alliance to Rescue Civilization plans to establish backups of human civilization on the Moon and other locations away from Earth. But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe. The scientist Paul Davies also supports the view that if a planetary catastrophe threatens the survival of the human species on Earth, a self-sufficient colony could "reverse-colonize" the Earth and restore human civilization. And he's probably right. The starting point here is the assumption that regardless of the difficulty of the space environment, as well as the motivation for space colonization, a space habitat should offer a minimum quality of life. Unmanned supply craft may be practical with little technological advance, even crossing 1/2 billion kilometers of cold vacuum. A space habitat would also serve as a proving ground for how well a generation ship could function as a long-term home for hundreds or thousands of people. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? . Earth is the home of all life in the. The lunar launch is more likely to happen in 2025, due to a lag in space suit technology and delays with the Space Launch System rocket, the Orion capsule, and the lunar lander. [16] [17], On Apr. Importance of Space Colonization: First of all, it's human nature to go beyond. With almost all of the space industry pining after colonization of Mars, the whataboutery of the long-term goal of colonization is a debate we all need to have, keeping in mind the best interest of the future of our species.The good news is that existing technologies will only improve with time, be it propulsion systems, power generation, or genetic engineering that help humans adapt better to . It appears to be some interpretation of Christian dominion, or dominionist, theology that drives colonization advocates to declare that humans are destined to fill the universe, that humans "must" colonize Mars, that outer space resources are there for the taking.The ideology of space exploration is in need of rejuvenation. The literature for space colonization began in 1869, when Edward Everett Hale[9] wrote about an inhabited artificial satellite. Colonies on the Moon and Mars could use local materials, although the Moon is deficient in volatiles (principally hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen) but possesses a great deal of oxygen, silicon, and metals such as iron, aluminum, and titanium.