Space To Settle

Have you ever dreamed of living in a place that is not Earth?  Have you thought of how fun it would be in zero G?  Or of cultivating crop on the red planet?  These themes may smack of science fiction, but in a world that is mostly explored Earth is quickly becoming a non-frontier.  The human race has thrived exploring and expanding their abode into new territories.  After this sphere is conquered where is there left to go?  One place to go is up.  Some say the inner solar system is the next frontier.  To settle space is to keep the human race going.

People have explored since, well, since we wanted to know what's over the hill. We want to see, touch, smell and experience and place or environment.  The famed explorers went around the globe.  They searched for various things but most of all they just wanted to see for themselves these surreal landscapes.  We know their curiosities paid off when you consider the sights like the Pyramids, Lake Victoria, Teotihuacan, Chaco Canyon.  We have explored not only to find monuments natural and man-made but also to create trade, countries, and exploit the natural resources.  The central part of Africa was explored as late as the 1800s by Dr David Livingstone.  Because of his successful exploration trade route were established into the interior of Africa for the first time.  Exploration is in our makeup as human beings.  We have an insatiable need for new knowledge and exploration satisfies that curiosity.  Space offers much to explore.  From asteroids to moons of Saturn and Jupiter to Mars and even Venus, space is a great frontier.

Part of the challenge of exploration into new areas is the need to adapt to the area or the need to make devises to help us live in that area.  From our oldest ancestors, we have clothes.  Clothes warm us and protect us from things hitting or scratching our skin.  We have shelter.  Shelter keeps us from rainfall and snowfall.  We have heat.  We made heat with fire and now with sophisticated heat pumps.  We have air conditioning.  Air conditioning keeps us cool in our shelter for the warm summer months, or in some places year around.  Taking Dr Livingstone example again, part of his success was due to the medical knowledge of how to deal with diseases like malaria.  Today we have medicine and mosquito nets to keep us from such diseases.  Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest with the aid of oxygen breathers.  In Space Astronauts, Cosmonauts, and Taikonauts take not only oxygen but air pressure with them so they can stay alive.  Even the EVA suits (astronaut suits to conduct walks in space and on the moon) are more like a space ship with arms and legs than they are a suit.  Today one of the main problems to solve in space far away from Earth is that of radiation.  There is too much radiation in deep space (inside the solar system) to allow for humans to stay alive.  We have a need to develop technology that can deal with that problem if we want to go exploring or even settling.

The 1800's because of Dr Livingstone's exploration, Africa was part of the mindset of people in the western world.  The story of Tarzan was popular, and a myriad of movies, books, and songs were made about Africa.  It was viewed as an exciting, daring, and dangerous place full of potential riches.  At the same time of Dr Livingstone exploits, the abolitionist movement made some significant strides in ending slavery in the Western countries, which lead to the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln.  Explorers of the day had their hand in the abolitionist movement.  Today we have the exploration of science that excite some.  We also have Space exploration that excite much of the population.  The Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, became beloved characters to both the public and the human explorers at the rovers' controls.  Now we have a growing number of people talking and dreaming of going to Mars to settle.  The Mars Society is a non-government group that seeks exploration and settlement of Mars.  The red planet has become a major goal for many because its been identified as a place where the possibility of settlement with today's technology is potentially feasible.  OK, so its still a big challenge.  Other place to settle include the Moon, Asteroids, Venus and even deep space itself.  Finding out how we can live in such environments is a major job of the International Space Station (ISS).  One of the personal and social effects of low earth orbit has on Astronauts and Cosmonauts is the change in perspective they got by looking down at the Earth for the first time.  They see how thin the atmosphere is and how vulnerable everything they have known all their lives.  Virgin Galactic is going to send up paying passengers to suborbital space soon and many will get that first look of the Earth.  I predict that they will write about their experience and they will have a change in perspective.  Settlement in space can also change the perspective of the population at large, perhaps we will finally learn to treat our planet right.

conclusion
Keep the human race going is key to our survival.  Expanding to the stars is the way to go.  Settling in the inner Solar System is our next step.  It satisfies the human curiosity by going to Mars, Asteroids, and the like.  It challenges us technically by learning ways and making things to help us survive in harsher environments.  It also helps in the evolution of the human social behavior by challenging our perspective and making us change for the better.  Get ready, its coming sooner than you might think.