As mentioned in part one, it’s my opinion that space is not meant for humans. After all, that’s why we need the protection of space craft and/or space suits, right?
Sure, we’ve engineered ways to survive outside of earth’s dome, but just barely. It’s still extremely dangerous, with the potential for catastrophic accidents lurking around every corner.
Again, it’s only my opinion, but it just feels like we aren’t ready, technologically and socially. Perhaps one day it will make sense to explore, and maybe even colonize, space, but not now; we just aren’t ready.
At this stage in our civilization, why are we pouring precious resources into colonizing a dead planet, when we desperately need to ensure this one can continue to support us? There are pressing matters that require all-hands-on-deck right here, right now.
At some point in the future, we may have the means to easily travel to neighbouring planets in our solar system and beyond. Maybe it’ll be at a point in time where we can feasibly and safely mine metals or figure out another way to make it pay for itself. Until then, we are throwing our money out the window.
And I do get the argument that we have to start somewhere, but until we ensure our survival on this planet, we have no business setting out on such frivolous adventures.
Here’s an analogy I like to use:
Imagine you’re shipwrecked on an island. You have inadvertently set fire to your home. Instead of trying to put out the fire (which is still relatively small), you opt to try and swim to the nearest island to start over, even though you’re a poor swimmer.
You are all set up on your present island and it provides everything you need to survive. Sure, it may take some work to get this fire under control and to rebuild your home, but at least you know you can survive and live a decent life.
So, right now, this is even worse than my example above. Mars is dead, Earth is brimming with life, period. It’s not like we are going to start over on a virgin Earth. There is nothing there except maybe some base materials we can extract from the ground and perhaps some water locked in the polar icecaps. What is it going to give us in the long term? A stepping stone to other worlds? Perhaps, but again, are we getting our best return for our efforts at this point in our evolution?
If we, as a species, reach the point where we need to vacate the premises, so to speak, then maybe we can think about building something that is going to get us to the next star system. As it is right now, even if we had the money, we simply don’t have the technology.
Distance
One thing that most people have a hard time grasping is the immense distances involved with space travel. As it is, it’s all we can manage to get people to the moon, and that is more or less in our back yard in relative terms.
The nearest star is 4 light years away. If we travelled at our current maximum rocket speed, it will take us 100,000 years to get to that system. It’s incomprehensible how long that actually is in human terms. Modern humans have only been around for 200,000 years or so; what is considered modern civilization is maybe 6000 years old. Think about the number 100,000 and where we were that many years in the past. At that point in time, we were migrating from Africa to Europe and Asia.
In 100,000 years, what will emerge on the other end of that insanely long, intergenerational space flight? Will these humans have the same goals that we have at present? And what if there is nothing to populate at this near star? What are the chances of finding an Earth-like planet so close to home? Do we then go to the next star? Will we have the resources onboard to take on a few more light years?
And the nearest star is still in our backyard, relatively speaking. Considering the galaxy is 100,000 light years across and that we are one of trillions of galaxies in the universe, you get the feeling that we are not even in the game of interstellar travel yet (and won’t be for some time).
Obviously, by looking at this, anyone can see that it isn’t the way to go. Just because you can barely do something doesn’t mean that you should. Again, we need to be many years in the future with new technologies, materials, fuel, etc to make this happen – otherwise, it’s just an expensive, dangerous and futile attempt.
Having said all this, I am certain that someday, we will have the technology to get people to stars outside of our own system. We’ll be able to do it faster, safer and with more efficiency than we ever thought possible .
For now, we have our own world to take care of. We cannot afford to bite off more than we can chew in terms of exploring other worlds. There is no guarantee that we’ll find anything out there after spending billions, or even trillions, in a quest to colonize space. There is nothing more important right now than to put those resources into fixing our one and only planet. Someday, we may have the luxury of sending explorers beyond our solar system, but there are things we need to overcome.
- We need to drastically improve our ability to detect earth-like planets. Not just detecting gases, temperatures, movement, etc, but really looking at planets for signs of a breathable atmosphere, natural resources, etc. And most importantly, if there is life, are we compatible with it – for example, will it kill us?
- Our travel time must be drastically reduced. 100,000 years won’t cut it. New technologies have to be developed.
Maybe I’m looking at this a little too simplistically. Maybe we really do have to start now and build on it. I’m just looking at priorities for us at this point. Let’s develop technologies that are going to save our planet first (fusion for example) and then maybe experiment a little on Interplanetary travel and eventually, interstellar travel/colonization.
After discussing this with a few friends (who are pro Mars colonization), I’m willing to admit that once we start manned missions to Mars, the technology will improve drastically, if for no other reason than necessity. It might be necessary to jump right in if you look at it from that angle. Maybe it’s the only path to success – hard to say for sure.
Still, I stand by my original opinion.
