You thought the Information Revolution is neat?
You haven't seen anything yet!
Speculating about the future is fun. It can be easy to get carried
away, but if you're careful to check your sums you may see something
that could really happen. Then you've got the magical history-stuff
in your hands; what a boost that is!
This is using your own judgement; deferring to the judgement of
the majority (incoherent, untrustworthy, underinformed) will get you
nowhere. As of now, 1998 CE, I doubt the majority will be convinced
enough of the potential in space expansion in time for the nation
states to act on it. During the '70s, space advocates hoped they
could inspire the U.S. Congress to fund 'Apollo ][', but
clearly the nation states today are too tied up in petty influence
games to direct such a bold program. Consensus humanity should be as
startled at the ripe fruits of space development as they are today at
the Internet (golly, Wilma, where'd that come from?).
Advocating our Expansion into Space
What this is about is a transformation of our economy to include
communities and power plants in near-Earth space. Many people, myself
included, dream of living in Space, where nobody has ever called home
before. The sunlight that passes there, unfiltered by an atmosphere,
could be captured to power all our cities much more efficiently than
coal, gas, or nuclear power.
This radical inexpense of this new power source alone would
revolutionize standards of living worldwide.
Having an industry in Space to build the
orbital habitats and power satellites will also permit us to build
much greater telescopes & exploring vessels than we could afford to
launch from down here. We'll also be able to protect ourselves from
the newly-perceived threat of near-Earth-passing asteroids.
I'd rather not contemplate a future where we did not expand into
Space. Here, our resources in material & energy are limited. Even
nuclear fusion plants would generate dangerous waste that a global
society living in statis could not afford. Such a stable society that
could survive on this planet alone, never increasing its total
population or usage of energy, would very likely need to restrict its
individuals much, much more than our present one does. A point might
even be reached when even visiting Space could not be afforded any
longer, and then our future would be bleak indeed.
But I'm optimistic and expect the High Frontier will be open
soon, which is the romantic perspective anyway. The critical
stumbling block is public opinion, which effects both national
legislatures and private investors, but on governments much more
heavily than on individuals. Many people still assume space expansion
isn't feasible because nobody's done it before, but enough will
recognize that it is.
There is no new science that needs to be discovered, and solutions
to the engineering problems have either been found or are in progress.
In particular, cheaper launch systems such as the VentureStar X-33
are on their way.
The next great wave of astronauts will be private employees, and the
bootstrapping of our industrial infrastructure in Space will be the
side benefit of private enterprises, some which have already begun.
The new Space prospecting companies will build successively on their
predecessors, and through their framework humanity will arrive at
last, in numbers, to live and enjoy life on this grand new territorial range.
Humans moving into Space will be a vast process, like the rains
digging out the Grand Canyon. No one individual or agency will make
it happen, but there will be many fascinating roles to find along the
way.
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last modified on April 20th, 1998
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