“Any society, if it is to flourish instead of merely
survive, must strive to transcend its own limits.”
-Andrew Chaikin
We live in very interesting times: the global economy, the internet, the new
millennium, new fields in medicine, and new opportunities in every endeavor one
can imagine.
We also have many challenges facing us. We have formerly suppressed ethnic groups rising up and demanding to be recognized. In the Middle East and elsewhere, we, the
U.S., are trying to prevent rogue nations like Iran from obtaining nuclear, chemical,
and biological weapons for fear they would supply terrorists with these
weapons to use against the general public. We are also involved in a costly war
in the Middle East, for ever changing reasons.
We have an economy with an ever increasing debt, and interest payments
eating up much of the annual budget.
In addition, we have an environmental crisis: the destruction of the rain forests,
the depletion of Earth’s natural resources, the greenhouse effect that is
raising the Earth’s temperature and melting the polar ice caps. If this isn’t
enough, we also have an increase in natural disasters both here in the U.S. and
elsewhere, ranging from floods to fires and tornadoes.
We live in a finite system on Earth, with an ever expanding population, and
we are using up finite resources to maintain a high standard of living. More than
ever before, humanity tends towards continual, even accelerated growth of
population, land occupancy, production, consumption of energy, resources, water,
and the increase of waste. Somewhere, this has to end. Should these resources
run out, society will no doubt collapse.
Back in 1972, the Club of Rome came out with a book, The Limits to
Growth, detailing the threat of misuse of the environment. (It was updated in
1992 and again in 2004) In it listed five basic factors the determine these limits.
1. Population
2. Agricultural Production
3. Natural Resources
4. Industrial Production
5. Pollution
These are all connected. With a rising population, more demands are made
on the land for food products. The overuse of land leads to erosion and food
production drops. Natural resources are severely depleted by a prosperous
world population. Industrial production increases and pollution then rises, increasing
the death rate.
One question is, how many people can be provided for on this Earth, at
what level of wealth, and for how long? In the western world, the standard of
living is high and they want to keep it that way. Developing countries are trying
to raise their standards of living to that of the West. This means using more of
Earth’s resources, but, as previously stated, the Earth’s resources are finite.
The faster developed nations convert raw natural resources into economic
goods, the less resources will be available for other countries and for future
generations. If the entire world used all of Earth’s resources, they will soon be
depleted, industrial output will eventually fall, along with the economy, and society
will then collapse. It is impossible for the rest of the world to develop as
the U.S., and the entire West, has. If we resort to equal sharing, the average
amount per person may not be enough to maintain life, especially with population
increase. This could result in social suicide.
There is also the problem of pollution. Pollution is simply the dissipated energy
that accumulates from the energy flow of a society. The greater the energy
flow, the greater the pollution and eventually, the greater the deaths that
results. The energy ends up as dissipated waste, unavailable for future use.
The wastes of human civilization builds up in the environment until they become
visibly annoying, even harmful. Pollution is increasing at an exponential rate.
Examples include the buildup of Carbon Dioxide, thermal energy, and nuclear
wastes. This past decade (the present year being 2015) has been the hottest
on record, and many are fearing the worst from climate change.
Energy, however, is the driver of our modern civilization. If energy fails, everything
fails. More prosperity means a greater use of fuels. As the world’s resources
of non-renewable fuels - coal, oil, and natural gas are exceedingly unevenly
distributed over the globe, and undoubtedly limited in quantity, it is clear
that their exploitation at an ever increasing rate is an act of violence against nature
which must almost lead to an act of violence against men.
We must minimize their current rate of use - for once these fuels are gone,
they are gone forever.
The crux of the matter is not only whether the human race will survive, but
even more whether it can survive without falling into a state of worthless existence.
To sum it all up, we live in a finite system with finite resources, exponential
population growth, the inability to provide a comfortable living for all of
Earth’s population from its finite resources, and billions of tons of pollutants
added to the ecosystem each year.
Material growth in a finite world cannot go on forever, but it can go on forever
in an infinite world.
With all these crisis threatening humanity, and opportunities for the same,
the world has finally reached an impasse. We, as human beings, cannot continue
on with what we are doing much longer.
So, what are we to do? It is in the nature of humanity to resist change, especially
sweeping change. We like things the way they are, we live comfortably,
and we don’t want to go through the great inconvenience of change. What will
make us change is when we are in a crisis - that is when, and only when, our
creative juices start flowing.
The doomsayers, incidentally, are having a field day with all this, saying the
world is coming to an end, with all of humanity, except for a chosen few, meeting
a very horrible end.
One doom scenario is the increase of population and pollution. Food, because
of erosion, non-renewable resources, and industrial output decreases.
There is also the problem of water; as the population of a place increases, the
demand increases as the supply becomes stretched to its limit and the processing
facilities are unable to keep up with the increase, compounded with
droughts in some parts of the world. As a result of all this, society then collapses.
Civilizations have built up, flourished, and in most cases, declined and
perished due to the unavailability of resources.
One solution may be to go back to a simpler way of living and let the industries
like the automotive, aerospace, and petrochemical slide into extinction -
but we are not going to do that. We can’t! A retreat to a pastoral, machine free
society is not the answer, because there are just too many of us to be
supported by a pre-industrial agriculture. We must continue to go forward, not
back.
Again, what are we to do?
There are answers to these questions, and we can do something about
these problems and at the same time, create new opportunities. I am one of
those people who believe that the world is NOT coming to an end. However,
going back a few steps, we HAVE reached an impasse.
We do have problems of overpopulation, wars, pollution, the depletion of
our natural resources, the constant desecration of our environment, climate
change, and energy, to name a few. These problems are serious, but not unsolvable.
There is one answer of many. It is a major step, but it will also serve as a
pressure relief valve for the Earth. It lies 200 miles up, and it will serve as a
catalyst for dealing with a lot of our problems. It is going out into space, developing
its resources and settling its vast frontier.
A model output would be a society sustainable without sudden and uncontrollable
collapse capable of satisfying the basic material requirements of all the
Earth’s people. This can be done with space resources.
The main question is, “why go out into space when there are so many problems
here on Earth?” The answer lies in the question. We need to go out into
space because there ARE many problems here on Earth, and we need to expand
beyond the Earth in order to deal with them. Note the quotation at the beginning
of this essay. We have reached our limits here on Earth. Every bit of land
is, in some way, populated and our resources are being depleted. We need expansion
to fulfill our nation’s aspirations, as well as the world’s. In a fully employed
high growth economy, one has a better chance to free public and private
resources to fight the battle of pollution, in all forms, than in a low growth
economy. The exploitation of space will form a high growth economy, as we
shall see.
Should we expand into space at full speed, a lot of these problems can not
only be dealt with, but we would have a new frontier with which to expand. Not
going in space will make things worse, not better. For example, a country that
becomes overpopulated will want to expand into the next country to use its
land and resources for its excess population. The country being expanded into
will not like this, resulting in war. Wars of this magnitude, for this very reason
will only increase, not decrease. Unlimited resources will make war unnecessary.
The frontier is a very important reason to go to space. For the past 400
years, people in Europe, and then America, have responded to the call of the
frontier in the Americas and Australia. In Europe, the nobility owned most of
the land and if one was poor, he had very little chance to make a better life for
himself.
If, however, he went out on the frontier, he could stake out his own land,
become whatever he wanted, and help build a new nation in the process. Yes,
mistakes were made and the natives who already lived on this “new” land were
pushed aside and treated badly.
In space, there is a chance to learn from our mistakes and there are no natives
to push aside.
The frontier on Earth is gone. All land has been claimed and exploited. As
Earth’s population increases, more and more people are living on the same
amount of land which is eroding rapidly.
People miss the frontier as it calls, and it shows in having no place to go
and no incentive to advance. Nations, like people, thrive on a challenge and
languish without it. Society in a non-expanding world will not foster freedom,
creativity, individuality, or progress. If we are not pushing a frontier, we will become
less than our ancestors, who gave us everything we have today. If we do
not open up a space frontier, we will be doomed to ever dwindling resources
and increasingly destructive wars. We cannot allow that to happen.
The Moon, Mars, near Earth asteroids, and space itself are possible places
where a new frontier can be opened. A new frontier requires not only energy,
but creativity. This will provide a new challenge for humanity, and individual
people grow in a challenge. On these celestial bodies, new societies, based on
their own beliefs, will be shaped. These will be new branches of human culture,
making their own contribution to humanity.
These new societies will be based on change. The challenge is to mobilize
the energies of the youth of humanity. Youth is always looking for adventure,
and the space frontier can provide that. The challenge of the space frontier will
also keep lives from being wasted.
Most of all, new societies will be established, creating the first extraterrestrial
civilizations. This means that if any catastrophe happens on Earth, humanity
will not be in danger of extinction - there will be all the space settlements in
which to fall back.
As for new societies, should there be any persecuted minorities in any
country, these minorities could, if they so desire, move off the planet and settle
on a celestial body to continue to practice their way of living as the Puritans did
when they moved from England to America.
There is room to expand for any group of people, be they religious, an ethnic
minority, or just seeking economic prosperity, to settle on the Moon, Mars,
space, or the asteroids, as a substitute for war on Earth. Space provides oppor-
tunity: room to expand, new lands to settle for anyone who wants it. Note
that a very small percentage of Earth’s population will actually go, and it won’t
solve Earth’s population problem, but the pressure relief valve, the opportunity
for anyone or group to leave Earth, will be there.
Space will be a place for the people to go instead. There are asteroids out
there to be mined and precious metals that exist in amounts many times that of
Earth. With all the riches up there that we can bring down here, the quality of
life will improve here on Earth. If we mine the Moon and near Earth asteroids,
the previously mentioned doom scenario of society collapsing will be refuted.
We are running out of resources here on Earth, but the Moon and the asteroids
literally have thousands of times the amount of resources that we have already
mined. There are NO limits to growth!
Space will provide a climate in which people may work hard to create a better
life for themselves. Because of the mining and the industrialization of these
celestial bodies and Earth orbit, new industries and jobs will be created in a
space economy that will dwarf any economic expansion in human history. Such
endeavors include the building of solar power satellite systems, the mining of
Helium-3 for energy, space tourism, new forms of agriculture, all providing an
ever growing economy. More and more people would be put to work, and an
open economy, because of the infinity of space, is better than a closed economy.
The best method of population control is a high standard of living, and that
is achieved by an ever expanding economy.
Conservation of Earth’s natural resources is a noble cause, and it must be done,
but it's a losing battle. It will only slow down the rate of pollution and the depletion
of these resources. We merely delay the inevitable day of our destruction -
we must go forward, not back.
Earth orbit, the Moon, and near Earth asteroids will be places for many polluting
industries. There will also be a place for the polluting industries of metals
processing to go, and mining the asteroids and planets will create even new industries
and opportunities. With these industries moving off Earth, the Earth
itself will have a chance to be cleaned up and regreened, with clean air, water,
and land again. There is the counter-argument of polluting space. Well, poison
gases and liquids will dissipate in the infinite vacuum of space. If we don’t do
this, the Earth will drown in its own filth.
There are new sources of energy in the forms of (intense) solar power and
Helium-3. These new sources of energy will used to offset the present depletion
of fossil fuels. A new hydrogen economy can also be created, from the energy
generated by both solar power satellite systems, and later, Helium-3, to
completely replace oil for transportation and other uses. Again, with hydrogen
replacing gasoline and fuel oil in transportation systems, pollution will be reduced
even further, perhaps even completely. It would also eliminate our dependence
on foreign oil, and reduce our trade deficit by a huge percentile.
Science is another big reason for space. If you learn your science well, you
can become a part of pioneering new worlds.
During the Apollo program, we had tens of millions of students enrolling
themselves in the sciences. Many have become:
-inventors
-engineers
-doctors
-medical researchers
-scientists.
A new space movement, like Apollo, will inspire our young people to take up
the sciences and later benefit society as a whole.
There is the argument that we should spend money of more specific scientific
needs, such as curing AIDS, cancer, and other diseases.
Richard Godwin, editor of Apogee Books, points out that “We already spend
huge amounts of money on this type of research. The difference with space
exploration is dissimilar to specific issues like the above. Space exploration requires
research in materials science, medicine, human biology, electronics, computers,
propulsion systems, energy production, nanotechnology, communications,
weather forecasting, waste-recycling systems, geology, the list is endless.
It involves almost everything humans do here on Earth. Therefore, we can expect
breakthroughs in all of these fields, some completely unexpected. The impact
on our overall economy is almost immeasurable in terms of new products
and services being created from us trying to make space flight possible. No
other field of scientific endeavor delivers as much.”
New chemicals, medicines can be mixed up there in zero gravity that cannot
be mixed on Earth, not to mention crystals and alloys. The fields of science will
obviously be expanded, in the fields of astronomy, chemistry, physics, life sciences,
and materials processing.
In other words, the scientific and technological results can derive benefits
that will improve our quality of life here on Earth.
People in space will become an adept population to adjust to the rough environment,
in processes such as food production, environment production, life
support and new propulsion systems. Space will inspire new technologies because
they will be needed to survive in the harsh environment.
A country that is deriving a large share, if not most, of its wealth from the
broad expanse of space, where there are no borders to protect and plenty of
room for expansion, will be much less inclined to engage in conflict and more inclined
to just move on the the next asteroid, or area on the Moon. Profit will be
the prime motivator for individuals, countries, or corporations, and it is the
combination of the three that will hopefully get us there. Economic return is ultimately
the reason for space exploration and development. Everything else -
science, environmental monitoring, technological advances - can and will be
spun off from the drive to find profit among the planets.
If we, the U.S., do not participate in the up and coming space movement,
we will eventually become a backwater country, and our wealth will decrease,
not increase. As a result, we will have less and less money to solve our domestic
problems, whatever they may be. Other countries, especially Europe, China,
Japan, India, and Russia ARE going into space, and we need not only to keep up,
but also lead in this venture, or at least be one of the leaders. This is the only way not
only to maintain our wealth, but increase it, for reasons already stated.
Remember Stem Cell research? President Bush outlawed federal funding for
it while other countries went ahead and invested in it. They will soon be ahead
in this venture, if not already, while we stay behind, and these other countries
will soon be consulted in the medical profession, making money and gaining
prestige in the process. Fortunately, several states have taken matters into
their own hands. Also, the next president, Obama has renewed funding in this
venture.
We must also incorporate space exploration and development in a list of
other necessary projects if the U.S. is to continue to be a prosperous country.
First, to have the money for all this, we must eliminate earmarks from spending
bills completely, along with other forms of government waste. Senators and
Congressmen alike must do away with pet projects all together, and realize that
federal money is for the affairs of the whole country, not their localities. They
can use local and state money for that. Other projects equally as important are
health care, fixing the infrastructure, energy independence (space can help with
this), global warming (climate change), and possibly doing other megaprojects
like building water pipelines, transporting water from flood prone areas to
drought stricken areas (my idea). We can go on a massive rebuilding project,
fixing up this country incorporating the space program along with it, and a
sweeping change for the better will take place, restoring our confidence and
prestige in the world.
Space is here when we want it. It all depends on who is willing to initially
invest and take the risk. Mistakes will be made and there will be setbacks. For
those willing to take the risk, the payback will be enormous - space resources to
be mined, space made products to be manufactured, industries to be established
- all for whomever is willing to make the initial investments.
This blog will cover all the aspects of the settlement starting with what
we have now, continuing with what has been proposed and what is presently
being built. It continues with building a cost efficient transportation system
from Earth to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and continuing on to the Moon. It then
covers the industrialization of LEO and the Moon, along with establishing the
first lunar societies. With a scientific base, the industries established will help
the base pay for itself.
In addition to the Moon, asteroid mining (those asteroids that cross Earth’s
orbit) will be covered. With the metals these asteroids contain, the money they
can make will be in the TRILLIONS of dollars. You heard right! This feat alone
will pay for an entire future space program, with money to spare. Not only that,
this can help eliminate the federal deficit and pay off the national debt, saving
the economy from ruin!
Energy will also be covered. Space industrialization will require new forms
of energy technology that can permanently wean us off oil.
Last, with the technology and infrastructure in place, we will be able to venture
to Mars - and set up camp there as well.
I hope this answers the question of the WHY of space. Quite simply, humanity
has now reached an impasse and we need to expand beyond the bounds
of Earth if we are to survive. However, this can be the greatest adventure of all
time. For those of you willing to partake in it, stay tuned!
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