Does the future of the human species lie in space?

Question

Do you think that humans will someday have to inhabit the Moon,Mars, and space stations orbitting the Earth?Why or why not,and why might we need to live in space?

Answer 1

I think, to one degree or another, humanity will eventually move into space. Some of the other answers have pointed out that should the Earth suffer a major disaster (a large asteroid hits it, the output of the Sun changes significantly [or when the Sun dies, all 5 billion years down the road or so], humanity itself, through pollution or nuclear war, makes the Earth uninhabitable, etc), it would be necessary for the survival of at least some of humanity to leave the Earth for space.

Of course, disaster isn't the only conceivable reason for leaving the Earth. For instance, at one point in the future the cost to mine some particular metal or other element may become prohibitive, and recycling and recovery of used stocks may not help much. In such a situation, mining the Moon or the asteroids may become economically feasible.

And then there is the distinct possibility which is looking ever more factual that humanity will gradually spread into space "because it's there." You can see some of this in the Russian space tourism program, and in Richard Branson's planned "Virgin Galactic" tourism trips (expected to cost $100,000 per ride versus $20 million per ride for the Russian program). As technology improves, this price will continue to go down, and sheer curiousity (with a little bit of science thrown in to add a serious tinge to it all :) ) will push humanity into space.

In the near term, I think that science, supplemented more and more by tourism, will drive exploration and expansion into the Solar System. There may also be as yet unappreciated and unknown business and economic opportunities in space, just one of which I hinted at above.

But in the end, assuming we don't destroy ourselves or get destroyed in some cosmic accident, the Earth will have a relatively stable Sun for about 5 billion more years. Odds are that at *some* point during that time, mankind will move into space.

Answer 2

I doff my hat to Dag and "Darth_dad":

The original version of this question was, "does humanity's future lie outside of tropical Kenya?"

Well, we can certainly debate whether or not it was a good move today, but, here we are. Moving out to unpopulated land - and in space, we'd be in the business of *making* that land, mostly in the form of space colonies (source 1) - is the same question both now and at the start of our diaspora from Africa.

We homo sapiens were content to live for hundreds of thousands of years in East Africa, but then we picked up and began colonizing the rest of the planet some sixty thousand years ago.

Interestingly, there is evidence of a "push" out of Africa, in the form of our species getting damn near obliterated by a super-volcanic eruption some seventy thousand years ago. (Sources 2 & 3)

At least, I think there is a reasonable connection between our exodus and the Toba event.

The environment changed radically, and our surviving ancestors had to survive by thinking ahead. Suddenly, there was a survival premium on enduring short-term hardship for long-term gain. Risk-taking became more important - perhaps we began to wonder "what's over that hill over there?' and then exploring it for better hunting....

In short we may already have addressed the question of human survival at least once, by spreading our species to distant lands, planet-wide.

But that's just my point of view, and I could be wrong here. I do, however, think that the energy (1,000's of gigawatts of solar electricity for example) or materials (billions? no, trillions of dollars worth of strategic minerals) are something that could make life here on the planet better, while simultaneously relieving some of the pressure we exert on the Earth.

So I answer yes, but I invite you to look at a more important question: is the future of the human race on Earth, as well as in space?

Because they go better together. We're not facing an either-or prospect here.

Answer 3

Space exploration is necessary if we are going to get enough people off the planet to establish a viable breeding population before some disaster destroys Earth. This must be accomplished before we reach a point where the necessary resources can no longer be allocated. If we keep all our eggs in one basket (Earth) we will doom Humanity.

Answer 4

If the earth goes ka-boom then we might need to move to space. But i don't think ALL of us could go there.It will take a loooong time before humans can officially inhabit Mars.By then,maybe the world has ended and there will be none of us left.

Answer 5

Eventually, if we do not destroy ourselves, our only chance for the continuation of the species is by traveling in space. This planet will eventually become uninhabitable, either by man-made or created factors, by solar events, or by a meteor impact similar to the KT event that ended the reign of the Dinosaur. We will have to learn to adapt to space, and more than likely evolutionary processes will transform us from what we are today to space-borne creatures that would be hardly recognizable to us today.

Answer 6

In the same way that humanity needed to leave Africa to develop civilization.

In the way that humans left the comforts of the middle east to develop technological civilization in Europe and North America.

Humans must leave Earth to fulfill whatever destiny we were meant for.

We will always brings something of our past with us, for good or ill, but we must move forward to survive and thrive as a species.

Thanks for the good question worthy of my ascent to level 5!

Answer 7

Our future must lie in space. At the rate we are populating this planet we will either destroy it..or destroy most of it in the next couple 100 years. To survive and continue to grow we have to look outwards to space

Answer 8

yes it does.since planets contain different trases of rocket fuel,scientists say in the near future,we can say "the future of the human species lies in space"

Answer 9

DEFINITELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!