2053 -A Space Odyssey? Renowned Cosmologist Says We Need Space Colonization NOW
When Renowned Cosmologists Say We Need Space Colonization NOW—should we all laugh at them or should we listen?
Throughout history, intelligent men have been ridiculed for telling the truth. If they were lucky, that was the worst of it. Historically, many truth-tellers were ridiculed…and then murdered. But we’re more enlightened now, aren’t we? Now we just ignore them.
Renowned Princeton astrophysicist J. Richard Gott III, says we need to get a colony up and running on within 46 years. Wow. That’s an incredible statement. Some of his colleagues have ridiculed him in the past (n 1993, he computed with scientific certainty that humanity would survive at least 5,100 more years), but as of late others are beginning to listen.
If you think about it, why would we bother inventing rockets and then never use them to visit or settle other worlds? But Dr. Gott notes that past civilizations, notably China, have already abandoned exploration. However, according to Gott, a civilation can’t afford to stop exploring.
“The sobering facts,” Dr. Gott says, “are that in a 13.7 billion-year-old universe, we’ve only been around 200,000 years, and we’re only on one tiny planet. The Copernican answer to Enrico Fermi’s famous question — Where are the extraterrestrials? — is that a significant fraction must be sitting on their home planets…” just like we are.
According to Gott, since there’s a 50 percent chance that we’re already in the second half of the space program’s total lifespan, Dr. Gott figures there is a 50 percent chance it will not last more than another 46 years. Maybe the reason civilizations don’t get around to colonizing other planets is that there’s a narrow window when they have the tools, population and will to do so, and the window eventually closes on them.
“In 1970 everyone figured we’d have humans on by now, but we haven’t taken the opportunity,” Dr. Gott says. “We should it do soon, because colonizing other worlds is our best chance to hedge our bets and improve the survival prospects of our species. Sooner or later something will get us if we stay on one planet. By the time we’re in trouble and wish we had that colony on Mars, it may be too late.”
Perhaps he’s being too pessimistic, but given recent trends he may be right to be worried. Yet, we’re not doing much about it. After going to the Moon, we now barely send humans into orbit. How many civilizations have gone extinct because they get stuck on their home planets? It’s an interesting thought.
Right now, the odds are against us, but nothing is inevitable. When extinction is the norm, you may as well try to stand out from the crowd. Cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who agrees with Gott that humankind’s best shot at continued survival is getting off the planet, once said, “I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.”
It’s worth mentioning that Gott is not alone in his call for humankind to wake up and consider the fact that life on Earth won’t last forever. Most of the world’s foremost cosmologist are now on his side. Perhaps we need to either reawaken our innate adventurous spirit or risk a complacent extinction.
Posted by Rebecca Sato
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We should colonize not only Mars, but also Venus by constructing small cities that float high in the Venusian cloudtops. Venus' atmosphere is so dense that any kind of balloon (or dirigible) as we know them would be far more buoyant on Venus. However, whatever floats in the clouds on Venus must be acid-resistant.
Posted by: ijustinhale | July 19, 2007 at 07:24 PM
Since about 1981 I have been watching our slow baby steps towards space habitation and one wonders with all the expense for wars why more attention is not given to our higher aspirations.
Private enterprise will hopefully catch on once Virgin Galactic begins regular sight seeing tours... someone will then build a weekender hotel in space and perhaps from there we will gain a new perspective on the advantage of going beyond the gravity of the situation. see www.islandsinspace.com for visualiztion and sounds of space habitation.
Posted by: Artist3d | September 16, 2007 at 01:52 AM
As soon as it becomes less costly to get around in space and space type business ventures have a short enough time to completion , like in half a life time, and large enough expected profit value you won't have to sell the idea ... greed will take over.
The idea of mining asteroids in place may become cost effective.The minerals from one asteroid could be worth hundreds of trillions of dollars. Buzz Aldrin's idea of two cyclers in earth to mars orbit would have a large initial cost to implement but the payoff would be huge also.
Then , when that type venture is feasable, humans will just get up and go with no prodding required.
Posted by: Bob H | April 08, 2008 at 01:23 PM