Obtaining Resources by Colonizing Space

Considering space colonization is a promising outlook for the future of the human species. The earth presents many issues regarding resources. Scientists have discussed many reasons as to why space colonization is a possible solution to solve this persisting issue.

The main purpose of scientists studying ways to colonize space is due to the worsening issues humans face. Scientist Richard Gott urges that the human race could possibly face extinction in 7.8 million years if no alternative way of life is developed to provide for humans. Overpopulation and limited resources is an urgent issue that could be the cause of human extinction if no solutions are found. With various issues humans have on earth, colonizing human-friendly environments outside of this planet and establishing ways to extract extraterrestrial resources presents achievable solutions.

Many locations in outer space show a favorable environment for human usage. Outer space has many resources such as energy and minerals that earth will not be able to provide for humans millions of years to come. The Solar System on its own has enough resources to be provided for billions upon billions of years. Hundreds of billions of planets in the milky way also have environments humans can form habitats or to collect materials.

Asteroid mining is a major promising benefit of expanding human activity into outer space. Asteroids consist of useful resources such as water and other materials necessary for building structures and shielding. This would provide humans with abundant resources to expand space activity, saving money. Expanding in asteroid mining is estimated to save about 100 billion dollars, which can be redirected to fund other projects, allowing for economic and scientific growth.

Extracting materials from outer space could cause a decline in the stress humans put on earth. The earth has limited, non-renewable resources that cannot provide for the ever growing human population. As the ability to obtain outer space resources increases, demand for earthly resources will decrease. This will allow humans to save more resources and prevent damage to the earth such as climate change. It would also avoid issues that would arise from overpopulation because the resources needed to provide for a growing population would become available.

Another investment that could be obtained through space colonization is solar power satellites. Space has abundant solar power energy. By using power transmission on large satellites to obtain solar power from outer space, energy can be obtained more efficiently while dramatically decreasing the amount of greenhouse gases that is currently damaging the earth's atmosphere. The price of solar power satellites is also much cheaper than burning fossil fuels or utilizing nuclear energy.

There are many materialistic advantages to space colonization. The human species is projected to undergo extinction due to lack of resources. Earth’s non-renewable resources will not be able to continue to provide for humans, so investing in ways to use resources from outer space will provide humans the opportunity to improve survival expectancy.