Our Future Lies With Space

The future of the human race is no longer on Earth. Our future is past the clouds and into the dark abyss we call space. As humans we cover all of the land available and we are reaching a crossroads. That crossroads is to either find a solution to overpopulation or face extinction. With many space agencies like NASA exploring planets and the galaxy, the solution seems to be just above us. Space exploration and space colonization has been picking up traction since Elon Musk said that he wants to place a colony on the moon. While space colonization is expensive and probably will take a while for a large population to live on a planet like Mars. Extending the time humans have will allow us to settle in other galaxies and potentially find out whether or not we are alone in the universe.

A main reason for colonizing space is the long-term survival of the human race. Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist and cosmologist, had been a major supporter of space colonization. Hawking himself predicted that the human race would go extinct unless we expanded our population to space. While someone like Hawking is very well known, it is ultimately a space agency like NASA that has the capability to colonize space. In 2005 Michael Griffin, a former NASA administrator, said that the end goal for space flight is to colonize parts of space. Space colonization has also been thought of a way to re-colonize the Earth in the event of some catastrophe. Physicist Paul Davies supports the idea of a space colony as a way to repopulate the Earth should a catastrophic event happen. Another reason for space colonization is to solve the problem of overpopulation. Having space colonies could allow resources to last longer. Space colonization can also allow the extraterrestrial resources to be sent to Earth to help progress the technology we currently have.

Even though the possibility of human extinction may not happen in our lifetime, solving the problem of overpopulation now could possibly help in the future. It is also in our human nature to explore the unknown. Exploring space allows the knowledge of it to be expanded even more than what is currently available. The possibilities of space colonization are endless. Imagine being able to have a vacation on the moon or even Mars. Imagine being able to have a career on Mars that benefits those on Earth. There are so many things for us to think about space. None of the things can happen without first taking and completing the first step. That very first step is space colonization.