🖖 Should we stay or should we go?

As I talk of lunar and Martian tourism I try to keep an optimistic perspective- humanity 2.0 where we see ourselves as one people.

Not too dissimilar from Gene Roddenberry’s goals when he created Star Trek back in the 60s.

There are brave new worlds ahead of us. 

But who gets to go see them?

Who gets to keep what we find out there? 

Do resources get divided amongst those who need them on Earth? Or are we talking about a finders-keepers kinda scenario?

Once colonies are set up what’s the governing body going to be? Who’s in charge?

There’s a treaty in place saying that no-one (no nation) can own the Moon. And that it can only be used for peaceful purposes such as scientific discovery.

Check it out here.

We still haven’t settled our differences here on Earth.

Remember a certain tea party out in Boston a few years back? An organisation far, far away was tightening control on their colonies. Then bloop- a new nation was created.

I don’t want to dive too deep into the topic of interstellar ethics and politics. These are'n’t my areas of expertise.

But these are issues we’ll be responsible for soon enough.

Reality

We gotta keep it real too- it’s a pay-to-play scenario right now. It takes a lot of moolah to research, build, test, train and fuel ourselves just to get out there.

Since 2014 US$298 billion has been invested in at least 1,832 space related companies.

Like all industries those costs will go down. We’re seeing it already with SpaceX’s use of reusable rockets.

Same for technology.

Remember NASA’s early computer?

It was the size of a large room with the computing power of a solar powered calculator.

Wrapping it up

It’s crazy exciting how these are actual conversations we’re having- no longer bound to the pages of science fiction.

We have the opportunity to outline the future of our species. We have the opportunity to set aside smaller disagreements to handle bigger issues together.

We have the opportunity to redefine what it means to be human. Because we’re not getting too far if we’re distracted by constant bickering.