🖖 Unlocking the answers

I’ve been asking myself some questions.

Nicolas Cole says you should ask yourself these when creating the title and subtitle of your book.

The first two were:

• What question (of the reader’s) are you answering?

• What problem are you solving?

Today I want to answer the third question:

What solution am I unlocking?

I’m going to tackle the points I made in yesterday’s email to see what I can bring to the table.

This email is gonna be more of a brain dump than the poetic works of brilliance you’re used to getting from me.

Let’s dive in.

Environmental impact

Closed-loop systems have come up a lot in my research and writing. Food systems that can mostly take care of themselves. Both naturally and technologically.

Life support systems that recycle waste products and minimise resource consumption.

Space travel requires that we have little to no waste. As it turns out so does the Earth.

Two sides of the same coin.

Part of us living on other planets requires that we develop in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU) techniques. This is where we extract and use resources from those planets to reduce the need for Earth-based resources.

We can reduce the environmental strain and focus on our growing population.

Resource management

We can develop— and more importantly implement— advanced recycling and reclamation technologies to maximise the reuse of materials onboard spacecraft and habitats.

And our pretty blue planet.

We can implement efficient energy management systems to reduce reliance on finite resources like fossil fuels.

Things like solar panels and energy storage technologies.

Or we explore alternative propulsion methods that use renewable resources such as hydrogen fuel cells or beamed energy propulsion.

Nuclear fusion reactors are just around the corner. So close we can taste it.

Ethical considerations

I’m not a world building diplomat or ambassador. But we will need to establish ethical guidelines for space exploration.

Laws.

That prioritise the protection of the ecosystems and lifeforms we discover on those celestial bodies.

The powers that be all over the globe and stakeholders will need to address concerns and incorporate diverse perspectives into decision-making processes.

Human health and well-being

Our spacecraft program is barely learning how to crawl.

Vehicles and habitats in the future just might be designed with those biophilic principles we were talking about earlier. Incorporating natural elements such as greenery, natural lighting and views of space will go a long way towards making these bubbles feel more like home than a research outpost.

Recreational activities and psychological support services will be crucial too.

Maybe even mandatory to address the psychological challenges of long-duration space missions.

Advanced medical technologies will monitor and address astronauts' health needs during missions.

Cultural preservation

Cultural exchange programs among space-faring nations will be all in a day’s work.

It’s important celebrate and preserve diverse cultural traditions. To remember where we come from.

Actually we could even see elements of cultural heritage in the design of spacecraft interiors and habitats.

• Artifacts

• Artwork

• Music from different cultures.

Protocols will be in place for the protection and preservation of culturally significant sites on celestial bodies.

We can’t plow down the Apollo 11 landing site to build a hotel now can we?

A cultural archive of practices and languages of Earth's diverse populations will be created.

Ensuring their preservation for future generations.

Not a bad start, right?

By implementing these we can achieve a sustainable and ethically responsible approach to space exploration.

A balance between the advancement of technology with the preservation of nature and human well-being.

P.S. Sorry this one is later than usual. I was editing last night and forgot I had my civic training this morning. A lesson in being prepared.