Human Kind Must Expand Into Space To Survive

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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I agree with Zubrin that human race must expand into space in order to survive.
The world that we are living in is beautiful, with trees, mountains, oceans, beautiful parks, marvelous sunset, thrilling waves on the beach, beautiful music, art, literature and an extraordinary diverse life. But still we are encountering new problems every day from increasing population, disease out breaks, natural disasters and global warming. Should we cherish and nurture this world and try to make it right and a better place to live or should we explore new areas. I believe an exploration to other planets will be a better solution because the more we try to put our house in order, the more we are taking our planet into demise and eventual destruction. So to save our dear planet that we cherish so much, we need to go into space. This will not be the first time for the curious mankind to explore. Man is a natural explorer. Since when man appeared on earth, he has explored, adapted and expanded (Wilson, 2007). His ambition to grow has made him the most powerful creature on earth with ability to split atoms and change the climate, harness ...
... the available resources and control them as he wish and sometimes recklessly as if these resources are unlimited.
With the realization that the resources of Planet earth are diminishing and not getting renewed, and the population that needs to be fed is increasing we must think of exploring other planets. Earth can be described as closed and full and since we are not ready to abandon the industrialization, civilization and the advanced technology so as to save mother Earth, lets expand beyond earth. If we decide to abandon modern industrialization to save earth, the increasing population will die of hunger and disease. The solution to Earths problem is to expand beyond Earth and colonize the Solar system! This might seem unappealing and impossible but so was the situation some few centuries ago when Man discovered North America and Australia. The journeys were hard, many died of starvation and disease on the sea only to arrive in a wilderness that life seemed an impossibility. That wilderness today is the most powerful nation in the world. And because we know that other planets exist, it is our duty to explore them. In doing this we will also be honoring Galileo and Copernicus the first people to think about outer space. And if they had the idea of exploring space when the world was still not over exploited, what about now? We owe them. It will also be in line to justify the death of great astronauts and cosmonauts e.g. those on the Challenger mission. Let their deaths be not in vain.
The way our world is today, it is simply crowded and over exploited. So if we need to survive, we have to explore the other planets. When we move into space, we will be securing a future for ourselves and our children. There will be a positive social change and it is by going into space that we will fulfill our potential. The world we are in and all that we have developed and accumulated has become prone to a single point of failure. This can be best demonstrated by 9/11.The instability in the economy, environment and even technology has shown that these elements are becoming less diverse. The limited resources that we have in this world will eventually be depleted. What will happen if this occurs? We need therefore to go to outer space and look for other natural resources. This is because if we remain still and continue to expand with the currents trends that we are expanding with, we will surely die from atrophy. The life in this planet is finite and for us and our children to survive in the future we need to go to space. There are those who say that the government is spending a lot of money on outer space exploration and that this money should be used for other purposes like feeding the hungry. But the question is, for how long? What will happen when there is money but no food to buy? Many people will definitely die of starvation.

The British government invested on James Cook’s expeditions to discover new unutilized resources just in case the available resources became depleted. This was not a necessity at the time because the resources were sufficient and the demand was less. This led to discovery and colonization of Australia. What about now when the resources are diminishing at a very fast rate? Was the money invested on Robert Cook well spent? What about the money spent on equipping Christopher Columbus’s Santa Maria so as he may sail out into the Atlantic sea and discover America? It is time to invest in outer space technology and send our astronauts into space to look for more resources for the future of humanity. The governments of the world should invest as much money as required to facilitate space exploration. The way things are, we cannot solve the many problems of this world without exploring the space. There are critics who say that we are mortal human beings and that it is our ego that is making us want to explore space. They say that whether we are in this world or on outer space, we are still mortal. But even Columbus and Cook were mortal men who were conscious of this but it did not stop them from exploring. They even new the dangers of sailing in the sea but they progressed. Their ships were not advanced as our current ships but they did not look back. They made a difference in their future i.e. our present. Let’s make a difference in our future i.e. our children’s present.

The present world is full of other conflicts that include wars, terrorisms, natural disasters like floods, earthquakes and nuclear threats. It has been shown that conflicts arise from competition of the limited resources available. The nations of the world are in conflict with each other on issues of nuclear energy. And if a war breaks out, the human race may become extinct. Hence the need to colonize outer space as this will make us not prone to natural disasters and it will also become hard to wipe ourselves out completely. Let’s not keep all the eggs in one basket. It may seem like a dream but I believe that humanity will be saved from all the catastrophes of this world because we will be in space when the disasters happen. And we will be busy out there learning and discovering.

Conclusion
Exploration of space is not a waste of resources. Our planet is simply not enough. Mankind is a creative and curious species and so exploration of space is our destiny and responsibility. The future needs us to act and we have to act now. If we decide to turn away from the exploration and down our tools, it will be turning our backs on the future. We need to harness the resources of the other planets in the solar system so that we may not condemn our children to a future without hope. The risks are many and great but the risks of being still and not expanding to outer limits are even greater. Space is not a means of escape for a few lucky people but it is the only option present to save the world we are living in. We have a choice to make. We either colonise the outer planets or live or we don’t and we die.

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