The future of mankind among the planets. Is the key to our survival

The End is inevitable. One day he will. We are waiting for the warming of the planet, acidification of the oceans, the impending mass extinction and the ultimate depletion of resources. One need not look far to understand that humanity has peaked and is preparing to shocks. But taking such an apocalyptic point of view, we are missing something important. There is a path through despair. Between Scylla and Charybdis, we are waiting for a very different future. And to find it, just need to look up. This is the future of the Solar system, and if we do this right, we have something to strive for.

Interplanetary view: humanity

Climate Change is only one aspect of a much more extensive planetary transformation. Ten thousand years ago, when the last melted glaciers of Pleistocene epoch, our planet has entered the geological era of Holocene. Air, water, rocks and life was in a stable condition, for the most part warm and humid (with a small amount of ice). Now human activity brings the earth from the Holocene to a new epoch of the anthropocene because humanity is now determines how to operate the system of the world.

The Approach of the anthropocene is often portrayed as a battle between one kind of policy over another: Republicans vs. Democrats, or business interests against environmentalists. But this opinion is erroneous.

Over the past 50 years, humans have explored the Solar system and all its worlds. Understanding that we have received as a result of these journeys, shows us that the anthropocene has become a predictable transition. This change is inevitable when any species creates the same energy-intensive civilization like ours. From the astronomical point of view, the anthropocene represents a kind of planetary adolescence. You can't stop the kids become teenagers. You can only hope that they will go on this side with maturity, wisdom, and compassion. Similarly, to survive in the face of climate change, we need to turn into a new Vit of relationships, mutual support and cooperation with the rest of the biosphere and the planet as a whole.

it Is believed that this is already happening.

This year marks 50 years since the first step of Neil Armstrong on the moon. Five decades later, this epic journey, there are signals that we are ready to conquer and a higher threshold. Billionaire rocket scientists and robots, exploring the asteroids present us with a new scenario for the future. The next few hundred years does not have to lead to exhaustion and death. Instead, they can become a great drama played out on many stages of many new worlds.

Until the early 21st century is generally considered that NASA was stuck. Instead of trying to send astronauts on a daring mission beyond our planet, the space Agency began , which left him without funding and choice. By the end of the space Shuttle program in 2011, NASA sent its astronauts on Russian rockets.

Then came the movement of "new space". Entrepreneurs jumped into the exosphere and restored the course in the future of space travel.

Led this movement, for the most part, Elon Musk and his SpaceX, a new generation of entrepreneurs with the money he set a goal to reduce the cost of shipping materials and people into orbit. Together, SpaceX, and Blue Origin, among others, have developed working versions of their spacecraft. Richard Branson is focused on space tourism, as Jeff Bezos and Musk mnogorazemny develop new classes of missiles for space exploration and Commerce.

But Musk, Bezos and Branson is just the beginning. A small army of new companies included in the cosmic enterprise. To date, this global space economy is already estimated at $ 350 billion, and by 2040, according to estimates, will reach $ 1 trillion. Just last year, aerospace companies received 3.9 billion dollars in private investment.

But the era of the new space is more than just missiles. Companies like Planet Labs and Spire Global, are looking for ways to offer continuous satellite monitoring of agricultural, environmental and industrial condition of the planet. Space production represents another milestone: companies like Made in Space, is already investigating methods of 3D printing in microgravity.

However, most of these efforts remain tied to the Land. If the long-term future of humanity should be interplanetary that tear us from the Earth?

Our growing understanding of the richness of other worlds of the Solar system provides much of the motivation. Despite the fact that since Armstrong no one's been beyond the moon, our emissaries-the robots proved fruitful service.

To date, our space probes have visited all the planets of the Solar system. More than 20 missions have visited Venus. Mars keeps the tire tracks of four different Rovers. We visited not only on the planets. Our space robots went to all kinds of bodies in the Solar system: asteroids, comets, dwarf planets. Of these missions, we learned that the Solar system is much more interesting than I thought even scientists of the era of "Apollo". And most importantly, our research has shown us that the Solar system is very, very humid.

Under the frozen surface of Europa, Jupiter's moon, lies an ocean with a depth of 90 kilometers, which contains more water than our Earth. Many of the larger moons of Jupiter and Saturn have underground oceans. AlthoughMars is now a dry desert, scientists have strong evidence that it was a blue world with huge lakes or oceans on the surface of which the streams flowed. At least part of the water remains on the red planet in the form of ice at the poles and beneath the surface. Just last year we learned that Mars has a liquid subsurface lake with a diameter of more than fifteen kilometers.

Water is needed not only to sustain human life and growing food, but also for producing rocket fuel. The discovery of damp in the Solar system means that raw materials will help to create long-term human presence among the planets. Even a small asteroid, orbiting the Sun, can contain up to 50 billion dollars in such rare metals as platinum. Therefore, the interest in the study of technologies which can form the basis of a powerful space-saving remains high.

However, none of the studies of our Solar system have not identified any of the world, similar to any for people. In the Solar system still has no place, besides Earth, where you can walk without a spacesuit.

However, our study showed that with the right imagination and technology, we could succeed in creating new territories for human settlement, trade and culture. This is a project that, without a doubt, will take several generations. The building of human civilization beyond Earth will require not only machines. To thrive in an artificial environment, we need to find out what the environment in the first place. A giant domed city on Mars, which is inhabited by the imagination of science fiction writers and Elon musk, need their own ecosystems. There will be plants. There will be germs. Will the soil and the atmosphere. Like life, air, water and stones will function together to maintain a stable environment?

To survive the anthropocene, we need to ask ourselves the same questions. Becoming interplanetary species will require the same sensitive attitude to the ecosystem, what will the future climate scientists saving the Earth. In other words, figuring out how to do it in space, could be a turning point to help us understand how to do it on Earth.

That same store the next 1,000 years for humanity? We used to imagine what would go on the ships warp engines to the stars. But if you treat the laws of physics seriously, the finite speed of light and the vast distances between stars can do it is unlikely interstellar civilization. Even with the most modern technologies that we have today, would still take at least 100 years to reach the stars. If the scientific miracle did not happen, the next 1,000 years are unlikely to mean the creation of an interstellar Empire.

But the development of the Solar system may take only a few months, even with our modern technology. Jupiter, for example, very close. If we can cope with climate change and carry out the transformation of the anthropocene, the Solar system will be the place where played out the drama of the next Millennium of human culture. All the planets, moons, asteroids and comets will be our outposts.

The Good news is that the first act has already begun. And where would you live? Share .