Confining our species to Earth alone will threaten our survival if external disasters arise, Steltzer said. Even internal conditions threaten our survival, such as global warming and a burgeoning population.
Mae Jemison spoke about a 100-Year Starship project which hopes to eventually fly a spaceship to distant planets in the next 100 years. The program involves artists, astrophysicists, engineers, and fiction writers. Jemison says that her primary goal is to inspire “public will and commitment” and spark enthusiasm with an “inclusive journey.”
“We are going to the Moon forever,” the Russian Deputy PM said in April, and it was not just empty words. It appears Russia does plan to colonize the Moon by 2030 and the first stage of the ambitious project may start as soon as two years from now.
That is according to a leaked draft document that Izvestia newspaper claims to have obtained. It was prepared by the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Roscosmos federal space agency, Moscow State University and a number of space research institutes.
“Moon is a space object of the future reclamation by Earth civilization, and in XXI century there might be a geopolitical competition for lunar natural resources,” the authors of the draft project state in the opening line.
This is why it is important to focus on creating an arsenal of necessary means in advance, they stress.
“The Moon is not an intermediate point in the race,” Russia’s Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin who is in charge of space and defence industries said back in April. “This process has the beginning, but has no end. We are going to the moon forever.”
