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| Original image courtesy of NASA |
It’s impossible to predict the
future. But it’s fun to try. My millennial interviewees took a
chance at peering 30, 40, 50 years from now to ponder what the world
may become. Specifically, what humanity will discover and achieve in space.
Much of the focus on space achievements last year was celebrating the
past: the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.
I wanted to understand what millennials believe we’ll accomplish 50
years from now.
Some interviewees hesitated to imagine
too far into the future, if at all. They took some safe bets. Humans
will return to the Moon and establish a permanent base or settlement.
If NASA’s plans come to fruition in the Artemis program, we will
return astronauts to the Moon as soon as 2024 (although more
realistically somewhere in the 2025 – 2030 time frame).
Spaceflight frequency and affordability
will increase, perhaps bringing spaceflight to the masses with
suborbital point-to-point transportation. Suborbital and orbital
tourism will take off. The early 2000s saw the first space tourists
travel to the International Space Station. Very soon, we hope to see
Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin begin suborbital space tourism and
SpaceX begin orbital and cislunar tourism.
We will continue to pursue space
resources on asteroids and elsewhere, perhaps maturing in-situ
resource utilization (ISRU) technology. Although the previous and
existing asteroid mining companies were early efforts that have not
yet accomplished their goals, perhaps future efforts on asteroids,
the Moon, or Mars will help humanity obtain off-Earth resources
which are limited on our planet but plentiful elsewhere. Or perhaps
water will become the most valuable mined resource in space.
We will be able to observe exoplanet
atmospheres in more detail. Exoplanet science is only three decades
old and already we’ve discovered over 4,000 confirmed exoplanets.
Peering into the atmospheres of these distant planets orbiting distant
stars is the latest scientific break-through. Comparative planetology
will help us to understand our own planet and how planets are formed
and evolve. The search for biosigatures on these distant worlds is
vital to the search for extraterrestrial life.
We may even advance beyond chemical
rocketry to more efficient modes of propulsion. Nuclear thermal
fission, ion engines, plasma propulsion, solar sails, even nuclear
fusion may be able to advance our rocket and spacecraft technology to
faster and/or less expensive spaceflight.
Most interviewees believe they will see
astronauts step foot on Mars within their lifetime. The call of the red planet is strong and is widely believed to be the next goal in
human space exploration after the Moon. Some even believe we’ll
begin to establish a permanent base on Mars in the coming decades, officially becoming a
multi-planetary species.
Some interviewees foresee the creation
of private space stations for space tourism and other applications. Companies such as Axiom Space and Bigelow Aerospace already have plans to create their own low-Earth orbit destinations. Some foresee multi-generational spacecraft for deep space
exploration.
Some believe we’ll find evidence of past or present extraterrestrial
life, whether in our Solar System or on an exoplanet, forever
changing our perspective of the Universe and of ourselves as a species.
Some of the idealists interviewed hoped
to see space unify humanity in the form of an international
partnership that rises above the geopolitics of the present. We can
become representatives of one planet as we progress outward to explore new planets. We may
even come together to accomplish interstellar space exploration.
Wherever we go in the future, whatever
we are able to accomplish in my lifetime, writing Space
Millennials has given me renewed hope that the space sector is in
good hands with the next generation and those to come.
Have you gotten your copy? You can find
it on Amazon or visit
https://www.astralytical.com/rise-of-the-space-age-millennials.
