Humanity among the stars: Humanity As Space Fairing Civilization

 

Man has dreamed of setting foot upon the other worlds in our solar system, ever since humankind began to ponder the meaning and significance of the points of light that track across the sky. 

Humanity has always been fascinated by space. Scientists and engineers have built telescopes, satellites and probes to explore this vast expanse of the universe. The human race is now at the brink of a new era in space exploration. This time, instead of building machines, we will be building something much more important: We will be building life.

The human race has always been interested in the stars. We may not have known exactly what they were, but we knew that they were out there and that they weren't made of cheese.

We also knew that they were more than just lights on the sky; they were objects of worship, imagination and wonder. The stars have inspired countless works of art, from paintings to music, poetry and literature. They have inspired thinkers like Aristotle and scientists like Galileo Galilei.

Today, we know that the stars are not made of cheese, but we're still fascinated by them nonetheless. We can even find some comfort in knowing that we aren't alone; there are billions upon billions of other suns out there in our galaxy alone.

Science has advanced and our knowledge of the universe has increased, so our plans to venture beyond this world have also advanced.

Space exploration is a good example. In the early days of science, we knew nothing about Earth's neighbors in space. Today, however, we know that other solar systems exist, and we are starting to explore them. The first unmanned probes such as Pioneer 10 and 11 were launched in the 1950s and 1960s. More recent missions include Voyager 1 (launched in 1977), which is still transmitting signals from beyond Neptune; Voyager 2 (launched in 1977), which is now past Jupiter and heading for Saturn; Galileo (launched in 1989), which went into orbit around Jupiter in 1995; Cassini (launched in 1997), which has been orbiting Saturn since 2004; New Horizons (launched 2006), which will fly past Pluto on July 14-15th 2015; Juno (launched 2011), which is currently entering orbit around Jupiter 2014) and MAVEN (Launched 2013).

The early dreams of manned voyages to other worlds were inspired by fictional space adventures made plausible by scientific theories, such as those popularised in novels like H G Wells' The First Men in the Moon.

The idea that human beings could travel across space was first proposed in 1865 by the French scientist and author Jules Verne. His novel Journey to the Moon (1865) describes a voyage to the Moon, which he claimed would take just three days. Over a century later, NASA is still trying to achieve that goal.

Voyages to Mars have also been inspired by literature and science fiction from an early age. In 1865 Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote his first novel A Princess of Mars, which deals with another world outside our solar system. Its sequel Barsoom (1912) takes place on Mars where John Carter discovers that his princess is really an alien princess from another planet.

Human beings have always dreamed of exploring space. But it's hard to do with a limited budget and limited resources.

NASA is the largest space exploration program in the world, with a budget of nearly $17 billion annually. But NASA has been struggling to find ways to fund its programs without relying on political donations or selling naming rights for rockets.

The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that by 2020, there will be more than 300 companies competing for contracts from NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, which are being developed for Mars missions in the 2030s and beyond. The private sector has already begun developing services like asteroid mining and lunar tourism businesses, but it's still unclear whether these ventures can support themselves financially or not.

Even if scientists succeed in sending astronauts to Mars within a decade and colonizing other planets, they'll face many challenges once on their new home: Are there enough resources for them? Will there be enough room for everything? What does living on another planet actually look like? How will we protect ourselves from space radiation? How do we survive without air?

So what's next? Can humanity really spread beyond Earth's orbit?

Theoretically, the answer is yes. But, it would be difficult to do so.

It would take a lot of time and resources to create the necessary technology and infrastructure that is needed for such a mission.

How can we make it happen?

The first step in this process is to come up with a plan for the mission. This includes the type of spacecraft, crew size, and fuel requirements.

Then, we need to figure out how much money will be needed for this project.

This could range from $200 billion to $1 trillion dollars depending on what type of spacecraft is used in the mission. In addition, there are other costs that need to be taken into account such as training astronauts, building space stations in orbit around Earth and on Mars, etc.

Finally, we need to find out if there are any risks involved with this type of exploration that could put people's lives at risk or cause significant damage back here on