Why should we travel to SPACE ....?
Why
should humans go to Space ........?
Exploration is the inquisite nature of human mind, which has historically led to the discovery of new continents and development of new habitats. Looking back, without these discoveries and advances, living on Earth would have been completely different from what we see today. Rapid developments in human race, limitations in resources on Earth, and the potential threat from weapons of mass destruction necessitates that we will have to boldly go far beyond the Earth's boundaries if the human race has to continue for thousands of years forward. More importantly, space explorations hold the key to unravel the secrets behind the origin and evolution of life and environment surrounding us. These drive the quest for space exploration and colonization.
Where else can earthlings colonize?
Exploration is the inquisite nature of human mind, which has historically led to the discovery of new continents and development of new habitats. Looking back, without these discoveries and advances, living on Earth would have been completely different from what we see today. Rapid developments in human race, limitations in resources on Earth, and the potential threat from weapons of mass destruction necessitates that we will have to boldly go far beyond the Earth's boundaries if the human race has to continue for thousands of years forward. More importantly, space explorations hold the key to unravel the secrets behind the origin and evolution of life and environment surrounding us. These drive the quest for space exploration and colonization.
Where else can earthlings colonize?
Being
close by and relatively easy to reach, our natural satellite 'Moon'
comes as the first choice. Humans have already landed on it and
conducted many surveys and studies based on remote sensing and insitu
sampling. The discovery of the presence of water in the lunar surface
and its extremely thin atmosphere by payloads in India's
Chandrayaan-1 has further boosted the renewed interest in moon. Few
unmanned lunar orbital missions are currently exploring the Moon
(e.g., NASA's GRAIL) and several others are in the pipeline (e.g.,
ISRO's Chandrayaan-2, NASA's LADEE and ARTEMIS, JAXA's SELENE, ESA's
Lunar Lander). In fact, moon can serve as an intermediate base for
explorations beyond.
Mars
is the second choice. Explorations startaed in the 1960s are still
continuing. Studies revealed that there is significant quantity of
water in the form of ice in the Martian poles. A colony on Mars could
use this as a source of oxygen. In contrast, Mercury and Venus are
too hot, while Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants with no solid
surface and hence may not be suitable for colonization.
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