Space Settlement Is Why

By Steven Wolfe

U.S. President George W. Bush, as well as much of the space community, is overlooking one of the most compelling reasons why we must send people back to the Moon and onto Mars—because such excursions are stepping-stones to eventual space settlement and migration.

Oh, I forgot. Space settlement talk is taboo these days, isn't it? But you may recall, there was a brief time in the 1970’s when space colonization captured the imagination of the space community and much of the public. In the middle of the ‘Me’ decade, Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill’s visions of orbiting space cities was a hot discussion topic, featured in publications from Physics Today to The New York Times Magazine. NASA was so taken by the possibility it sponsored an in-depth study on space settlement technology at Stanford and NASA Ames in the summer of 1975.

By the late 70’s, however, space settlements went out of style at the space agency, replaced by a climate that shunned further space colonization research. With the Space Shuttle about to become operational at the time, space settlement seemed passé.

Perhaps it is time to once again popularize space colonization. Other 70’s hits like bell-bottoms and John Travolta made impressive comebacks recently. Maybe space settlement could be the latest retro idea that can inject real excitement into the President’s Moon and Mars initiatives.

Or, to put it more in millennial terms, just maybe the time is right to properly caste our human space projects in a space settlement context.

President Bush said on February 4^th, “This cause of exploration and discovery is not an option we choose; it is a desire written in the human heart.” These are magnificent words that should inspire the next round of space exploration.

Most people are intuitively comfortable with the idea that we explore because it is part of who we are as humans. What the President left out—as most everyone does—is the settlement imperative, which is the other side of the exploration coin.

In evolutionary terms, the reason we have a desire to explore is for the very practical reason of identifying suitable new places to live. These two parts, exploration AND settlement, have allowed us to thrive for millennia. They are complimentary aspects of our very survival mechanism. Settlement of space is as intuitive to accept as space exploration. Though space poses huge challenges to future settlers, there are none that our hearty technical breed cannot overcome.

I suspect history will show that it was the absence of a space settlement context in national space policy that was most responsible for the space agency’s lack of direction in the 30 years after the Apollo program. Once the space leadership embraces a space settlement context, however, the full picture of what space development is all about will be complete. The space program will finally be something that most people can holistically understand, accept and ultimately get very excited about for the long-term.

The discussion will than change from, ‘Why should we send humans to explore outer space?’ to ‘Why is it so important to open space to human settlement?’ Addressing the latter question is inclusive of the former but is infinitely richer and more demanding.

Adopting a space settlement context does not require passage of new laws or Executive Order. What would help enormously, however, is a coordinated message campaign. Working together, the Administration, Congress, the space industry and related professional and advocacy organizations (as well as international players) should include language in speeches and policy statements along the following line:

"The human space program will, in addition to providing many near-term benefits, pave the way for humankind to eventually create permanent settlements on the space frontier, enabling new civilizations to flourish beyond our home planet. Developing a permanent lunar presence and exploration of Mars are necessary steps in gaining the knowledge and experience required for eventual space settlement."

These words cost taxpayers nothing, yet they add profoundly to the space debate.

Once we start using space settlement language, the media arrows will certainly fly. If we can remain steadfast, and not cave in at the first round of talk show barbs, eventually the public will internalize the settlement context.

Though there will be vocal critics, we can also expect an outpouring of support as latent interest in space migration is awakened. Simultaneously a resurgence of space activism will rise up to support the leaders who boldly take this step. Fresh minds will step forward eager for the new challenge.

Space settlement is not, of course, a retro fad from the 1970’s. Though it might seem to some that space settlement was a mere cultural blip a quarter century ago, in the hearts of many it never stopped being a vibrant goal. Allowing that goal to be a spoken desire can serve to expedite the President’s near-term Moon and Mars initiatives, as well as shorten the time to when the promise of space settlement itself is fulfilled.