The New Space Age: Charting the Path to Human Spaceflight: Humanity’s Future in the Stars

“Why seek the heavens? Considering that we are descended from those primates that decided to peek over the next hill. Because we won’t be able to live here forever. because new perspectives are offered by the stars there.

— Gregory and James Benford

Around 3,000 years ago, the first modern humans started to emerge.

Homo sapiens, the modern human species, moved about over the following 2,90,000 years, hunting and gathering animals, gathering natural products, and scavenging other people’s leftovers.

Then, sometime approximately 10,000 years ago, people started to settle down and practice agriculture.

Humans started settling in the traditional meaning of the term after they started farming. A way of life that had existed in West Asia for millennia began to disappear with the emergence of the first communities. Cities initially formed roughly 5,000 years ago after being preceded by villages.

In a sense, the history of humanity is a tale of migrations: the dissemination of ideas, the movement of crops from one location to another, and the migration of Homo sapiens from Africa to every corner of the planet. Human migration altered in nature when people began to settle down. Humans migrated about not because it was the only way of life they knew, but rather out of curiosity and improvement. They moved around in search of better pastures, livelihoods, soil, or to explore worlds that lay beyond distant hills and oceans.

Once people had mastered boats, they started to go out for lands beyond the horizon.

The last uncharted frontier by the 20th century was space. The War of the Worlds, a book by HG Wells that popularized the concept of extraterrestrial life, was published in 1897. The opening narration of Star Trek made the term “the final frontier” iconic. Captain James T. Kirk declared space to be the last frontier in one of the most famous science fiction speeches, outlining the goal of space travel as “to boldly go where no man has gone before, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations.”

Sudip Bhattacharya, a space scientist, claims that space travel is as natural to us as maritime travel was to our ancestors.

“Space travel is not a fantasy or science fiction. It is just as genuine as our forefathers’ sailing. We are currently in the first stages of an exploring phase. According to Bhattacharya, professor in the department of astronomy and astrophysics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, the migration and spreading would probably likely follow.

The fact that Earth’s resources are finite and becoming more rare every day is one argument in favor of humans becoming a spacefaring species with an interplanetary life. This school of thought contends that in order to protect mankind from human-caused climate change as well as uncontrollable occurrences like supervolcanic eruptions and meteor impacts, we must establish a home outside of Earth. However, there is still another case in favor of space travel.

According to space engineering specialist Matteo Ceriotti, space travel is the natural next step for humanity since we are inherently inquisitive individuals that believe in discovering the world around us.

Human nature is predisposed to exploration. Naturally, we started by exploring the Earth before moving on to the Solar System and eventually beyond. Today’s telescopes allow us to see far beyond the Solar System. Because of this, there is a desire to learn more and explore more, according to Ceriotti, senior lecturer in space systems engineering at the University of Glasgow in Scotland’s School of Engineering.

According to Ceriotti, spacefaring has both a short- and long-term perspective.

In the near term, space exploration is motivated by the desire to learn, he tells Outlook. We need to start the work now if we want to have the option of becoming a space-faring, interplanetary species in the long run.

The argument for extraterrestrial and planetary life
“We have a basic duty to our species to explore other worlds if our long-term survival is at stake.”

[Carl Segan]

Although some members of the rich elite have begun traveling to the outer limits of space, the need for human spacefaring is not driven by voyeuristic impulses. It concerns humanity’s long-term future, not just the next 10 or 20 years.

In his book The Future of Humanity, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku asserts that all species inevitably experience one of three outcomes: they either leave their environment, adapt to it, or perish.

However, if we go far enough into the future, we will ultimately encounter a catastrophe that will be so severe that adaptation will be next to impossible. We will either have to flee the planet or die. There is no alternative way, claims Kaku, a professor at City University of New York and one of the co-inventors of string theory.

Ceriotti of the University of Glasgow claims that a number of causes outside of human control are at play in this situation, such as a significant meteorite hit, despite the fact that people often use climate change as evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life.

Even while we watch meteorites and have strategies for dealing with them, Ceriotti warns that we may not always be able to do so, and even one localized large-scale hit might be very destructive.

The New Space Age is really being started right now. India’s Chandrayaan-3 is scheduled to be the first spacecraft to touch down in the unknown regions of the Moon’s South Pole. Chandrayaan-3 would be followed in the coming years by the American Artemis-III mission to the Lunar South Pole, which would herald the return of humans to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. When Artemis-III touches down, it won’t be like the astronauts who came before her, beginning with Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin.

The Artemis space program aims to use the Moon as a base camp or stepping stone to Mars and other planets. The initiative is not a part of the Cold War-era contest to place the first flag in space. This time, the objective is for the Moon to be present for an extended period of time. Humanity hopes to reach Mars within two decades after Artemis-III and establish a base there by the end of the century.

By the end of the century, eccentric billionaire Elon Musk wants to establish a million-person metropolis on Mars. He undoubtedly has knowledge on the issue as the CEO of SpaceX, the business that invented rocketry and space travel. Ceriotti, though, thinks that Musk’s timescale is a brash assertion made just to spark interest in space travel. He claims that estimating a schedule for such a project is challenging since the urgency and the money, two of the most important aspects, are uncertain.

In The Future of Humanity, Kaku points out that, in contrast to 99.99% of other creatures, humans have a choice.

“We humans are the rulers of our own destiny, in contrast to all other life-forms on this planet, which must wait silently for their end. Fortunately, we are now developing the tools necessary to overcome the limitations imposed on us by nature, preventing us from joining the 99.99% of life-forms that are doomed to extinction, according to Kaku.

These include cutting-edge rockets as well as terraforming, which is the intended and still-under-development process of converting foreign celestial bodies into a home fit for humans.

In addition to colonizing other planets, there is also a rationale for space mining. Minerals, for example, are becoming more rare on Earth, but if humanity can master space mining, there may be an endless supply of resources waiting to be discovered. Naturally, this brings up issues with space governance.

According to space policy specialist Pranav R Satyanath, there are treaties and pacts, such as the Artemis Accords that India just joined, but they are not yet completely established. The pattern has been for people and technology to enter space first, and then laws and treaties, after that.

The international agreements in force today state that it is legal to take resources from the Moon or other places but not to claim such areas as your own. The Moon Agreement (1979) and the Outer Space Treaty (1967) both state that you cannot claim sovereignty over the Moon or any other celestial body where you land or take resources. It also states that certain locations cannot be militarized. All military operations and the deployment of weaponry are forbidden, according to Satyanath, a research associate of the Council for Strategic and Defense Research (CSDR).

These agreements aim to allay the worries of certain nations that have already experienced the negative effects of colonization. Some people are worried that the colonial zeal of the medieval times may be repeated in space because of the anticipated space colonies and mining on the Moon or mineral-rich asteroids. However, Ceriotti emphasizes that there is a significant distinction between the two circumstances.

“There are no indigenous populations in space that you would be displacing. You would be setting up camp on a deserted island, claims Ceriotti.

How can we go across space?
About 2 million years have passed since the beginning of the human race as a distinct species. About 10,000 years ago, civilization first emerged, and advancement has been accelerating ever since. We must bravely travel where no one has gone before if the human race is to survive for another million years.

Steve Hawking

A 17-year-old lad who had just finished reading HG Wells’ War of the Worlds was intrigued by the thought of space-traveling rockets. This youngster made rocketry his lifetime passion and job, unlike many who abandon their adolescent ambitions. He was Robert Goddard, the Father of Rocketry, who would develop the technology to one day transport people to the Moon.

Space travel was expensive. The US Moon missions were canceled, and the whole space program was slowed down by the end of the Cold War, the Challenger accident in 1986, and the exorbitant cost. Then, decades later, a strange millionaire appeared with an idea of private space travel so far-fetched that even the revered space heroes rejected it.

Musk’s SpaceX pioneered reusable rocket technology against opposition and mockery, cutting the price of a space launch by at least 40%. As activities are reduced down and technology is improved, the cost might decrease even lower.

But getting to a planet is just the first step. Living there is a whole different experience, even in an outpost rather than a metropolis as Musk claims. There isn’t a copy of Earth with easy access to air and water. Terraforming, or physically altering the atmosphere and geography to suit human requirements, is one approach.

According to Ceriotti of the University of Glasgow, terraforming seems like an extremely unlikely concept, yet there are still methods. Musk adds that we may unleash nuclear weapons on the cold areas of Mars to heat the planet and make it livable, while he describes the ways that vary from installing oxygen-producing microbes to injecting energy into carefully-selected places of planets or moons.

According to Ceriotti, who explains the physics behind terraforming to Outlook, “There are studies that have revealed that it may be feasible to induce some type of equilibrium point in its temperature by producing additional heat in the instance of Mars, where an atmosphere already exists. Currently, the climate on Mars is in a state of equilibrium and does not vary. It is trapped in an environment of very low density and high carbon dioxide, with temperatures that vary from a maximum of 20°C to -153°C. Change is conceivable. It is possible to cause changes and reach a new equilibrium with a different form of environment that is acceptable for human habitation by supplying energy to certain locations.

Cellioti does admit that this is a pretty far-fetched theory and something for the future, however. Theoretical physicist Kaku concurs. He claims that although it’s definitely not feasible right now, it may be in the year 2201.

The objective of terraforming Mars is beyond our current capacity, but technological advancements in the twenty-first century will enable us to transform this desolate, frozen desert into a livable planet. In The Future of Humanity, Kaku predicts that humankind will eventually go beyond Mars and reach asteroids and moons of Jupiter and Saturn. “We will consider the use of self-replicating robots, superstrong, lightweight nano-materials, and bioengineered crops to drastically cut costs and make Mars into a veritable paradise,” he writes.

How may life exist beyond Earth?
Humans would need to live in specialized structures and wear space suits whenever they went outside if they didn’t terraform Mars or another celestial world, which Prof. Kaku of City University of New York believes would only be possible in the 22nd century.

That would be what sort of a life, right? Simple pleasures like playing with your brother at the park, taking your dog for a walk, running, or cycling around your neighborhood would not be feasible. You would have to cultivate everything inside in a climate-controlled environment, similar to the movie Martian (2015). There wouldn’t be much room for mistake.

According to Ceriotti of the University of Glasgow, the first stages of life would be quite basic. It is comparable to prehistoric humans, when the species was setting the foundation for the highly developed species that we are today by learning how to construct dwellings, cultivate food, and other skills.

The stage is comparable to what historian Yuval Noah Harari refers to as the “Agricultural Revolution,” which occurred approximately 10,000 years ago and saw people start farming and stop foraging for food, opening the door for voluntary migrations that have brought us to our current position as a race on the verge of space travel. Agriculture was very labor-intensive when it first started, yet it helped to create who we are today.

“Humans planted seeds, watered plants, pulled weeds from the earth, and brought sheep to the best pastures from dawn to dusk. They believed that by doing this job, they would have access to more meat, fruit, and grains. However, the human sapiens physique was not designed for such activities. It was not designed to move boulders or carry buckets of water; rather, it was designed to race after gazelles and climb apple trees. The price was paid by human spines, knees, necks, and arches, according to Noah Harari’s book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.

The first space colonists could suffer a similar fate, but those who would travel there would understand what they were getting into. Additionally, they wouldn’t be typical people.

“At first, Mars would be populated by individuals who were experts in their fields. The general people won’t be traveling to Mars since there are no prepared facilities there, and it would be necessary to build all of the necessary housing and environmental infrastructure from scratch, according to Ceriotti.

There’s a good probability that although one generation will establish the basis for humans to visit Mars, it will be another that actually does so, laying the foundation for still another generation to settle. An ongoing supply of human resources would be the foundation of this cross-generational space project.

According to space educator Srimathy Kesan, the individuals who would work in the space agencies’ control rooms when the first colonies on the Moon or Mars take form are probably still in school today and have not yet chosen to major in space sciences or aerospace engineering.

“The short-term financial rewards of a profession in space sciences are modest. You enter this area mostly out of passion. Promoting a scientific temperament from an early age is essential for the growth of enthusiasm. After all, today’s schoolchildren will one day lead us to Mars, claims Kesan, founder and CEO of Space Kidz India, a start-up focused on space education that links kids with ISRO and industry professionals.

When will we launch into space?
The birthplace of mankind is Earth, yet one cannot remain in a cradle indefinitely.

Theodore Tsiolkovsky

For those who support extraterrestrial life, the issue is not if but when. By the end of the century, according to Musk, a million people may live in a metropolis on Mars. Others have more conservative projections. By the beginning of the twenty-second century, we would undoubtedly establish a base on Mars, but a metropolis would still be a long way off.

According to Ceriotti of the University of Glasgow, financing and urgency are both essential for this to be realized.

According to Bhattacharya of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), human migration and exploration have been fueled by motivation and technology from the dawn of time, and when we have the resources, “nothing can stop us” from travelling into space.

Outlook quotes him as saying, “The motive had two parts: some home difficulties and some prospects, even if they were only in my head or my fantasy. Excessive riches and new technology, such as bigger ships and superior navigational equipment, among other maritime tools, were used as means. These factors together have led us to this point. We will thus explore, move, and expand when there is a desire to do so and the means to do so. This is a habit we all have. Although such conscious acts are necessary on a shorter timeline, it has nothing to do with conscious thinking, decision-making, and planning on a longer time scale.

Therefore, nothing can stop us from leaving our planet if we have the means of transportation and the money to do so. Despite the fact that there isn’t now an urgent demand, the investigation must begin. Competition among nations, and even between people, hastens the process.

If a catastrophe, such as a war, epidemic, or other calamities, does not halt or postpone it, Bhattacharya thinks a human colony on Mars by the end of this century seems highly plausible.

According to Ceriotti, financing, which is in turn influenced by urgency, is the primary determinant of a timeframe.

The Covid-19 outbreak in the recent past is an example of how urgency may spur research and invention. Research and development received funding from both sides, and regulators put forth extra effort to review and approve vaccinations. As a result, Covid-19 vaccinations were created quickly. A pioneer in mRNA technology, Moderna, claims that in only 12–18 months, 15 years’ worth of advancement was accomplished.

According to Ceriotti, there are two such antecedents for space. The first was the race to the Moon in the 1950s and 1960s, when NASA spending peaked at 4.4% of the overall federal budget of the United States in 1966. Two: the asteroid Apophis scare in 2004, which was thought to pose a serious threat of crashing with Earth and wreaking havoc. It was later discovered that Apophis posed no immediate or short-term hazard.

According to Ceriotti, the possibility for a worldwide environmental calamity, such as that depicted in the 2014 movie Interstellar, might possibly be the motivating factor for this urgency.

According to Kesan of Space Kidz India, India is in a unique position to support humanity’s aspirations to colonize space since students here, sometimes from tiny cities and villages, are eager to learn and just want encouragement.

“We have linked students with space scientists from all across India’s rural regions, and thus far, these partnerships have resulted in the creation of 12 balloon satellites, two sub-orbital spacecraft, and two orbital satellites. These pupils’ interest and understanding of options will probably lead to many of them majoring in aeronautical engineering in college. The future generation of space scientists and engineers must be prepared, according to Kesan, by developing a scientific temperament early on and being acquainted with space.

Kesan is worried that space is still not widely accepted in India. APJ Abdul Kalam and Kalpana Chawla are two notable exceptions, according to her, who claims that unlike cricket players, who youngsters might idolize as they grow up, there aren’t many space scientists or astronauts.

In order to inspire the following generation of space scientists, Kesan mentions the webseries Rocket Boys (2022-23), which depicts the Indian space program through the eyes of Vikram Sarabhai, Homie J. Bhabha, and other illustrious Indian scientists who helped shape the Indian space story.

After all, science fiction writers like Isaac Asimov attracted Michio Kaku, the co-founder of the string field theory, and War of the Worlds set Robert Goddard on the road to becoming the Father of Rocketry. Perhaps Rocket Boys or another upcoming space voyage movie might inspire some Indian viewers as well.