Hawking thinks we need to spread out in space.

The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there’s an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth, world-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking said in Hong Kong.

The British astrophysicist told a news conference that humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years.

“We won’t find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system,” added Hawking.

He also said that if humans can avoid killing themselves in the next 100 years, they should have space settlements that can continue without support from Earth.

“It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species,” Hawking said. “Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.”

Profits set to soar in outer space, Prepare for liftoff: The space business may be the most incredible new opportunity of your lifetime.

By Chris Taylor, Business 2.0 Magazine

February 27, 2006: 3:39 PM EST

(Business 2.0) – Let’s not wax sentimental about our space exploits thus far. The Apollo era was heroic, but beating the Soviets to the moon never provided a compelling economic reason to return. (We didn’t even get Teflon or Tang as spinoffs–both were invented before 1960.)

Space spending soars

The shuttle and the international space station continued this record of dismal return on investment. Small wonder, then, that most private-sector investors have focused instead on more earthly pursuits. Only one thing will prod us into the cold, hard vacuum of space, and that’s the prospect of earning cold, hard cash.

Read article.

 

Horge Lush, announced a program to mine methane on Jupiter’s moon, Europa

This is a quote from the book After the Crash: An Essay-Novel of the Post-Hydrocarbon Era, By Caryl Johnston. Here is an interesting excerpt from the first chapter

“The guilt and shame that everybody in Post-Hydrocarbon society was dealing with was the result of the profligate habits of the Cognitive Age just behind. The Cognitives had almost managed to destroy the world. It was a miracle, really, that Life on Earth was still going on, even in its current attenuated form – scouting for tires and living on herbal teas. The Cognitives just kept piling up disasters on top of disasters, but one of the things that really brought them low was not having any more frontiers to conquer with their fierce technical know-how.

“Washington’s view of global warming, alternative energy and the future of the space program may change under the new Democrat-controlled Congress.”

This is the first line of an article by United Press International entitled,Congress to Address Global Warming, NASA. Here is the article found on the KGPE CBS TV47 site.

Washington’s view of global warming, alternative energy and the future of the space program may change under the new Democrat-controlled Congress.

For instance, incoming head of the U.S. Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., plans to introduce a bill modeled after California’s approach to curbing emissions of greenhouse gases. The state seeks to cut greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

The US Spends Billions of Dollars per Year on the International Space Station and, Under George W Bush, to Go Back to the Moon.

Image from NASA	Many of us feel that this is necessary and applaud GW for making this bold initiative. But other may say is this really in our special interest.
Should the U.S. be thinking about putting people on another world, whether it be the Moon or Mars, or should we be putting resources in helping our own planet? Give us your views, SpaceRoutes wants to know.

Some Comments on Peak Oil and the Space Program

Image from NASA

In order to find out what other people where saying about peak oil and the space program, of course I turned to other blogs on the subject. Here is a nice list of comments from Treehugger.com.

I think I’ll miss space exploration the most 😉 (face it, it’s tightly tied to the military-industrial complex, which will be straggling…and all that energy to lift free of the gravity well will doubtlessly be argued to be used for feeding hordes of the hungry, fuel agricultural machinery, etc). We’ll lose a lot more, but space is pretty key.

Posted by: OverMatt| September 9, 2006 3:05 PM on Treehugger.com

Sorry, but that comment doesn’t make that much sense.

First off, it’s like saying ‘I’ll miss driving a car: face it, driving a car is tightly coupled with oil’. Sure it is – right now. But it doesn’t have to be, because if you dig more, you’ll see that first cars were electric anyways, and eventually they will all be. Think outside the box. Eventually, even the space vehicles will use some other form of fuel

 

2) Even if the oil peak was over, if we can convert the biggest polluters (all the cars), then we could always reserve oil derived products for such things as space explorations…one shuttle launch here and there pollutes far less then all the cars in north america every day.
But yeah, eventually we’ll replace even that technology.

So your comment about space exploration dissapearing is way off – no offense.

Posted by: peter endisch | September 10, 2006 2:35 AM on Treehugger.com

I know I’m further dragging us off topic, but I miss space exploration NOW. Remember when we were all looking forward to lunar colonization and Mars Bases by 2010?

regards-Armand

Posted by: Armand | September 10, 2006 11:20 AM on Treehugger.com

Can We Afford to Leave?

Image above: With its crane still attached, the orbiter Discovery is settled into place behind the external tank… (2) Image Credit: NASA

The construction of an average car consumes the energy equivalent of approximately 20 barrels of oil, which equates to 840 gallons, of oil. (1) Ultimately, the construction of a car will consume an amount of fossil fuels equivalent to twice the car’s final weight. Just imagine how much energy it takes to construct a space shuttle, and how much fuel it takes to put that shuttle into space. With oil scarcity increasing can we afford space travel. At a time when we most need to leave the planet, will we be able to? (1) LifeAfterTheOilCrash.net (2) NASA Space Shuttle Website

FTW report on the Boston world oil conference ASPO-USA positions itself to be a big player

Michael Kane, From The Wilderness
…The Boston World Oil Conference that ran from October 25th through the 28th showed me that ASPO-USA has a much better understanding of the energy problems we are facing than they do of the local solutions we need. They are focusing on an ill-fated “Plan B” although, to their credit, they are not painting a rosy picture. The debate they are encouraging is relatively fair and balanced but only in the realm of big business ‘solutions’. My suspicions tell me that many in ASPO-USA largely agree with the “extreme” Peak Oilists (FTW, CultureChange, Back-to-the-Land Movement, etc…) but will not outwardly say so…See article.

Welcome to “The Future of Space Travel”!

This blog explores the future of the space program in conjuncture with such topics as global warming, an abrupt climate change, Peak Oil, and our dwindling oil reserves. What will be do when it is time to leave the planet. Currently our space program relies on petroleum based fuels. What happens when we run out?