Is living in space a dream or a nightmare?

For now, Space is the ultimate goal for mankind. We have dreamed of inhabiting space and other planets since first venturing into the vast cold void. But what are the realities when it comes down to it?



I previously wrote an article of what the future may hold here. I spoke of things such as flying cars, teleportation and commercial space trips. But if we ever manage to cross that line of being able to visit space on a whim, will it be as great as people think?

The planet earth has been habited for however many millions of years by one life form or another. But no matter what the life form was we all had a common enemy, the planet itself. We all fall victim to natural disaster which, depending on who you listen to could be partly our fault (or wholly) yet we continue to do what we can to live here. Within recent years there has been earthquakes, Tsunamis and Floods but to name a few. But humans struggle on.

Space is like nothing else. We have no experience as a species of living in such an environment. Why do people think that space is the answer for us. Lets take a couple of things into consideration.

1. Solar Radiation
From a quick google search I came across this quote

Solar radiation is radiant energy emitted by the sun, particularly electromagnetic energy.

This is from Science Daily. We are told year after year by skin specialists that the sun is bad for us with prolonged exposure. The earth's atmosphere is what protects us from being buffeted by lethal amounts of radiation. But in space we wouldn't have such a thing. In the planet we struggle to deal with regular radiation. My previous article talked of how long radiation hung around. What makes us think we could handle the humongous amounts of radiation that inhabit space.

2. General Living
On a whole we make do on the planet. Colonies of people have managed to survive and prosper in numerous situations and climates. But again, space is different. To navigate space you would need specialist equipment, ranging from space suits to spaceships. Space suits on their own costs hundreds of thousands. It seems that venturing into space will further push the social classes further apart.

3. Dangers of Space
Lets be frank here, space is a dangerous place to live. There are huge amounts of rocks and debris just floating around waiting to bump into something. Not to mention all the bits of metal and satellites that have been left up there by us. Then there are the comets, meteors, exploding suns, black holes......... etc etc etc

My final opinion is on "Who owns what"
Who owns what in space. Which country gets what areas of space. Will it be restricted to only those who are able to fund a successful space programme or will it be open to all on a first come first serve basis? I feel sorry for the generation who is around when habiting space becomes a reality as I personally think some nasty wars will come from it. And what of nations who decide to call independence from the earth itself?

Habiting space brings an unheard amount of opportunities but we all must make sure not to be blinded by these. It will be a tough time adjusting to having space open to all but hopefully the human species can survive what it will bring and discover an unheard amount things in space.

And just for a final note, although this article is quite doom and gloom I am all for living in space. Where can I sign up to go?