To The Stars: Part 2 of 2
Ad Astra: To The Stars
Part 2 of 2
Part 1 of 2 (if you haven’t read it)
Contents
Chicken Little
The Earth Is Not Fragile
Ad Astra
We’re Better Than We Think
Our Position
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When it comes to pushing advancements in space, the main thing is that we develop these new technologies so that we can go elsewhere.
When and if needed. When and if wanted.
In the home town analogy, you may never want to leave, but how terrible to imagine you never could?
Most of us will never go to Fiji.
How much would it suck if no one could ever go to Fiji?
Chicken Little
This isn’t doom and gloom. We’re fully behind the idea that this should be a game. That we’re too amazing, too powerful not to continue to expand—and have a little fun doing it.
It’s merely worth noting the facts facing us, which sets the premise of the directive for constant improvement and expansion. Our playing field at the moment is inherently fragile to our existence, no matter how sturdy it seems.
Let’s rephrase that a little.
The Earth, this ball of rock, even by our current standards, is indestructible. Even at our current level of technology, with our bombs and our guns (did anyone just hear the refrain from Zombie by the Cranberries?), there’s nothing we humans could do to fundamentally alter its shape.
To us Earth is an impervious home.
Yet, one well-placed other-rock could change that.
And there are plenty of rocks out there.
The Earth Is Not Fragile
If our planet was a basketball, the crust we live on would be like a wrapping of tin foil. If it were an apple, the land we walk and build on would be the thin skin.
Pretty easy to envision that crinkled away with the right application of force, whether internal or external.
What we mean to point out is that we’re fragile, not the Earth. It’s our own fragility we must safeguard against. It’s never good to be that desperately dependent on anything.
These are all obvious conclusions drawn by many over the centuries. We’re not saying anything new. However this is finally the period in civilized history during which we could conceivably, finally, do something about it.
Now is the time. Though many have said that before, too. For the first time in history we’ve reached a point where we actually have options. We could figure this out. Engineer solutions.
But we have to work for them. Make them priorities.
Together.
Space is hard. Yet we’ve already demonstrated, time and again, we have what it takes to do hard things.
Earth can’t be our only option.
Ad Astra
A classic phrase, Ad Astra means “thus one goes to the stars”. That’s the translation from Latin. In the space community it’s used simply to mean “to the stars”.
A worthy goal.
Can humanity achieve such a grand goal?
We say “yes”.
But only if we cooperate toward that end.
Only if we move fast.
Throughout history we’ve demonstrated we can both help and harm each other. It’s true that with increasing power comes an increasing capacity to do each other in. There’s no denying most new tech is driven by the dollar sign, the demand for newer/better weapons systems, the competition to gain ground on and exceed those who aren’t us, etcetera, etcetera.
Awful headlines to the contrary, we contend our impulse, at the end of the day, is more toward help, less toward harm. We humans have possessed the ability to wipe ourselves out in small or large numbers for some time, yet, while we occasionally do so, survival and improvement always prevail.
Else we wouldn’t have come forward, building the massively complex civilizations we have today.
We’re Better Than We Think
Looking objectively at these facts:
Humanity is still here.
Humanity has advanced.
We must conclude that, despite any self-destructive impulses, despite any bad seeds among us, the intentions of the vast majority of us are basically good.
Though we often fall, we more often redeem ourselves, leading to positive growth. Humanity tends to correct the problems we ourselves cause. Less and less are we the effect of our environment, increasingly we’re its master. With that power, and with our human faults, that control often errs, but, again, we are self-correcting, and our overall thrust is toward the betterment of our existence.
This is the premise on which we move forward.
Sure, the next world we call home may be no more utopia than this one. We might continue bad habits.
But we need that next world.
Because we’ll also continue the good habits. Which far outweigh the bad. Our existence may at times be flawed, duly noted, but it’s worth ensuring.
Our Position
None of this is to suggest we have our head in the sand. Only that we choose to take the position that, with enough of a challenge to occupy us, other problems tend to fall away.
Nor is any of this meant to suggest Forty Suns imagines unrealistic goals—though we’re definitely all about pushing for each and every next impossible frontier.
Time is of the essence.
A point to which Abraham Lincoln had this to say:
“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
Yep. Lincoln had a pretty dope vocabulary, even back then.
When it comes to humanity, at least a small majority of us must be hustling.
Time, whether an illusion, a construct—whether real or not—is our greatest currency. Time is the one thing we can least afford to waste. Rapid progress is imperative.
Note: us on the moon, us on Mars, us among the stars—pick your out-there, impossible, “can’t ever be done” target, and it’s inevitable.
It’s inevitable we will expand to each of those objectives as we move beyond this world.
Count on it.
Will it be in our lifetime?
One thing’s for sure, it definitely won’t be if we:
Waste time
Let the rest of those around us waste time
Time, that most valuable of currency, is in limited supply.
Don’t waste it.
Forty Suns is here to encourage us to press the accelerator.
At once a holistic view, even as it is admittedly narrow in focus, we understand that nothing works without a humanity in alignment, without a shared purpose, and our goal is that shared purpose.
Which, summarized, could be stated:
Space and the furtherance of technologies that allow us to move to our next logical capabilities as a world, achieving a sustainable extraplanetary and extrasolar existence.
We can do it, if more of us work together.
To the stars.
Want to hear from us Friday mornings?
Every Friday our chief correspondent, Tai Rade (you’ll love her take on things), sends a recap of the week in space.
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