NEW DELHI -- Billionaire and Entrepreneurs by the name of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos continue to lead space exploration projects in this new age. While at the forefront of the projects to find another planet in the universe that could be the next habitable planet for life to flourish, they continue to build a base station on the Moon. The goal is to ultimately colonize the Red Planet and turn it into the next habitable planet for humans.
Adventure, excitement, and glory -- all these three best describe what the group of modern space explorers seek in bringing humans to the promise of living on a distant planet. At the core of their desire is the promise that they would be able to find a planet where they believe humans will survive in and perhaps even thrive forever. And in order for life and the heritage of human life to continue, scientists believe that they can only make it happen if there is such a thing as a back-up planet.
This week alone, in the news, Elon Musk was heard saying that a big rock ( an asteroid) will eventually hit the planet Earth that will cause the death of a number of species, including humans. "Sadly, we currently have no way to defend ourself from such devastation," Musk emphasized.
On the other hand, Jeff Bezos, speaks of the lack of energy available in the planet to supply the growing need of humans for it. He believes that the future generations will be left with pretty much a limited amount of energy and resources to produce it. Eventually, such shortage in energy will cause a block in their growth and inhibit their dynamism.
Instead of restricting the resources to use on Earth, they instead want to look for solutions that will provide humans with what they consider as "unlimited" resources. They believe they can get it from planets that remain to be unexplored.
Robert Zubrin, an aerospace engineer, writes in Ad Astra, a National Space Society magazine in the US said that Mars as a planet is definitely richer than the moon. Carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen are all in biologically accessible forms. They are only present in the moon in parts per million, which is like the presence of gold in seawater.
Space exploration can be made possible if only experts can cut down the cost of spacecraft launching. If people could also use space resources already available, then people won't have to worry about not being able to explore the wonders of another planet because they couldn't afford it.
Is a backup planet important? For many, this may not be a priority yet, but there might be a need for it in the long run.
