Space Colonization Part-I

WHAT IS SPACE COLONIZATION?
          Space Colonization is the idea of colonizing space for permanent human habitation. It is seen as a possibility by building colonies in space on planets which have water and oxygen in abundance as they are key resources for life existence. There are many reasons why it is needed to escape earth and colonize space and also why it is a bad idea, I'll be discussing all of them in detail.
          Earth which is supporting life since billions of years is now on the verge of destruction. Earth is a well-placed planet among all the planets in the solar system and has vast resources for supporting life. But slowly these resources might end up and it will be difficult for humans to live on Earth. It is essential for humans to search for alternative planets and moons that can support life if humans want their race to last a bit longer than expected. Famous Physicist Stephen Hawking said that Humans have 2 options to choose from, First is to try building colonies in space that can support life after Earth. Second is to face extinction in a thousand years. Although many scientists have argued that instead of colonizing space we should try to protect our Earth from destruction as we are the one who is to be blamed for the destruction of our planet.

REASONS
          There are many reasons for why Earth will no longer be able to support life and why space colonization becomes important and also beneficial for humans. Let us list out some important factors that are affecting the Earth's Environment and making it difficult to live.

•  First is Global Warming. Excessive burning of fossil fuels and consumption of energy leads polluting the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases which increases the temperature and creating an imbalance in the atmosphere. This Imbalance causes the Glaciers to melt and rise the sea level, unseasonal rains and extreme temperatures causing disasters like floods and tsunamis. It also causes disasters like Severe drought, storms, increase in humidity etc.
• Ozone Depletion is also one of the factor. The Earth's atmosphere contains a layer of ozone that protects the Earth from the harmful rays of sun. Due to emission of CFC's (Chloro-Fluoro-Carbons), Halons and other ozone depleting substances from chemical industries causes Holes in the Ozone Layer which and also decrease in the amount of ozone by reacting with it. This causes the harmful rays of Sun to cross the atmosphere and affect severely. This causes major skin diseases, skin cancer, cataracts, crop damage and unhealthy growth of fruits and crops etc. Since the 1970s a steady lowering of about 4% of ozone is observed. 

• Deforestation is the next major cause. Cutting down of trees on a large scale lowers the oxygen levels of the Earth and increasing carbon percentage. This is also favoured by the pollution through vehicles and burning of other fuels causing diseases like Asthma, Lung Cancer, Heart diseases etc. 
• Other factors include water pollution, Land degradation and Ocean acidification which causes acid rains and also decreases the pH levels of the ocean water and making it acidic. All the discussed factors are long term factors which can cause natural disasters. Now lets move on to factors causing man-made disasters
• Nuclear and Biological wars are the most dangerous man-made disasters which can kill a billions of people in a short period. Experts have already said that if ever a World War III is going to happen it will the end of the Earth. Modern war equipments are much dangerous than ever before. It will kill almost 70% of the world's population instantly and the rest will die due to toxic radiations in a few days. 

          As you have studied above the reasons why earth would no longer be able to support life and space colonization is necessary, there are also many aspects that make space colonization more beneficial for humans than Earth.

• Resources in space are enormous, both materials and energy in space is more than enough for humans. It is estimated that resources in Solar System alone is quite a billion times more compared to Earth. There are millions of planets in the Milky way that provide a better habitat for humans. As for now the researches and experiments are carried out only for Mars, Moon and Moons of Jupiter and Saturn. No planet is discovered to be as same as the Earth in and out of the solar system. Also as per today's technology it is not possible to travel out of the solar system. The technology needs to be more advanced to support an interstellar travel. 
• Expansion of the technological world in past years has resulted in a lot of environmental devastation. Many technologies present today have resulted in a major loss of environment, humans, wildlife and marine life. Space colonization comes with very fewer negative consequences. Infact, it will help humans to make a better world than Earth. 
• Space Colonization will also eradicate Social problems like Overpopulation, Shortage of resources and other requirements. The present condition of Earth is just because of late realization that will not happen on other planets.

HOW CAN IT BE ACCOMPLISHED?

          Space Colonization is not an easy task, it takes lots of efforts to be accomplished. A colony in space that can support life needs to have basic human needs such as Oxygen, food, water, life support, energy and other local materials. Well, scientists have methods to get all these things in space. NASA Scientists have discovered oxygen on moon and mars. According to a research there's 40% of oxygen in the lunar soil which can be extracted by heating it. Mars atmosphere has 96% of carbon dioxide with traces of oxygen. The martian land also has water in the form of ice which can be extracted through different methods. If successful, then scientists can grow plants on mars which can play a lead role in making oxygen abundant. This makes mars a better option than the moon.

          It is also said that asteroids can help to extract almost everything we want for colonizing space. Asteroid Mining will play a major role in supplying main resources to a space colony. It is said that many asteroids are rich in water, minerals and other important materials. So it is not necessary to export everything from Earth as it will be very expensive.

          Solar Energy is abundant in the space. It can be used to fulfill the needs of electrical power for machines and satellites in space. Satellites today use solar power and they receive it 24x7 as there is no night in free space. But when it comes to mars and moon, Moon has a night of nearly two weeks and Mars has near equal nights as Earth, so power supply is very discontinuous. To overcome this scientists are now trying a new method which is wireless transmission of electricity as first tried by Sir Nicola Tesla. Scientists in Japan were successful in generating a power of 20 watts wirelessly through micro waves. Since then they have invested billions in a project that places satellites in space which can generate upto 1 Gigawatt (1 Billion watts) of power. These satellites can be used to supply electricity in a space colony.

          The main challenge here is creating a safe environment like Earth. The ozone layer of Earth's atmosphere protects us from harmful waves of Sun. The Magnetic Field of Earth protects the Earth's atmosphere from energetic particles which comes from solar winds, the Van Allen belts traps those particles and also absorb incoming radiations and keep the Earth's atmosphere and surface Safe. This type of safe atmosphere is not present anywhere other than Earth and creating all these safety measures artificially is not so easy. If somehow we create a safe environment then also it's not sure for how long it will last. It will be a life threat to all the travellers and there is no chance of risking lives.

          So I'll be stopping here and in the next part i will cover locations for colonies, experiments carried out, investments and objections against it. Check out Space Colonization Part-II.

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