New Worlds: Colonizing Planets, Moons and Beyond

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The moment has come to think in perspective and direct our efforts towards these purposes. At the beginning of the 21st Century, our civilization reached the technological level needed to boldly take a step to other worlds, at least within our close cosmic neighborhood. As Konstantin Tsiolkovsky used to say, „Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot remain in the cradle forever”! And we reached the maturity needed to go out, in the vast Universe. In this book I tried to show, during the ten chapters, that the various planets, moons and asteroids in the Solar System are not just some hostile, while scientifically fascinating objects. They can provide important resources and become potential new homeworlds for Homo sapiens. And, in other systems, countless other worlds await us. But, what is important, I went farther than the simple colonization of space, as most people imagine it. I tried to look for solutions for terraforming these worlds, so they could be used at their full value, each becoming, practically, a new Earth, a habitable and pleasant place for our descendants to live on. A component of a future universal biosphere. I have also shown that technological solutions needed to accomplish this are at our ease. We are not talking about futurism, SF, magic or ingenious but impossible to build megastructures, but things that we could even try tomorrow, if we just had the necessary will. And we should have it, since, as we saw, terraforming and colonizing other planets are not really piece of cake; they require certain infrastructures and, most of all, take centuries or millennia to finish. The earlier we start, the quicker we reach the desired goals. Mars, the Galilean moons, Titan, Ceres and even the Moon are quite ready to be transformed. But there are solutions for other celestial bodies, too. In areas where the current technico-scientific knowledge is yet lacunary, I tried to find the most probable ways of action. We still do not master wormholes or Alcubierre drives. These are the only such licenses I used. However, our access to other planetary systems depends on these two innovations, which are already important research subjects for the Global scientific community. And here comes a top priority: relentlessly and continuously researching the intimate working mechanisms of the Universe. It is the only thing that could change the world, in ways we might not even imagine. Because we have also explored together several worlds outside the System. Not much, but trying to summarize current knowledge. To help you understand better that the part we know is just a tiny fraction of what awaits us there. Another aspect I tried to underline is the need for a synergstic approach in settling the Cosmos. We can apply countless methods to terraform a planet. But by using them all, simultaneously, we significantly lower the costs and necessary time. We can colonize Mars or the Moon, or Ganymede etc. Or we could direct our efforts towards all these worlds, simultaneously. Because twenty new homeworlds are much better that just one! Finally, we saw that, independently from different philosophies and personal beliefs, there is a constant: the greater good of humanity should come first! And this greater good requires us to boldy take steps on the path leading to the infinite space. Maybe we will reach strange and scarrying places, maybe we will encounter alien life forms, we will definitely face dangers. But it is imperative to continue. To never withdraw and never stop. We live in an enormous palace, that God or Nature built for us: this is the Universe. A palace with infinite corridors, countless rooms and precious treasures. I don’t think that we want to endlessly live cramped into a tiny corner!

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