Space and Survival - Opportunities For Space Colonization

Opportunities For Space Colonization

Human Space colonies do not currently exist. It can be said, however, that humans have had a continuous space presence since 2000 due to the International Space Station. There is concern that the human species may lose its organized societies or its technological knowledge, deplete resources or even become extinct before it colonizes space.

The author Sylvia Engdahl wrote about the "Critical Stage", a period of time when a civilization has both the technology to expand into space and the technology to destroy itself. Engdahl states that the human civilization is at a Critical Stage, but that the funding for space exploration and colonization is minuscule compared to the funding for weapons of mass destruction and military forces. Similar ideas have been discussed in terms of the Fermi paradox and the great filter.