WHAT NEXT FOR HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT?

摘要

Fifty thousand generations ago, Homo sapiens appeared. In just the last 1 per cent of our time on Earth, we began making architecture to tame harsh environments and express physical, psychological, sociological and aspirational needs. Now, in just the final hundredth of 1 per cent of our time, we have started pressing into places utterly alien to our origins and our being: the Arctic, air, undersea and Space.Off-earth, we find a combination of conditions unlike any encountered before by living things: absence of weight; unfiltered, unending sunlight; cold so deep it liquefies air; lethal radiation streaming from solar storms and dying stars; distances too vast for direct conversation; and alien landscapes stranger than we might dare imagine. But great promise nonetheless lures us to explore and conquer Space: adventure and technical challenge, new sensations and vistas, a humbling perspective of ourselves, and inexhaustible energy and material resources.