A lunar base designed by the European Space Agency (Photo/China Daily)
“We once looked up at the starlit sky and expected to move to other planet one day…” Therecent blockbuster movie Interstellar is reviving curiousity about the idea of migrating toother planets.
The idea is not without foundation. One day the human race will have to move to a planetbeyond our Solar System to protect the future of the species, the leading physicistProfessor Stephen Hawking has warned. Gerald D. Griffin, a former Director of NASA, hasalso said that one single planet cannot provide a permanent home for its species, and oneday humanity will have to migrate to other planets.
That day may not be so far away. It is reported that the ESA (European Space Agency) hascarried out a research recently on building a lunar base. It is claimed that they havealready mastered the relevant technologies, but due to costs and some other factors, thedream to migrate to the moon will not come true for another 40 years or so.
Their lunar pod can accommodate 4 people and looks like an Inuit igloo. The “bunker” ishalf-buried under the moon's surface and covered with thick rock walls so as to protect itsinhabitants from radioactivity and meteorites and provide shelter from the hugetemperature differences between day and night on the moon. It is connected to theexterior through an air-tight lock so that people can live without heavy suits inside thebase.
The ESA plan is to use soil and rocks from the moon to form the shell of the base by meansof 3D printing technology, and construct it with telerobotics. Once completed, itsinhabitants will become neighbours of “Chang'e”.
So we have the technology to provide accommodation, but how do we get into galacticspace? Don’t worry, Interstellar has the answer. We can use a wormhole—a tunnel passingthrough time and space through which we can look for habitable planets in deep space tocontinue our civilization.
But a “Wormhole” sounds rather theoretical and obscure. Couldn't we simply take a spacetaxi? According to Reuters, Boeing will complete its 7-seat CST-100 “Space Taxi” by theend of 2017. Boeing says it will be capable of carrying commercial passengers by CST-100to the International Space Station within the next 5 years.
Given the vastness of the universe, are there any more fascinating shortcuts?
The idea of a space elevator appeared as early as the 1970s. Obayashi, a giant in theJapanese building industry said in September this year that their “Space Elevator” will becompleted before 2050, providing elevator cabins big enough for 30 people. It will takeabout 7 days to transport them approximately 22,000 miles from Earth to an orbitingspace station.
Americans have proposed a much faster method. NASA has launched the IXS Enterprise, aconceptual spacecraft which could exceed the speed of light and take its passengers onintergalactic space voyages!
The pace of the scientific development is growing fast. It may not take so long for us to lookdown at the earth from another planet.
The article is edited and translated from 《移居外星真的可以有？》, source: People'sDaily Overseas Edition, author: Bai Yujie
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