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Space and survival refers to a position stating that the long-term survival of the human species and civilization requires proper use of the resources of outer space.[citation needed] Its investigation is justified by the fact that space colonization and space science could prevent many human extinction scenarios. A related observation is the limited time and resources thought by some[1] to be available for the colonization of space.
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Uses of space annexation
Extinction can be prevented by improving the physical barrier or increasing the mean distance between people and the potential extinction event. For example, people may survive imminent explosions by being in a bunker or evacuating. Pandemics are controlled by putting exposed people in quarantine and moving healthy people away. The human lineage of genus Homo has reduced from several species co-existing on Earth to just one — all others went extinct before the end of the last Ice age.At the latest, when the Sun will become a red giant in about 4 billion years, mankind has to leave the Solar System to ensure survival of the human species.
This illustrates that Homo sapiens is not immune to planetary disaster and that human survival may be better assured through the colonization of space.
Barrier
Life support systems that enable people to live in space may also allow them to survive hazardous events. For example, an infectious disease or biological weapon that transmits through the air could not infect a person in a closed life support system, as an internal supply of air and a physical barrier would exist between the person and the affected environment.Location and distance
Expanding the living area of the human species increases the mean distance between humans and any hazardous event. People closest to the event are most likely to be killed or injured; people furthest from the event are most likely to survive.Multiple locations
Increasing the number of places where humans live also helps to prevent extinction. For example, if a massive impact event occurred on Earth without warning, the human species could possibly become extinct; its art, culture and technology would be lost. However, if humans had previously colonized locations outside Earth, the opportunities for the survival and recovery of the species would be greater.Uses of space science
The observation and study of space protects Earth, as space hazards can be seen in advance and, if discovered early enough, acted against.Near-Earth objects
Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are asteroids, comets and large meteoroids that come close to or collide with Earth. Spaceguard is the collective name for some of the efforts to discover and study NEOs, though these efforts are not highly funded.[citation needed]Opportunities for space colonization
Human Space colonies do not 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.
Objections
Creating a backup colony in space would be a very costly method of ensuring human survival in the event of catastrophe, and it is likely that other ways of creating an independent colony could be more cost efficient. While extinctions occur on the order of tens of millions of years, major damage to the structure of the Earth itself is likely on the order of billions of years. As a result, an independent surface colony or an oceanic or sub-terrestrial colony may be a cheaper way to obtain a similar but less robust result.[citation needed]The survivability and sustainability of a colony could potentially be less than the survivability and sustainability of Earth's population, especially during a colony's infancy. Creating colonies that can reliably withstand the rigors of space and unpredictable extraterrestrial environments for thousands of years may be very expensive. The creation of a colony that not only survives but also grows to a scale where it can create its own new colonies is a far more difficult and expensive task.[citation needed]
In fiction
One of the staple themes of science fiction, a short list:In the 1972 film Silent Running, a set of space stations out orbiting Saturn contain the remnants of Earth's ecosystem, after the one of Earth was destroyed by pollution.
In the Arthur C. Clarke short story "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth...", humans are surviving on the Moon after the Earth was rendered uninhabitable by a nuclear war.
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