Talk:Space colonization

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 22 January 2019 and 10 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Joeygaig.

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Space colonization by non-human life-forms
This article describes human colonization of space, though it doesn't mention the possibility of colonization by microorganisms ("directed panspermia.") Could this article be expanded to describe this topic? Jarble (talk) 18:25, 4 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I would say no, since "colonization" in this articles sense isn't about the term of colony in biology. You could though link in the "See also" section to for example Panspermia.Nsae Comp (talk) 10:04, 21 June 2022 (UTC)

"Colonization of the Sun" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Colonization of the Sun. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Regards, SONIC  678  18:22, 23 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Well, there's always the joke about going at night... Double sharp (talk) 08:26, 3 January 2022 (UTC)
 * and David Brin's novel Sundiver. —Tamfang (talk) 05:13, 3 May 2024 (UTC)

Freeman Dyson
Several famous scientists, such as Freeman Dyson, have come out in favor of space settlement.

This is a bad reading of Freeman Dyson. He's one of my favourite people from the last century (almost a whole-in-one centenarian contrarian single-handedly).

He was very much a contrarian, and his concrete, pseudo-rigorous proposals in favour of space colonization brushed cleverly up against hyperbolic fantasy tinged with the ridiculous: nuclear pulse propulsion, astrochickens.

Project Orion would have been the most colossal techno-lark of all time. But I don't think Dyson really believed it would take you anywhere of much use to humanity. It's just as likely he believed that humanity would be better served to gaze up at the stars in wonder, rather than across the fence in animosity.

I'd lay fairly strong odds he would have counted his astrochickens as the more practical proposal to establish the legacy of Earth (not necessarily human) in the nearby cosmos.

The one thing never in much doubt is that he regarded fragile humans as very nearly the worst possible space payload. Way too expensive, requiring projects that are vastly too large to manage (he hated most traditional megaprojects with an unbridled animus), with far too long a success horizon. &mdash; MaxEnt 21:53, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I can't speak for the correctness of the quoted sentence without further research. However, we have Dyson's word for it that he did believe Orion would've worked for exploring the Solar System: see his 1965 article Death of a Project. I suppose the rest of this Wikipedia article makes a good case that the Solar System beyond Earth includes some places of much use to humanity. Beyond that is pretty far and we don't really know a lot about what we'd find yet. :)
 * In light of this, though, I do wonder why Orion is only mentioned in this WP article under interstellar colonisation, and not under Solar System colonisation. Double sharp (talk) 08:25, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

Other giant-planet moons
I regret having to leave this out of the article, because I cannot find it discussed in RS's focused on colonisation, so it would be a SYNTH. But I cannot resist putting some stuff out here, since we do mention the smaller moons briefly in the article (thanks to Universe Today mentioning Enceladus and the radiation belts' location). :D

Mimas, Enceladus, and Tethys orbit within the radiation belts; the outer moons escape that fate. Electron flux on Mimas is apparently 1/40 that on Europa. If we apply that 1/40 fraction to the total Sv dose (possibly naively, but at least a first approximation), we arrive at something a little harsher than Ganymede, which is still quite nasty.

Then again, Mimas is not too useful resource-wise, being essentially a dead iceball with very little rock. The same is even more true of Tethys. Enceladus, however, would be extremely useful. Thankfully Dione is a backup option (another ocean world), but at some point it seems useful to go down the geysers on Enceladus' south pole, where likely there are fissionables (very important in the outer Solar System!). Dione probably lacks this. Radiation will still be milder on Enceladus than on Europa.

Rhea and Iapetus are likely undifferentiated, which may make them quite useful for finding rocks without digging too deep (the yield would be low though, given the low densities). Iapetus is far enough out of the way that it should make a useful location for the Saturn system's spaceport and industry. Unfortunately none of them quite make it to 0.03g which seems to be about the minimum threshold at which some people can start sensing a "down", though they're close.
 * Although given Iapetus' density, come to think of it, there shouldn't be that many rocks there... Double sharp (talk) 21:02, 21 August 2022 (UTC)

(Yes, inspired by ToughSF's look at the moons too.) Double sharp (talk) 11:06, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

Triton has been mentioned in passing in some serious sources, mostly to complete the set of seven planetary-scale satellites. I left that out of the article, since it is only a passing mention. It also doesn't seem that they were thinking about it that much, since no one seems to be mentioning the elephant in the room: the surface is solid nitrogen which will explosively sublimate when a space-suited colonist walks on it. (For this reason I also suspect Charon is more suitable for colonisation than Pluto.) I suspect that most RS's on this simply consider Uranus and Neptune as too futuristic for serious speculation at the moment. :) Double sharp (talk) 13:40, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
 * OK, so there is some Uranus and Neptune content after all! Here, here, and here. I probably missed it the first time because I was looking for stuff about their moons, rather than the planets themselves. :) Double sharp (talk) 03:43, 7 September 2022 (UTC)

Image Lunar Gateway
Hi everyone,

a while back this image with its caption was taken out:

I am for reintroducing it, because there is a clear real life contemporary linkage to colonialism here. It would give the article more reference to real life space programs and their colonial outlook. The edit note was stating that the source doesnt mention colonialism, but I would argue that it doesnt have to, since the Gateway Arch in St.Louis is clearly a settler colonial symbol, and is also as such discussed in the literature about the Getway Arch.

I am eager to hear what you think, because as I said it would give the article a nice real life texture, that can also highlight "colonization" in its historically more important socio-political dimension, away from the very technical utopian/futurist ideas of space colonialism in this article. Nsae Comp (talk) 10:19, 21 June 2022 (UTC)


 * I provided an extra references and a more nuanced text. Reintroduced therefore the picture. Nsae Comp (talk) 11:50, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

Criticism section needs to use clearer language
A lot of the paragraphs in the criticism section begin with unclear language like 'Critics say,' and 'other objections include.' These claims should be tied to the specific people making them (eg. 'Author John Appleseed says in his book ...').

Just to be clear I am not calling for their removal, these facts are clearly well cited 2A0C:5BC0:40:1008:12E7:C6FF:FEB1:BEE1 (talk) 11:55, 19 March 2023 (UTC)

space colonization
humanity has a space habitat the iss(international space station) is a basic habitat we are the able to explore space the iss is humanity current habitat we can affect earth and extinct life we are rising technological species we are able to destroy asteriods very soon there could be space tourism we have missions to the moon after that maybe we will move to mars — Preceding unsigned comment added by 102.89.32.93 (talk) 14:23, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

Crime
On the matter, the internationally binding Outer Space Treaty states the following:

States shall be responsible for national space activities whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental entities;

States shall be liable for damage caused by their space objects; and

States shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies.

And Article IX of the OST explicitly prohibits any form of (microbial) forward contamination that leads to harm:

''In the exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, States Parties to the Treaty shall be guided by the principle of cooperation and mutual assistance and shall conduct all their activities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, with due regard to the corresponding interests of all other States Parties to the Treaty. States Parties to the Treaty shall pursue studies of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter and, where necessary, shall adopt appropriate measures for this purpose. If a State Party to the Treaty has reason to believe that an activity or experiment planned by it or its nationals in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, would cause potentially harmful interference with activities of other States Parties in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, it shall undertake appropriate international consultations before proceeding with any such activity or experiment. A State Party to the Treaty which has reason to believe that an activity or experiment planned by another State Party in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, would cause potentially harmful interference with activities in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, may request consultation concerning the activity or experiment.''

Irrefutable proof of space colonization being a crime:

1. Evolution of life unfolding on exoplanets (or any of the 200+ solar system ice moons) morally is a BIG DEAL.

2. Evolution can unfold in millions of very different ways.

3. The window between best and worst versions in terms of well-being or suffering to come from it surely is astronomically gigantic.

4. Any near-future microbial contamination of planets at most will lead to an abysmal version (and likely negative, for octillions - namely quintillions at any time for billions of years - of animals, since according to evolutionary biologists, wild animals mainly suffer on average).

Conclusion: Even by current risk assessment response measures or standards applied in other cases, humanity must at the very least have discipline and hold itself back for many years from risking interplanetary and interstellar forward contamination, and so space ports must be locked down, or otherwise, humanity loses the moral justification for its continued existence, since in the utilitarian sense it then can be better to have ended sooner, before and without such contamination event having happened.

This condition is also known as the great filter. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.192.195.234 (talk) 07:04, 12 May 2024 (UTC)


 * and this is not the place for it. —Tamfang (talk) 18:54, 12 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia articles summarize what reliable, published sources say about the topic. The opinions of random, anonymous people on the internet have no place in articles. Cullen328 (talk) 19:17, 12 May 2024 (UTC)