Category: Fiction

Space Lanes and Spaceports

Once the Solar System or at least the inner region of the system is populated, there will be space lanes, much as the present shipping lanes transporting goods and people across vast distance. Although it will take sometimes before lots of lanes to be defined and accepted among the public, the only lanes that will be accepted will be the safest or the fastest route. Once the space lanes are defined, space buses will be the main vehicle transporting Human back and forth from Earth to other colonies. The existence of the lanes is vital to Human expansion in space. It will enable ship pilots to save time instead of trying to figure the best way to navigate their ships.

These lanes or sort of course will not be built with similar fashion as the tube. It would be ridiculously stupid to buill a tube from one place in space to another. By the way, the hazard of meteor shower or the same sort prevents such idea to be implemented.

Instead, a buoy will be placed after every certain among of distance along the lanes. The buoys will transmit some kind of signal to traveling ship. The signal gives out useful information regarding navigation.

One would argue that these buoys be effectively be replaced by a space station placed in a quadrant or so. However, communication between a ship and the station will take time. The buoys effectively tell ship pilots.

Buoys nevertheless do not dismiss the importance of a space station. It must be stressed that these buoys will be under the jurisdiction of the station.

There will at least space station in every planet’s orbit, controlling the space traffic of a particular planet. These space stations will usually act as spaceports, a commercial center of a planet. This will allow space traders to sell their goods at the spaceport instead of descending to the planet and waste precious energy.

There will also be stations built in the middle of space, especially in the middle of a long space lane. The station will act as a pit stop and an entreport station.

Back to the orbit, the spaceport will possibly have an extra feature, or at least a spaceport with a solid planet rather than the gaseous Jupiter or Saturn. The feature will accelerate the economic growth of a planet rather dramatic and check the demand for fuel effectively. Spaceports in Earth’s and Mars orbit will be the upper part of a space elevator. For more information on space elevator, read a past posting in The __earth Inc. here.

To be continued…

The Minerals and Space Colonization

Currently, crude oil reserve will only sustain us barely through half of the 21st century and it is only the matter of time until all of the minerals will finally be exhausted.

Nevertheless, Human will develop a way to dig even deeper to obtain more mineral. Mines will be built deep in the dark sea trenches. These mines will sustain Human needs when all ground mines are rendered useless.

Although these underwater mines will be prominent in the future scenario, with the ongoing developing aerospace technology, there will be no doubt that future minerals will be mined in outer space, both on Earth’s natural satellite and beyond. These mines will be the foundation of future space cities.

The need of more minerals will lead to the colonization of the Moon. The colonization of the Moon will without doubt be expensive but the advantage of it, by far suppress the economic burdens. During the “Age of Lunar Colonization”, there will be a point where the idea of transporting the water supply from Earth to Moon bases (that will become Moon cities) is unfeasible. In the end, the mining of water will be one of the main agenda. It is known now that there is ice cap somewhere at one of Moon’s poles. If this is not enough, perhaps Human will have to resort to technology that fusions hydrogen and oxygen together to produce the most precious elixir in the universe.

Once science allows Human to explore and travel farther in the cold space, the asteroids will be heavily mined. The asteroid belt will become the place for major mines in the Solar System.

Mars, Earth’s twin will also be the victim of Human expansion because the colonization of the fourth planet will promise a non-stop supply of resources. As time passes by, the notion of terraforming will come to mind. The process of terraforming will consume many years but the possibility of a new Earth will not stop Human from continuing with the process.

The other main reason for space exploration will be Earth inability to support Human’s exponential growth. With open space far becoming scarce, the only way to avoid conflict among the Human is a habitat expansion outside of Earth.

To be continued…