How to become a Space-Faring Civilization for Dummies?

And just to start, blasting off on a rocket doesn’t count, although it’s a great start.

I don’t think Earth is permanent. Well, technically, it’s a bit more permanent than most other things in life but it has to also go off some day. Just like that. Puff. Become part of the cosmic dust from where it came eons ago.

Thinking optimistically, even though the Earth might stay, there’s no guarantee that it will remain as this seemingly perfect abode for us—humans. Just look what happened to the dinosaurs at the peak of their civilization! Um, probably it was a little too violent a civilization, what with all the hunting, killing, and climate changes. Well, isn’t that scarily similar to how it is right now?

Enough of that! This isn’t a philosophical post. What I want to stress out is that whether we, humans, like it or not, we still need to think about an alternative place for continuing our civilization and like all grand endeavors require, we need to prepare ourselves for the long interstellar voyages that will be required. There are a few things we can do for that:

Find a way to stop ageing during those god-awful long journeys through the void of space that will be required to reach another habitable planet. Invent some hocus-pocus magical potion that stops the inevitable deterioration of body cells, or atleast slow it down to a manageable level. Because, I guess no one wants to wake up after several years of hyper-sleep to find themselves with all those pesky white hair and wrinkles.


Find out ways to grow vegetables, cereals, and everything that is tasty in low or zero-gravity environments. Food is absolutely important and out there in space voyages, we would need a lot of that. You see, there’s isn’t a McDonald’s around the corner.


Establish a proper chain of command to govern these voyages. I can’t stress this out enough. Look at the crime rate on Earth. Imagine how it will be a billion miles away from Earth where law and order would become tougher to implement. Hate to market it but if you want to get a glimpse of how bad it can turn out, read Starship Samudram .


Choose a proper expansion strategy for space exploration. International Space Station (ISS) is fine and all, but doesn’t serve much purpose if we are to keep our species alive and kicking in the face of a global catastrophe. We need to establish real self-sustainable colonies on places like Moon, Mars, or if we are a little high, we can look at Titan.

I’m sure there are many more things that will be required. And I’m really certain, the ones who are reading this would have their own thoughts swirling around in their heads about this topic. After all, we are all worried about the future of our species, aren’t we? So, why don’t you go ahead and put your thoughts down in the comments section and we can have a nice discussion on them?