Earth isn’t perfect, but as planets go it’s a pretty good one. We aren’t saying you should give up on the hope for a life off-world—that’s too pretty a dream to part with. What we are saying is that if you do want that dream, you have to see the challenges as they are—real, profound, and present at every level from molecules to sociology. We hope, at the very least, when you read an article or hear a conversation about space settlement as an idea, you’ll be able to see it as a very rich problem, which won’t be solved simply by ambitious fantasies or giant rockets.
