A Scenario for Interstellar Exploration and Its Financing
Giovanni F. Bignami, Andrea Sommariva, "A Scenario for Interstellar Exploration and Its Financing"
English | ISBN: 8847053366 | 2013 | PDF | 101 pages | 3,44 MB
English | ISBN: 8847053366 | 2013 | PDF | 101 pages | 3,44 MB
This book develops a credible scenario for interstellar exploration and colonization. In so doing, it examines:
• the present situation and prospects for interstellar exploration technologies;
• where to go: the search for habitable planets;
• the motivations for space travel and colonization;
• the financial mechanisms required to fund such enterprises.
The final section of the book analyzes the uncertainties surrounding the presented scenario. The purpose of building a scenario is not only to pinpoint future events but also to highlight the uncertainties that may propel the future in different directions. Interstellar travel and colonization requires a civilization in which human beings see themselves as inhabitants of a single planet and in which global governance of these processes is conducted on a cooperative basis. The key question is, then, whether our present civilization is ready for such an endeavor, reflecting the fact that the critical uncertainties are political and cultural in nature.