In all the known Universe, Earth is the only planet known to have native life. What should guide us in expanding humanity beyond our world?
Back in ancient times, we knew that there were five wanderers — or planets — that moved through the night sky: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn, in addition to the Moon and the stars. For generations, humans invented stories about the types of aliens that might be living on those worlds, and speculated wildly about what kinds of life forms might exist on worlds that orbited around other stars far beyond our own Solar System. Today, we know of more planets and many more moons within our Solar System, and are closing in on 6000 confirmed exoplanets around stars elsewhere in the Milky Way. All told, there are expected to be hundreds of billions or even trillions of planets within our galaxy, but none are yet known to harbor any form of life at all.
As humans, our dreams of space exploration are often accompanied by another dream: that of space colonization. Could we extend humanity’s presence to worlds other than our own? And if we can, should we? And if so, how should we do it in an ethical fashion? That’s the question of Anniece Isler, who was talking with her daughter and the…
